Hello everyone! If you have been following me AT ALL on social media, you know I talk about change a lot. Not just change I think should occur in the school system, but changes other people believe should occur as well. But one aspect I have struggled with is how to make change happen at all. Sometimes, it feels like the system of public education is too big to change in any meaningful way…
And yet, Suzanne DeMallie made significant change by being an advocate and educator, and now she is pushing for us to continue talking about change and taking action to do so.
Last week, we dove into the overview of what change can look like, and in this episode we dive into the steps it takes to make change happen at various levels.
Suzanne DeMallie taught for seven years in the Baltimore County Public Schools system. Research into her own son’s learning difficulties led her to author the Classroom Auditory Learning Issues resolution, adopted by the National PTA in July 2007. Her work has appeared in Our Children Magazine, T.H.E. Journal, Towson Times, and The Baltimore Sun.
She has presented at the National School Boards Association’s Annual Convention; to national, state, and local PTA groups, and to politicians. Suzanne was awarded the National PTA’s Life Achievement Award in May 2007, the highest honor from the nation’s largest child advocacy organization.
This episode is sponsored by Heinemann—the leading publisher of professional books and resources for educators—and their professional book, Writing Unbound: How Fiction Transforms Student Writers by Thomas Newkirk.
Writing Unbound is about the value of writing fiction in secondary classrooms. Tom Newkirk asks a tough
question: if reading fiction is the center of most English classrooms, why is writing fiction often ignored? Why do we separate fiction reading and fiction writing?
Tom argues that when our writing curriculum is too analytical, students think of “writing” as impersonal, formulaic, and…well…boring. He says that opening a door to fiction writing can ignite students’ interest and convince them of the value of writing. He even argues that allowing kids to write fiction will improve their analytic writing.
Learn more about how fiction can transform student writers. Visit Heinemann.com to download a sample from Writing Unbound.
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