For Schools
"The mind should be a thing that works." --Sherwood Anderson.
I agree with the assertion above, and not only in that the mind should work in terms of "function." A functioning mind is simply not enough; a well-functioning mind is the single greatest asset that any human can aspire to achieve. And improving the mind's functionality requires another kind of workâspecifically the time and effort variety.
My mother worked as a speech therapist in elementary and middle school for over thirty years. I was raised to recognize education as an indispensable tool in the construction of a better self. Now, in addition to my writing, I work as a collegiate writing tutor. In this capacity I have worked with fifteen-year-old aspiring novelists and fifty-year-old Chinese immigrants who have been in the U.S. for less than a year and spoken English little longer. I have had sessions with Moroccan playwrights and Peruvian doctors, and Deaf engineers, and first generation college mothers, and students with disabilities and health challenges ranging from cognitive issues to cancer. If my over 2,000 tutorial sessions have taught me anything, it is that language and thought are interrelated, and training in both is a lifetime activity. And the better the starts we get, the better lives we live. Reading and writing are conduits to the well-functioning mind.
I want children to love my stories. But more than this, I want them to love all stories, the ideas and truths and language that are story; to be so invested that they write their own. To that end I have collected a number of academic resources on my book(s) and posted them for free use here on my web site. In addition, I invite all educators to contact me to request school visits and workshops, or simply to suggest what else I can do as an author to help invest children in reading and writing stories. Humanity is its own ever-evolving narrative; it is every individual's right and obligation to read as much of this story as they can, and to add his or her part. I hope in some small way that what I offer here will assist those who have made helping children take part in this great story their life's ambition.
- Curriculum Guides
I wrote these free guides according to curriculum used in the Granite School District in Salt Lake City, Utah. They include a number of exercises complete with answer keys and suggestions for teachers. - Study Guides
Designed to be used with the curriculum guides above, these free study guides are to be handed out to students. They contain all exercises without answers given and without the teaching commentary included in the curriculum guides. - School Discounts
Click here to find out about special school discounts offered on my books. - School Visits
Want me to visit your school, give an interview, or even teach a workshop? Find out more here.