About Us
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Elfi Berndl, M. Ed. Elfi Berndl has over 25 years experience in teaching in
Ontario secondary and elementary schools. She obtained her Masters from
OISE in Educational Administration. She has taught at the Junior level for
more than 15 years and currently teaches in York Region. She has presented Professional
Development Courses for Ontario Teachers
since 2002, been a mentor teacher to teacher candidates and is an on-line
instructor of Junior ABQ Courses.An avid rockhound, she established a public service website about rocks & minerals geared towards kids in 1999 called www.RocksForKids.com. With more than 2 million hits, this website has reached many people interested in beautiful rocks and minerals. Currently Elfi is in the process of enhancing the site through digital photography. She provides teacher training workshops and science club presentations for PDACMM, the Prospectors & Developers Asociation of Canada Mining Matters. Working behind the scenes on Rock Talks by Rockhounds and Pulleys & Gears: Simple Machines for Kids, Elfi creates the programs, coordinates the visits and prepares the activities & handouts. She is also a co-Presenter for the Rock Art Workshops. As an artist and an environmentalist, she enjoys the creativity of working with found objects. GMB Webs and GMB Toys are also areas in which she is involved. She has had a love for “mucking about” and making things since childhood. She is currently still teaching children in elementary school but is actively involved in the GMB Toys Family Workshop in her spare time. She enjoys carving and creating interesting useful items from found objects in her workshop. Elfi has assisted in a number of woodworking seminars at Lee Valley Tools and is the inspiration behind new toy development at GMB Toys.
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Nicholas Gere,
BES, B.Arch.
An experienced Field Trip Leader, creative Toy Designer and enthusiastic rockhound, Nicholas is the chief Presenter for Rock Talks by Rockhounds and Pulleys & Gears. He is the past president of the Ontario Field Trippers Guild. Having been involved in mineral collecting, Rock & Mineral clubs and Rock Art Workshops for years, he enjoys bringing his love for amateur geology to the classroom. He prepares mineral specimens for www.RocksForKids.com. Nicholas, a trained artist, loves to work with his hands and does woodworking. He designs and crafts one-of-a-kind wooden toys, Rocking Animals and furnishings in the GMB Family Woodworking Shop. His artistic designs bring the GMB Toys to life. His Rocking Toys Plans have been sold to happy woodworking hobbyists across North America. He leads Woodworking Seminars at Lee Valley Tools from time to time, helping others handcraft their own heirloom rocking toy.
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Nicholas Gere, a retired architect and community
college teacher, is
now able to pursue his other interests through GMB Services. He has turned
his design talents and love for working with wood into a second career.
