ONE-ON-ONE
I work with writing students from 3rd grade through graduate school in fiction, non-fiction, and essay writing, both in person and remotely. Sessions are 50 minutes, typically once a week. I focus on areas where I see the most need for improvement, balancing that with student and parent goals, and assigning work as needed. Writing requires time, there’s no way around that, but I do try to take into account a student’s other commitments when assigning homework.

TEACHING IN CLASSROOMS
I have led a variety of creative writing projects in the classroom, from poetry to short stories to novels, 3rd grade through graduate level. I work with teachers to find out what their goals for student learning are, and how I can help facilitate those goals. I like an energetic classroom. Writing is not a passive process, so I try to get the kids' pens to paper as quickly as possible.

NOVEL-WRITING RESIDENCIES
This 6-week residency is a low-floor-high-ceiling, collaborative project, appropriate for 3rd grade and above. My goals are three-fold: to foster a deeper understanding of the structure of a novel, its inner-workings, its complexities; to empower my students as writers, and facilitate a project that is wholly theirs; to guide them through an intense creative-writing project they will remember.

Novels are complex, multi-layered entities. In order to accomplish the task I set before them, students must have a working knowledge of story structure, character, and sentence construction. Research is mandatory, as is teamwork. My goal is for students to improve their skills in all of the above. Most of all, I hope my students come away with a profound sense of accomplishment, because above all else, writing a novel takes determination, dedication, and grit.