It was a thrill to introduce my writers at Copperfield’s Bookstore, where they read aloud from their Writing Camp work.
I have been teaching English Language Arts to junior high students since 1988, first at Altimira Middle School in Sonoma, and at Petaluma’s Kenilworth Junior High School since 2001. I find the adolescent classroom to be a place of amazing energy, enthusiasm, challenge and growth. I have always enjoyed designing, writing and tweaking my curriculum, but just when I think I have it all figured out, something new comes along and – bam! – out goes my tried-and-true and in comes something fresh to engage my students and me in our ongoingstudies of literature and writing.
In the summer of 2009, the “something new” was a Young Writers’ Camp with the Bay Area Writing Project. I spent two weeks with enthusiastic junior high writers who explored ideas through writing original poems, stories and memoirs. We concluded our camp with an author event at Copperfield’s Bookstore in Petaluma, where a standing-room-only audience heard the campers read aloud their work. It was an inspiring evening!
Recently the “something new” was the completion of a master’s degree at Sonoma State University in Curriculum, Teaching and Learning, with an emphasis in Educational Technology. It has completely transformed my teaching, my classroom and my students’ learning.
Click below to see a few of the “something news” from my career:
- Google Certified Teacher, 2012
- M.A. in Education (Technology) at Sonoma State University, 2012
- Iowa Summer Writing Festival, 2007
- Teacher Consultant, Bay Area Writing Project, 2006
- National Board Certification, 2005
- National Board Support Provider, Stanford, 2005-2009
- California Association for the Gifted Certification, 2004
