The Joy of Teaching

Sharing creative ideas and lessons to help children learn

Contributors

Marti Beeck started her career in education as a parent volunteer in her three children’s classrooms. Her many years of teaching experience, including adult school, intervention, and the primary classroom, was inspired by her background in brain-based learning. After working for four years as an editor in educational publishing, Marti currently works as a freelance writer and content developer.


Picture of Patty ClarkPatty Clark has been a classroom teacher for grades K–6, and District Librarian for grades K–8 for the past 25 years.  She is passionate about helping others find and use information.  Her philosophy is, “It’s not about the amount or the subject matter learned, it’s about the learner discovering the joy in the process that led them to it.”


Image of contributor Leslie Edsall Leslie Edsall loves to work with people to simplify the noise and develop healthier habits through nutrition, yoga and self care. She is a Certified Health Coach, Health Education Specialist and Registered Yoga Teacher. Leslie offers a variety of online and in-person health coaching programs, teaches yoga, runs workshops in the DC area and leads wellness retreats.


Picture of Alice EvansAlice Evans is a forty-year veteran National Board Certified elementary classroom teacher and a published author. She recently retired from the San Diego Unified School District and has published a children’s chapter book entitled Torrey Pines Summer.


Heather Foudy is a certified elementary teacher with over 7 years’ experience as an educator and volunteer in the classroom. She enjoys creating lessons that are meaningful and creative for students. She is currently working for Evan-Moor’s marketing and communications team and enjoys building learning opportunities that are both meaningful and creative for students and teachers alike.


Lara Jay Hequet is a life entrepreneur, certified and qualified in many fields of knowledge. She is a single parent to a fifteen year old daughter who is ‘lifeschooled’ for the last ten years. Together, they travel the world creating life stories and capturing stories of other wonderful people via film and the spoken word.

She is the founder of wowageing.com, a community of people who choose to Live Older instead of growing older. She intends to inspire and support unique individuals and their parents in the art of homeschooling.


Katharine Hill, MS, MAT, ET/P, is a learning specialist and educational therapist in private practice in Brooklyn, NY, who has twenty years of experience working in K–12 and higher education. upnext.nyc


Mineko Inouye currently works as the project lead for the Marketing and Communications department at CSU Long Beach. Before moving into Higher Ed, she worked as an afterschool teacher/site supervisor at an LA-based learning center. There she could see that students throughout LAUSD were learning at different paces based on their school, so she avidly used instructional workbooks like Evan-Moor’s to help bridge the gaps between her students. She’s thrilled to be assisting Evan-Moor’s marketing communications team. She loves the company because they, like her, will always be passionate about helping students learn.


Kathy Jorgensen has been an educator most of her life, starting as a peer tutor in second grade and tutoring her way through high school and college. After teaching grades 2 through 12, she spent two decades editing standardized tests. Kathy happily returned to her teaching roots, providing instruction and practice in Evan-Moor’s math and science products. When she’s not polishing words on the page, Kathy is flitting down the dance floor indulging her passion for Scottish country dancing as a dancer, choreographer, and teacher.


Jenn Larson 2Jenn Larson has been a teacher for 20 years and has taught grades K–5 at least once but has enjoyed teaching 4th/5th for the last nine years. Jenn loves to create curriculum that is engaging and meaningful for the busy teacher as The Teacher Next Door. Jenn is also the mother of two children and lives in Northern California.


Image of Guadalupe LopezGuadalupe Lopez has taught K–5 Spanish and adult ESL. She has been a PreK–12 materials developer for over 25 years, and is currently senior writer at Evan-Moor.


Lisa Vitarisi Mathews serves as Publisher of Evan-Moor Educational Publishers. She has over 20 years’ experience in PreK–8 education, and has worked closely with teachers across the United States through Evan-Moor product training and workshops.


Jill McEldowney and Cathy Henry are neighbors and friends who both have significant experience teaching in the same large and diverse school district. Together, they developed and operate www.thecurriculumcorner.com, a site where busy teachers can find current, relevant, meaningful, and ready-to-go lessons, activities, and resources that fit their classroom structure and also meet national and state standards.


