Jan Willem Hengeveld — teacher · Ontwikkelkracht (Dutch Ministry of Education) · builder
By day I work on better education at Ontwikkelkracht, the programme run from the Dutch Ministry of Education. Alongside that I build the tools and sites I needed in the classroom myself.
It started in the classroom, and that's still my measure for everything: does it work on Monday morning, or not? Without that test, a good idea stays just an idea.
At Ontwikkelkracht, run from the Dutch Ministry of Education, I work on the bridge between research and practice: what do we know, and what does a school need to actually use it.
Web apps, sites and tools for education. Usually because I needed them and they didn't exist. Small enough to understand, solid enough to lean on.
C01 / C02
Three practice apps for primary school on one codebase: arithmetic, spelling and geography, each with its own creature. No multiple choice — the child produces the answer, and a mistake brings a worked example instead of a red cross. Ten minutes of practice earns five minutes of arcade, then the app locks.
A digital literacy curriculum for Dutch primary education: 191 goals across nine domains and four age bands, mapped to the national draft attainment targets. Alongside it a searchable database of lessons and tools for those goals, which teachers extend themselves — reviewed before anything goes live. The curriculum itself comes from the STEV framework.
Every year a Dutch year-6 class picks a leavers' musical, usually on gut feeling and a tip from the school next door. Here they sit together: searchable by cast size, running time and theme, with reviews from teachers who have staged them. One codebase serves both eindmusical.app and kerstmusical.app.
I also keep my own tools here: small things I use daily, yours to take if they're useful. They live on tools.