I've been teaching since 2008. While my greatest love is high school, I've taught middle school, college, adults, and senior citizens, varying across all levels of privilege, interest, and ability. From Chicago to Eugene OR, I've worked in public schools, alternative schools, in summer camp settings, in prisons, and when I went back to school for my MFA in fiction, I taught college as well. In my offerings here, I'm bringing my two masters--writing, and teaching--together, to provide fabulous writing resources for you and your students.
I believe in nurturing burgeoning artists’ voices. I believe this is indispensable if we are going to combat the violence and systemic racism in this nation, and develop a kinder, more empathetic public. When students write creatively, they're integrating what they learn into their own experience and imaginations. By embodying their learning, it becomes relevant, rather than disconnected from their lives. In the process, they'll add writing tools to their belts that they'll be able to use in their rhetorical and expositional assignments as well. I create warm, safe spaces that are also intensely rigorous. I use discussions, and inquiry, and movement. In the materials I provide here, we'll read very closely, We'll write a ton. We'll read each other’s work. We'll learn to critique and give feed back. We'll have a great time along the way.
Published Author | Golden Apple Scholar of Illinois | Nelson Aldgren Award, Runner Up for “The Lobster’s Daughter” | J. Scott Clark Award for Excellence in Creative Writing, Northwestern University Department of English | Pledge Scholarship | J.G. Nolan Scholarship | Edwin T Beadle Scholarship | Golden Apple Foundation Scholarship | Standing Tall Foundation Scholarship | Liberty Bank Scholarship | Mather Alumni Scholarship | Mather Zeolites Scholarship
University of Oregon, Masters of Fine Arts, Fiction | National Louis University, Masters of Arts in Teaching • Type 7 Certification: Secondary Education • Content Area: English • Endorsements: Middle School | Northwestern University, Bachelor of Arts, Magna Cum Laude, Fiction + Comparative Literature
Teach Write Now is dedicated to providing curriculum that brings a current, and diverse body of reading material into your classroom--both in terms of author identity and style.
4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, Higher Education, Adult Education, Homeschool
English Language Arts, Balanced Literacy, Creative Writing, Grammar, Vocabulary, Specialty, Social Studies - History, Civics, Arts & Music, Visual Arts, Critical Thinking, Literature, Short Stories, Writing, Reading Strategies, Poetry, Informational Text, Close Reading