Dr. Katie McKnight is an educator, author, and consultant. Her career in education began as a high school English teacher in the Chicago Public School system more than 20 years ago. She received her B.A. degree from George Washington University, her M.Ed. from Northeastern Illinois University, and her Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Today, she serves as a Distinguished Professor of Research at National Louis University.


Amy Michaels is a former teacher turned homeschooler. She creates fun learning activities based on popular children’s books. Connect with her at BookBrilliantKids.com.


Blog-latonya1Latonya Moore is the creator of Joy in the Ordinary, a site where she focuses on seeking joy in everyday moments. She enjoys spending time with her husband and home educating her daughters.


Image of contributor Roger NguyenRoger Nguyen is a curriculum coach in the Anaheim City School District, California. For over 10 years, he has taught grades 3–6 and combination classrooms, and has taught gifted and talented students.


Connie Pillsbury graduated from the University of Redlands with a B.A. in English Literature and earned her Lifetime Credential through the University of Southern California (USC) Honors Intern program in Elementary Education. She has over 15 years of experience as an Elementary teacher and Resource Specialist. She is currently dedicating her time to teaching cursive to students of all ages through “Connie’s Cursive,” a community service program on the Central Coast of California.


Tiffany Rivera graduated from Arizona State University with a B.S. in Family and Human Development and is currently studying for her Master’s degree in Elementary Education. She has over 10 years experience as a preschool teacher and has also taught elementary-high school English in South Korea. Tiffany is currently working for Evan-Moor’s editorial team, where she writes fun and engaging books for young children and classrooms.


Natalie Robinson is a recent Communication Studies graduate from LMU. She has a strong passion for writing and loves children. Having grown up in a Montessori school and later transitioning to public school, Natalie values early childhood education and believes that social and emotional learning should be a core tenet within all homes and classrooms. In writing for Evan-Moor, Natalie hopes to build a career in copywriting and copyediting.


Karina Ruiz has four years of experience working with children for non-profit after-school programming for K–12 and four years of nanny work. She is currently a volunteer intern and attends California State University, Monterey Bay.


Erin Sawyer 2Erin Sawyer has been an elementary school teacher for 8 years and currently teaches sixth grade. She has also taught third and fourth grades. Erin enjoys finding resources that will motivate and challenge her students to learn. She also serves as the student council mentor to the upper-grade students.


Suzanne Sniffen is a homeschooling mom of three children. She has taught students ages 3–60 in a variety of settings in the past 17 years. Suzanne has been homeschooling for the past 11 years, after previously teaching in public and private schools. Talking with other parents about homeschooling and how children learn is something she enjoys every chance she gets. She also leads a homeschool chess club and maintains a blog of homeschooling resources. Since her kids were very young, she has been blogging about homeschooling, books, and life at lovetopaint.blogspot.com.


Ali Southerland is a long term homeschool mom of many. She is zealous about education, the result of her own rigorous education. While math is not her favorite, science is. She writes all about how our science education is lacking (and how to fill the gaps) at This Addictive Mess. She also writes about teaching kids about money, how parents can save money and have a better relationship with it. When she isn’t writing, chasing her kids, cooking, or sleeping, she is probably reading about dinosaurs. #rawr


Image of Trisha ThomasTrisha Thomas is the mother of two and serves on the board of directors at a co-op preschool. She has also been a marketer of educational materials for grades PreK–8 for more than 15 years.


Christine Wooler has experience working with children as a youth soccer coach and summer camp counselor. She is currently studying English Literature and journalism in college. She enjoys exploring educational topics that help students have fun while learning.


Image of Theresa Wooler Theresa Wooler has more than 10 years’ experience in K–6 classrooms as a parent volunteer and homeschool educator, has taught high school English, and is currently involved in education through Evan-Moor’s marketing communications team.


Lorna Williams, MPH, RD, and Kathleen Dunn, MPH, RD, are registered dietitians who have been collaborating on health and nutrition projects for over 20 years. Together, they launched EatingFor.com, a fun and educational website focusing on child and teen nutrition, and co-authored Eating for A’s: A month-by-month nutrition and lifestyle guide to help raise smarter kids.