about me
I am a National Board Certified teacher in secondary English and reading instruction. I’ve taught at the middle school, high school, and college levels, and in several ELL programs. My first job, after graduating from The University of Scranton, was in Kathmandu, Nepal, with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps. Later, while living in Boston and completing an MFA in Creative Writing, I got my dream job: teaching a full-time 8th grade writing workshop.
I quickly realized I was in unchartered ground. On one hand, I wanted to offer students plenty of choice and exploration in the writing process. On the other, I knew I needed a structured system if I was to manage five classes of 20-25 students a day. I began creating my own materials and scaffolding them to ensure a progression of learning. When I left Boston and moved back to my home state of Pennsylvania, I wrote up my ideas to help other teachers teach writing. This became my first book, Teaching Students to Write Effective Essays.
Over the next several years, I continued to write and teach. I have written seven books about teaching reading and writing, including Writing Workshop for Middle School, 50 Common Core Reading Response Activities, and 50 Writing Activities for Meeting Higher Standards with Scholastic and most recently, Reading with Presence with Heinemann. I now teach 10th grade World Literature in Clarks Summit, PA, and was named Pennsylvania’s 2019 Teacher of the Year.
In 2020, I completed an Ed.D. in Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis on global education; my dissertation examined the effects on high school students after participation in an English language conversation group for local refugee families in Scranton, PA. In 2021, I received a Fulbright Fellowship with the Teachers for Global Classrooms program. I have also served on the Governing Board of the Mid-Atlantic REL since 2019.
I speak regularly at local, state, and national conferences. I believe strongly in every student’s ability to become a better reader and writer and therefore, a better person, living a deeper life.
Please feel free to read my mission statement and my post about why every teacher should have a mission statement. And connect with me via email and conferences! One of the greatest joys and benefits of our profession is our collaboration with each other.
