Three Teachers Talk is pleased to feature the following contributing writers. If you are interested in submitting a guest post or contributing regularly, please send an email to shanakarnes@gmail.com.

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Kristin Jeschke

College Prep Senior English Teacher, AP Language and Composition Teacher, Curriculum Leader, Mentor

— Waukee High School

I believe in opportunity. Opportunity to discuss deeply and productively; opportunity for focused, meaningful play and exploration; opportunity to tinker with the norm; opportunity to wonder and wander far and wide in a text (ours or someone else’s); opportunity to grow and grow and grow as readers, writers, and thinkers.  

Memberships: NCTE

Contact: Email: kjeschke@waukeeschools.org  Twitter: @kajeschke

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Maggie Lopez

AP English Literature & Composition and 11th grade English Teacher — Salt Lake City, Utah

Education is about change.  We change our knowledge base everyday, adding new information, applications, and perspectives.  Changing my approach to literacy has created the space for deeper connections with students and authentic instruction that hinges on continuous improvement.  The shift in my practice has changed how learners think about literacy and where it fits into their lives. When students leave my classroom, I hope the workshop experience has created life-long readers, writers, and thinkers who want to change the world.

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Charles Moore

English Teacher — Clear Creek, TX

Reading and writing instruction should be woven together to form a tapestry of literacy and literacy is the greatest tool that we can give our students. I believe that every single student deserves the best instruction from their teachers every day. The Workshop Pedagogy is, in my opinion, the absolute best way to deliver valuable, relevant, and authentic instruction.  Reading informs thinking. Writing expresses thinking. For my students, the workshop setting unlocks real opportunity for them to access information and to express themselves. Teachers have a responsibility to foster the next generation of thinkers not by telling them what to think, but by showing them the boundlessness of their own potential.  

Memberships

National Council of Teachers of English / Texas Council of Teachers of English/ Texas High School Coaches Association

Contact     Twitter @ctcoach    email: mooreliteracy1@gmail.com

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Sarah Morris

AP Language & Composition and Film as Literature

— Murfreesboro, TN

I started my practice as a closed door teacher. I’m not proud of that admission, but keeping that door closed (literally and figuratively) was key to my survival in the first few years of my practice. I longed for conversation about the ‘whys’ of teaching, but didn’t know how to find or start those conversations, how to open that door. Teaching, like writing, is made better through collaboration and sharing, through conversation, through workshop. Hopefully, through this blog and the conversations it starts, I hope to nudge my door open a little more, while encouraging others to open their doors as well.

Memberships: Middle Tennessee Writing Project,  Rutherford Education Association, and College, Career and Community Writers Program

Contact: smorrishomework@gmail.com; @marahsorris_cms

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Julie Swinehart

Managua, Nicaragua

Julie has been teaching secondary language arts for nineteen years, spending the first fifteen in rural Central Oregon, and the last four in Amman, Jordan. She begins a new adventure this year at American Nicaraguan School as the department head, also teaching grades 7, 11, and AP Lang.

Follow her on Twitter @SwinehartJulie

Follow her blog https://adventuresinhighschoolworkshop.wordpress.com/