Construct 3 Teacher Advisors

Julie York is a Media & Computer Science elective teacher and Career Preparation department chair at South Portland High School in South Portland, Maine.

She concurrently works with Southern Maine Community College to offer dual enrollment courses at the high school for interested students. Passionate about making and creating, Julie has been working with students since 2002 teaching video productions, animation, game design, graphic design, business, seminar, advanced technology, web design, media literacy and more.

Julie participates in several professional organizations including: founder and member of Maine CSTA, a Common Sense certified educator, an Amazon Teacher Innovator, a Pathfinders ECS, and a NCWIT Aspirations in Computing Educator. Outside of teaching, she founded and owns two geek community oriented businesses, Weekend Anime & Games and PortConMaine, and has two adorable young children.

I am relatively new in education, I left the corporate world about 7 years ago. I held several positions in Information Technology, before deciding to make a mid-life career change. My first 2 years I taught elementary K-5, before transitioning to Middle School (my happy place.) This is my 5th year teaching middle school Introduction to Programming.

Programming not only provides students with real world skills but also encourages students to develop soft skills needed for life after high school, like collaboration, critical thinking, creativity, and communication.

As Digital Schoolhouse's Curriculum Content Developer, Estelle is responsible for the creation and curation of their innovative teaching resources. With a catalogue of workshops that include everything from lessons on algorithms using Ubisoft's Just Dance to investigating binary numbers with Nintendo's Super Mario Maker 2, Digital Schoolhouse is at the forefront of playful computing.

With over 15 years teaching experience and a Masters in Teaching and Learning, Estelle is an enthusiastic practitioner who has the expertise to take difficult Computer Science concepts and present them in a new and innovative way. She is always ready to come up with something new and exciting and is currently designing resources for incorporating animation techniques into the teaching of programming.

I’m Sydnie, I’m a middle school CTE teacher, and I love video games. I'm currently playing Sims 4, but I usually play MMORPGs like World of Warcraft or sand-box games. Prior to teaching, I was a Nuclear Electrician in the Navy before I went to University of Houston for my undergrad. I recently finished my master’s at Sam Houston State University in Instructional System Design and Technology.

I’m finishing my 8th year of teaching, and I’ve taught middle school Intro to Programming for 7 of those. The only programming experience I had prior was in high school, but I’ve started learning how to code, specifically Construct 3 and JavaScript. I love teaching critical thinking skills and problem solving, and I enjoy encouraging students not to be too quick to give up even though the project they were working on still has bugs a week later. I think anyone can code, and programming provides a supportive environment for all students from peer to peer feedback to possibly students teaching you something new.

Currently serving as Clarkston High School's Art Department Chair, Nichole has been teaching for 23 years and is running classes in various creative subjects including Digital Photography, Digital Illustration, Photoshop, Art Introduction, Mathematical Art, Graphic Design, and Video Game Design. She also teaches Art History, Drawing, Painting, Jewelry and Mixed Media. She was inspired by the accessibility and ease of Construct 3 to create a Video Game design class where students can enhance that creativity and problem-solving using a marriage of art and basic coding. Nichole believes strongly in student-driven learning, where young people can explore their interests and express themselves in meaningful ways. Helping students discover who they are and helping them amplify their personal voice is what drives her.

Nichole graduated from the University of Michigan with a Bachelors in Fine Arts and has a Masters in Art Therapy from Wayne State University. She is also a Certified Trainer in the High Scope Adolescent Approach. Her passion has always been art and ecology (specifically ocean biomes), but she truly discovered her love for teaching while working at Newfound Harbor Marine Institute in the Florida Keys while teaching students at their summer camp.

Outside of teaching, Nichole enjoys playing Assassins Creed Black Flag, FIFA 24 and Red Dead Redemption 2. Her other passions include kayaking, snorkelling, laying in a hammock reading, drawing, all things pirates, and travelling to discover new adventures.

Vinny has been at London's Stanmore College for a number of years having started his career there as a media technician. He has since taken on the college’s game development course, transforming it into a more creative Animation and Game Design course. In doing so, the course now attracts a large number and variety of students.

As of 2024, Vinny has been teaching Construct for seven years and it forms an integral part of the course to teach students their introduction to game design. Many students come back to Construct as part of their final project too.

Vinny’s skills lie in the creative side as a character animator, videographer and editor. He also dabbles in game design as a hobby.