#EdcampSDAMLE
O'Gorman Junior High School
3100 W. 41st St.
Sioux Falls, SD 57105
3100 W. 41st St.
Sioux Falls, SD 57105
EdCamp Speakers
Dru Tomlin is the principal of Heritage Middle School in Westerville, Ohio and is proud and passionate to serve his students, staff, and families every day. Dru was formerly the director of middle level services for the Association for Middle Level Education (AMLE), and in that role, demonstrated a commitment to educational improvement and a passion for teaching, learning, and middle school. He began his work in the middle grades as a young adolescent at Lynnhaven Junior High School in Virginia Beach, trying to fit in with other kids while also playing tuba in the marching and concert bands. In 1994, Dru began his formal career in education as an English teacher at Harrisonburg High School in Virginia and then, in 1998, he discovered the joys of middle school in Georgia as a language arts, reading, and social studies teacher and then as a school administrator. He has also been a school system staff development trainer and a faculty member for AMLE's Leadership Institute, believing firmly in the power of professional learning. For his work, Dru has been recognized as a school system Teacher of the Year and as Georgia's Middle School Assistant Principal of the Year. He holds a Ph.D. in Teaching and Learning and a M.S. in Educational Leadership from Georgia State University, a B.A. in English/Secondary Education from James Madison University, and a Certificate of Perfect Attendance from Lynnhaven Junior High School.
John Meehan (@MeehanEDU) is an English teacher and school instructional coach at Bishop O’Connell High School in Arlington, Virginia. He is a noted national speaker in the fields of classroom gamification and student engagement. His first book, EDrenaline Rush, was published in June of 2019 by Dave Burgess Consulting, and offers a game-changing look at student engagement strategies inspired by theme parks, mud runs, and escape rooms. In July of 2020, Book Authority ranked the book among the top 10 titles on their list of the “100 Best Teaching Books of All Time.” In March of 2021, John joined classroom gamification pioneer and author of eXPlore Like a Pirate Michael Matera as co-founders of EMC2Learning.com, an online members community that provides hundreds of gamified classroom resources and on-demand professional development to thousands of educators all around the world. In August 2021, John and Michael published their first book together, Fully Engaged: Playful Pedagogy for Real Results.
John is a 2017 ASCD Emerging Leader and an alumnus of the 2016-2018 Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Teacher Advisory Council. In 2016, he was named one of Arlington, Virginia’s “40 Under 40” by the Leadership Center for Excellence. In March of 2019, he created the #EggDashChallenge – a classroom activity that became a viral video, racking up 75K+ views in less than one month’s time, and spawning hundreds of classroom videos in 40 US states, 6 Canadian provinces, and 8 countries. He is a past presenter at educational conferences throughout the United States, including the annual conference for National Catholic Education Association, ASCD Empower, and the Play Like a Champion Today: Character Education Through Sports conference at the University of Notre Dame. He’s an avid runner who’s completed more than three dozen marathons, half marathons, long-distance road relays, mud runs, and obstacle course races.
John is a 2017 ASCD Emerging Leader and an alumnus of the 2016-2018 Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Teacher Advisory Council. In 2016, he was named one of Arlington, Virginia’s “40 Under 40” by the Leadership Center for Excellence. In March of 2019, he created the #EggDashChallenge – a classroom activity that became a viral video, racking up 75K+ views in less than one month’s time, and spawning hundreds of classroom videos in 40 US states, 6 Canadian provinces, and 8 countries. He is a past presenter at educational conferences throughout the United States, including the annual conference for National Catholic Education Association, ASCD Empower, and the Play Like a Champion Today: Character Education Through Sports conference at the University of Notre Dame. He’s an avid runner who’s completed more than three dozen marathons, half marathons, long-distance road relays, mud runs, and obstacle course races.