UP FRONT LEARNING

Over the decades, I've been fortunate to teach in many venues -- El School, MS, HS, Community College. A highlight each Spring: Writer-in-residence at a one-week camp in the woods, helping 5th graders craft stories around the campfire. Finally, Thursday evening -- Fire flickers; the first cast performs. Then, applause!

Sage on the Stage? Or Guide on the Side? Count me in the Guides' camp. And the Team-writing camp. This Up Front Learning store does what it says -- moves students to the front of the class. There they act. There they teach. In teams. With scripts in hand. If you think of your students as active learners, and yourself as a coach, you will find this store's lessons much to your liking.

Although I've no teaching awards, I have won 11 Excellence-in-Craft Awards from The Northwest Outdoor Writers' Association. Experience as a writer does help teach writing. Big-smiles moments: watching casts perform my plays at school assemblies. Then watching teams perform their own plays in classrooms.

BS, Lafayette College; MS, Lehigh University; K > 12 Teaching Certificate, Eastern Washington University; post-grad study, University of Washington, Washington State University.

Outside the classroom: As a decades-long freelance writer for 14 magazines and 3 newspapers, I've learned a lot about writing -- from editors whose red pens show no mercy. After about 140 articles published -- non-fiction & fiction -- and 5 books, non-fiction (Amato Media, Portland, OR) I do have some tips to offer young writers. As a long-time actor in community theater, I've learned how some scripts connect with an audience, and some don't. Sharing my Shoutback! and Wild Voices and Radio Onstage, Readers' Theater plays with classes is as much fun for me as it is for students.