The Shared Bookshelf

I have 23 years of experience as an educator. I spent 19 years as a high school English teacher and 3 years as an instructional coach. I have worked in rural, suburban, and urban school districts in northwest Ohio. While I am passionate about "all things ELA," I absolutely loved teaching speech. I held what I called performance Fridays - every Friday, we worked on a single performance or delivery skill: eye contact, enthusiasm, poise, pace, inflection, getsures . . . the students were apprehensive at first, but it quickly became their favorite day of the week.

I highly recommend Well Spoken by Erik Palmer --- fantastic book with a ton of ideas for teaching speaking to all students.

Hi there!

I taught English 9, English 10, Advanced English 9, and Advanced English 10 for 14 years. I really enjoyed teaching Shakespeare, especially taking a more interactive approach. I also enjoyed teaching argumentative writing, I found I learned so much about my students based on the topics they selected. 

Good Afternoon,

I am Aimee Mendelsohn and I am a School Improvement and Academic Specialist at the ESC of Lake Erie West.  I am passionate about all things ELA.  Glad to meet everyone.

Welcome, Aimee! Thanks for joing the group. I am excited to collaborate with you.

I have been in education for 28 years. I taught middle school ELA, along with a few other things, for 21 years. I am currently working as the Secondary Curriculum Coordinator in Cuyahoga Falls. 

I am passionate about the idea of finding "the book" for each student so that they learn that reading can be enjoyable. 

Welcome, Julie! Thanks for joing the group. The Cuyahoga Valley National Park is one of my favorite places - I know it's not too far from you.

Hi!  I work with gifted students in grades k-5.  I am excited to learn more about this resource!

Anne Arnold

aarnold@hlschool.net

Welcome, Anne! Thanks for joing the group. Great idea to share your email here. Feel free to share what you find in the group folders.

Hi! 

I am a first year educator at Maplewood Career Center. I teach juniors and seniors...which feels funny because they are not much younger than me (I am 23). I love to read and always have but I have found that I would much rather teach a novel then a short story out of a literature book. I don't have a favorite unit to teach because everything is new! 

Welcome, Mackenzie!

Glad you are here and could join us for the meetup. I'm looking forward to learning more about your work as an ELA teacher at a Career Center. 

Thanks for joining the group. 

Welcome, Mackenzie! Thanks for joing the group. I taught English at a career tech center for a couple of years, too!

Hello! I've been in education for 26 years, teaching ELA and history at the high school and college levels. I am now working at the Gallia-Vinton Educational Service Center and providing support for Resident Educators and ELA educators. I'm passionate about using local literature, project-based learning, and reaching students via all of their learning styles. My favorite unit to teach is The Great Gatsby.

Welcome, Julie! Thanks for joing the group. I love The Great Gatsby. Have you read The Double Bind, by Chris Bohjalian? It intertwines some Gatsby . . .

Hello! I haven't. I read Nick last year and have Beautiful Little Fools on its way here. I'll have to add that one to my list!

I love good books that intertwine with or build from my favorites (I have a shelf full of Pride and Prejudice retellings and extensions), so I was excited when the copywright expired on Gatsby.  

Hi there! This is my 4th year of teaching. I currently teach 10th grade English (general/honors), creative writing, and a leadership elective at New London High School. Previously, I worked at a community school where I was the sole high school English teacher!

I am very passionate about the classics. Even though I am a young teacher with tons of new resources, I love the classics! I think that they can be fun and teach valuable lessons!

Hi Mikaela,

Does your leadership elective count as an ELA credit? I think there would be so much potential to bring in the ELA  Speaking and Listening standards into your leadership elective class. I would love to learn more! 

Thanks for joining the group!

Currently, I am the Title I Reading Teacher at Bishop Ready High School in Columbus, Oh.  I have taught in Central Ohio for twenty-three years, mostly in Columbus City Schools.  I have mostly been in Ninth Grade, and I LOVE Ninth Grade!  My favorites include Shakespeare, Harlem Renaissance poetry, and mythology.

Welcome, Steve! Thanks for joining the group. You're right - minth graders are fun. What kinds of resources do you use as a Title 1 teacher?

Hello! I am an Intervention Specilaist. I teach both 7th and 8th grade. I have taught resource room, serviced in co-serve/inclusion classes for both langauge arts and math. I love reading aloud and teaching novels and doing writing activites that engage students with special needs. I am looking forward to utilizing Open Space.

