Welcome to our team
The CoderDojo system is not made up of a set team. We need different skills at different times.
The people who help out at each meeting are called mentors.
These people are unpaid helpers who try to guide our members towards their goals.
Here are a few of our original team members - this list will grow and change and I doubt very much
I'll find the time to keep it up to date (but I will try).
If you want to get to know our team - please turn up at a meeting...
Eoin and Jenny live in Portrane with their two sons Aaron and Darragh. They have lived there since 2008 before which they lived in Australia for over 10 years. Jenny works at the EPA after recently completing a PhD. Eoin operates DoctorBike where he goes around primary schools teaching children cycling skills and how to be safer cyclists on our roads along with being a bike mechanic. He is an avid cyclist and still races and is regularly out on his bike.
Úna is from Donegal. She spent twenty years working as a software engineer before retraining to be a primary school teacher. She lives in Donabate with her husband and two sons who are mad into GAA and the Xbox. Úna enjoys playing tennis and is also involved in trying to set up a tennis club in Donabate. Úna has attended a number of Scratch courses, has taught Scratch to primary school children and is keen to see it more widely used in schools.
What can you say about Gail ?
No really - what can you say ?
I've lost my note pad and it is far too late at night to make anything up now. Oh well - I'll just let you know Gail used to be a star programmer and since went on to work with kids.
What more could you wish for (other than me finding my notepad).
Far too many years of experience of programming led Ed to declare that he knows almost all common programming languages.
This was proven to be totally wrong but is still worth publishing anyway. A true jack of all trades, and a master of none.
He works, runs, owns and sometimes talks to servers. He has a Raspberry Pi, an Arduino and lots of electronic bits - and he is still looking for a good project to use them in. Ed is a keen programmer and tries to help Open Source projects where possible. He has been teaching his daughters Scratch for about a year now.
Nick has worked in electronics, robotics and computing for more years than are healthy. He is a radio amateur, and motorcyclist. He has taught electronics, computing, Sunday school, motorcycling and cooking to people of all ages. Nick, his partner Agnes and Ivy their daughter live in a crazy bungalow in Donabate and enjoy card making, drone flying, taking MOOCs, writing, baking and other basic pleasures. They are often seen taking their relentless visitors on cycling tours of Donabate and its environs. They have previously lived in England, Dundee, Cardiff, Porthcawl, Brussels, Munich, Darmstadt, Kiel, Utrecht, Nicosia, Tokyo and others. Nick runs a Freecycle group and provides IT support to all of his family and other charities.
Stephen is born and reared in Portrane, having spent a bit of time abroad for the last few years. He studied a BSc in Information Technology in Trinity College, and has been developing software (primarily websites) for nearly 20 years. His first program was a C program when he was 15 years old, that helped parents choose third level schools based on their individual circumstances. When he's not face-deep in a book about computer programming, he's normally out pretending he can play football at his age or looking after his nephews and nieces (he has brothers and sisters who take advantage of that regularly). - He hopes he can make the switch from teaching adults to teaching kids, they're the same thing, right?
Gerald is originally from Canada, he and his wife Cathie have lived in UK, US, and moved from Canada to Ireland 4 years ago. They decided to make their home Donabate in Dec2013 with their two sons (or as Cathie calls them, dependant adults) JP and Ardan. Gerald has worked in I.T. for 30+ years (it does not "feel" that long) and is currently employed as an I.T. Architect. His current personal project is learning German ("sprechen Sie?").
Gareth has lived here in Donabate for most of his life. He's in his final year of the National College of Ireland's BSc in Computing course and hoping to specialise in mobile app development. When he's not studying, working on a project or procrastinating, he can be found outside running or taking photos with his Canon DSLR. He also enjoys gaming and has been known to spend way too much money on Steam sales. Gareth enjoys a good cup of tea but mostly sticks to coffee in an effort to portray himself as a true software developer.
CoderDojo has just one rule: “Above All: Be Cool“, bullying, lying, wasting people’s time and so on is uncool.