Last week, we started an interview of Jackie Swanson, an 8th grade writing teacher at North Middle School, in Rapid City, South Dakota. During the interview, Jackie told us how she started using The Writer’s Workshop as a model for teaching her students. This week, we get to see the actual students, as Jackie interacts in class. It’s amazing to see, and I hope that this could be come one of the ways to transform our educational system. Next week, a short piece on what it would take to actually change the way that our children are taught. But this week, let’s just be inspired.
Archive for January, 2009
Jackie Swanson has been teaching for 31 years but the first 25 were not what she wants people to know about. Calling herself a “traditional” teacher, after 25 years she made a change and started using a pedagogy called “Writer’s Workshop” The results and changes for her and her students are both amazing and inspiring. It is a model that could be used by our entire education system. In fact, her school, North Middle School, in Rapid City, SD is in the process of doing just that. Today, Jackie tells the story of how she came to the Writer’s Workshop. Next week, we will see how this process works, and what the students are doing in her classes now.
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