Welcome, Lisa! Thanks for joining the group. Looking forward to collaborating with you.

I joined INFOhio in June of 2020 as the Assistant Director. Prior to that I was a high school English teacher and district librarian for Zanesville City Schools for 27 years. I taught English 1 for the majority of my career, but also enjoyed teaching public speaking, creative writing, and research skills. I am passionate about incorporating best practice around instructional technology. I look forward to working with this group! 

Hi Lori! 

I enjoyed teaching research writing and skills too! Creative writing was always a struggle for me (personally as a writer and as a teacher). I would love to learn more about how you taught creative writing during your career. :) 

Hi! 

My name is Nicole Farah. I have been teaching 6th-8th grade English and Writing at a Catholic school in Parma for the last 8 years. I love getting to know my kids and am very involved with their interests like Instagram and Tiktok. I love to teach Verbals to 8th grade, Poetry and Figurative Language with my 6th Graders, and putting on a mock trial with my 7th graders!

Welcome, Nicole! Thanks for joining the group. What a clever way to tackle speaking and listening as well as argument with the mock trial. Do the kids pick the topic? Is it associated with something they read?

Hello, I have been in education for over 20 years. I have taught preschool, 2nd grade, 3rd grade am currently teaching 5th grade Language Arts and one science class. This is my 2nd year in 5th grade and I have enjoyed focusing on two subjects and it's a great age. 

Welcome, Jennifer! Thanks for joing th group. It's great to teach different subjects.  Do you have any ideas for disciplinary literacy to share with the group?

My name is Kelly Kriner. I just sat in on the third session of Restorative Writing. (You just referenced it!)

I teach grades 9-12 after several years teaching grades 7 and 8. I love collaborating with others. I am not the most creative so I love to see and hear great ideas and go from there to adapt/use those lessons for my students.

Welcome, Kelly! Thanks for joining the group. We've posted a few resources related to restorative writing. Check them out!

Hello!

My name is Regan Onweller. I have been an English teacher in three different districts for six years. I first taught 8th grade ELA at Vinton County Middle School near Athens, OH (GO BOBCATS!). Then, I came home to Cincinnati, OH and taught 9-10th grade English at Mount Healthy High School for three years. This year, I moved to Cleveland to live with my boyfriend and now I teach 9-10th grade English at Lorain High School! I absolutely have loved all three of these jobs despite the fact that they are completely different! I am so lucky to have had such a positive experience teaching and I am lucky to have the opportunity to teach at a school like LHS currently.

As all of my work experience has ben in high need districts, what I am most invested in, is helping my students learn how to cope with their trauma and become highly successful individuals when they graduate. I want to be the type of educator that motivates even the most unmotivated child to succeed and hopefully, this session on restorative writing will be one way that I can achieve this goal.

:)

Welcome, Regan! Thanks for joining the group. Have you tried some restorative writing yet with your students? If you did, can you share how it went or what you did?

My name is Todd Henne. I am a former high school English teacher at Hoover HS in North Canton, OH. I have been in administration since 2004.

Welcome, Todd! Thanks for joining the group. It's great to have an administrator here - feel free to share the link to join the group with your teachers.

Hi all!  My name is Stef Fatzinger. I have been in education for 29 years.  I have taught 7-12 English, but most of my career has been teaching theatre and speech.  I am currently the library manager at Canton South High School.  I also teach several theatre courses and a speech class.  I love teaching dramatic literature and public speaking.

Welcome, Stef! Thanks for joining the group. You will bring some great diversity here. Do you have suggestions for incorprating theater into ELA classes? Any great new YA books to share with the group?

I'm Alex. I teach at St. Rita School for the Deaf in Cincinnati for grades 5-12. I really enjoy teaching research and argumentative writing through class debates, but my favorite units are Shakespeare and poetry month in April. 

Thanks for joining, Alex. Do you have any favorite poetry activities or lessons you could share?

Typically, I have students come to school with a poem the first week; it can be one they read and enjoyed or one they wrote themselves. I use these collections the students curate as the texts for the rest of the month, so my activities are often dependent on the poems they picked. 

One standard activity I love doing is having students write their own blackout poetry using a page from their favorite text from the school year. I do this at the end of April, which is shortly after testing, so it's a bit cathartic for students to just "delete" whole passages of words and end up with an expressive and artistic poem they created. 

Also, Deaf history month is March 15-April 15, so we usually write a bio poem about a Deaf hero the students have.