In The Middle Curriculum

Both of us were drawn into teaching after spending about a decade in different careers. I (Julie) was an Application Developer in the IT field and Mark was a Human Resource Manager. Although we were happy and very successful in those careers, we really had the desire to teach. So we took a leap of faith, went back to school, and became teachers in 2001 and 2003 respectively. Now, we each have over 20 years of teaching experience in a middle school. We still love teaching and wouldn't want to be anywhere else but in the classroom. In 2011, we wrote a book called, "Guiding Adolescent Readers to Success" (Teacher Created Materials) which outlined our middle school guided reading/book club program. We have created and presented professional development for our district, presented at State teacher symposiums, and have served as consultants for other districts. We enjoy creating flexible resources that help teachers teach using small group instruction such as book clubs or literature circles or teach one book to the whole class as part of a genre study.

We believe students construct meaning from the books they read and we strive to put the right book in the hands of every student. We teach using the readers' and writers' workshop model and differentiate our materials and instruction to meet the needs of every student.

Yet to be added

MA in Elementary Education from the University of Michigan

We are full-time teachers because we enjoy teaching and couldn't imagine leaving the classroom. We are also part-time curriculum developers, teacher educators and consultants.