Hi I’m Steve Varndell, or if you know me from roller derby, Rex Tangle!
I’ve been coaching and playing roller derby for over a decade. I’ve coached the Birmingham Blitz Dames from Tier 4 to Ttier 1 of Brit Champs, and then on into the WFTDA, nudging for a top 50 spot at the height of our achievement.
I’ve also played men’s roller derby, playing multiple European Tournaments and making the 2014 world cup England squad.
It’s fair to say I’ve coached and played a lot of roller derby.
I also have experience as a teacher, I taught art and design in Further Education for about 4 years, working with all kinds of students and abilities and learning the trade of the teacher.
After teaching, I become interested in software design, and changed career paths to work on educational software development for organisations such as Birmingham City University and Busy Bees Nurseries.
The combination of playing, teaching, coaching and making software has given me a set of skills and insights that all merge together into what has become my baby: LessonStack.
LessonStack is more than a website, it’s an approach to teaching that embraces clarity, simplicity and community. I call this approach Atomic Teaching, because it works by breaking teaching down into complete chunks. It’s the tool I needed to help me coach those gruelling four hour sessions preparing for an overseas WFTDA tournament. It’s the tool I wish I had as an art teacher.
LessonStack is built on the successes and failures of everything I’ve done over last fifteen years. From the elation of winning tournaments, to the lesson observations that went horribly wrong. It’s built on the pride of those students I have propelled into great things, and the nagging shame of those I know I could have done better for.
LessonStack has a simple mission: Help teachers make great lesson plans.
That’s it. At LessonStack we understand both the burden of administration, and the passion that goes into teaching, and we’re here to help. We’ve designed a lesson plan that actually helps you in the classroom. We’ve made it easy to find and share teaching resources with other teachers. We’ve made it easy for you to refine and re-use everything you teach, so that as you grow, your preparation grows with you.
And you can do all of this for free.
I am very biased. but I think we’re onto something special.
Rex T xx