Hire Me
Want to know about a good book?
Want to know just the right book to teach a particular topic?
Want to put our heads together about how to get a kiddo to read something – anything?
The moral of the story: I provide institutions, teachers, and parents with lots of ideas to get kids excited about and engaged with the content in question, because there’s no single lesson that will work all the time. No single method, book, idea, or instructional strategy is going to reach every kid, though we spend a lot of time trying to find that silver bullet. So I’m here to be the ambassador between book and child to bring them together through varied creative strategies and projects. I devise projects that correlate to books (or vice versa) – projects that are learning disguised in a cloak of fun, that pull out what the book is teaching and reinforce it in a unique way that makes the lesson memorable.
Also, some people think I’m funny. Though I take my job quite seriously, kids respond to fun and humor, and I inject that into my curriculum, projects, and lessons.
Here are some of the services I offer…
These days, I’m mostly a consultant for educational institutions like school systems, museums, libraries, history centers, etc.
- Atlanta Public Schools
- Fayette & Henry County Schools’ Teaching American History grant
- Jimmy Carter National Historic Site (Plains, GA)
- Jimmy Carter Presidential Library & Museum (Atlanta, GA)
- Atlanta History Center
- Georgia Humanities Council
- Trained teachers throughout the state for the initial implementation of the social studies Georgia Performance Standards in elementary grades.
- Developed statewide curriculum frameworks and classroom lesson plans for the GADOE’s website.
- Presented at numerous state conferences, as well as the National Council for the Social Studies conference.
- Assisted in the creation of a Teaching American History grant institute for primary grades teachers and then presented for that institute.
For traditional school folks, I offer teacher training and curriculum writing on a consultancy basis to make your job easier.
Having been an elementary teacher myself, I understand the challenges and realities of modern elementary school instruction. I believe students and teachers should have fun learning about new content, and that can be done with particular books! I help teachers identify really good books to use with students for specific lessons and work projects in that reinforce the lessons. This makes teachers’ jobs easier, because the “explaining” is often done by the author.
Examples of what I can do for you as a teacher are:
- Teacher workshops & lessons (on things like how to teach Social Studies, for instance)
- Curriculum writing (such as for before and after field trips to make the lesson or topic of the field trip hit home)
- “Thinking sheet” preparation
I help parents find books that get their kids to read.
You might think your child just doesn’t enjoy reading or doesn’t want to sit still long enough to read.
He or she might think reading is boring and maintain that they prefer a video game or TV show.
I will find engaging books tailored to your child’s interests and personality and change both your minds.