Robin Johnston

I have worked as an educator in one capacity or another (elementary, middle and high school) for approximately 30 years, with 17 years spent as a middle school core Language Arts teacher and the past 4 years as a teacher mentor. I focused many years of my professional development on designing ways to teach expository and argumentative writing as I was assigned to teach for the NC Writing Assessment. I also spent many years diagnosing and intervening for students with various forms of dyslexia and other language differences. I developed and taught a class for struggling readers after taking extensive training in the Orton-Gillingham-Wilson reading program strategies. One of the things I enjoy most is finding ways to make great literature accessible to, and interesting for, all students. I pursued every kind of training in critical thinking and community of inquiry style learning as well (Paideia, Philosophy for Children, Junior Great Books, for examples). I also earned an MSA degree and worked as an administrative intern.

I strive to involve multiple approaches to material so all learning styles and strengths are reached while developing literacy skills. My style is to present material whenever possible in ways that involve student self-discovery, problem solving, collaboration, and community of inquiry. I start with easy problems and then build to ever more complex questions so all students find success but also a stretch in every learning experience.

~National Board Certification in ELA ~Awards from the NC Literary and Historical Society for my students' literary magazines

~M.Ed. in K-12 Literacy from UNC-Chapel Hill ~M.S.A. from UNC-Chapel Hill, Master’s degree work in Philosophy ~B.A. in Philosophy and English from Vanderbilt University

~My website: http://chapelhillteachandtutor.com/ ~My blog: http://robinwilsonjohnston.edublogs.org/