joan egdorf

Over 35 years I have taught ADVANCED PLACEMENT LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION, RUSSIAN LITERATURE, ENGLISH LITERATURE, AMERICAN LITERATURE, CREATIVE WRITING, INDEPENDENT READING, JOURNALISM, and all levels of high school English. I also have experience teaching psychology. My 23 year pass rate in AP is 94%.

Teaching should not just be fun-it should be funny. That may sound like a crazy philosophy, but it has worked for me. I get away with more traditional teaching methods because my students don't know what I am going to say next-and neither do I.They don't know which student is going to be the subject of my irony-and neither do I. Also, not being shackled to my notes, computer,or projector screen allows me to be anywhere in the classroom at any time. The combination of funny challenging, knowledgeable, and unpredictable equals SHOCK AND AWE. I do not believe in game after game and project after project to engage students. Having a confident presence and a reputation for challenging course work will get their attention. Although I do use games and projects, good old rigor, passion and instructional depth is what gets the high ACT and AP test scores.

Selected to grade the University of Illinois High School Writing Contest Selected to grade the Advanced Language and Composition test

Undergraduate: English/secondary; journalism Graduate: counseling psychology International Graphoanalysis certificate in professional handwriting analysis

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