This site is curated by stevi Quate

And who am I?

While growing up, I had two dreams: to become a ballerina or to teach. Teaching won out (thank heavens!). Most of the 25 years that I spent in the classroom were in Adams Five Star District, just north of Denver, Colorado where I taught middle school language arts and high school English with a short stint at teaching social studies. As a teacher at Thornton High, I learned about writing workshop and with my fellow English department members studied how to engage students in writing texts that mattered to them and how to provide timely feedback that would grow them as writers.

Little did I know that I would become a published writer myself. A few years ago, my colleague, John McDermott, and I wrote Clock Watchers and The Just Right Challenge. In addition, my published writing includes a short story, multiple journal articles, and a few chapters about professional development.

I never imagined that I would leave the classroom, but when I was encouraged to be the literacy coordinator at Colorado Department of Education (CDE), I thought I would give it a try. For over four years at CDE, I lived the journey of implementation of the state standards and the early years of our state assessment. At the same time, I co-directed Colorado Writing Project, which ended up being a ten-year adventure. During this time, I was president of CLAS (Colorado Language Arts Society, an NCTE affiliate) and a few years later president of CCIRA (Colorado Council of International Reading Association). After CDE, I moved to the teacher education program at the University of Colorado at Denver. Since I officially retired from UCD, I’ve worked as a staff developer with PEBC (Public Education and Business Coalition), consult internationally, and continue my work with Colorado Writing Project.