Services for Teachers and Schools

Writers Workshops for Teachers

These generative workshops are designed for teachers who want to deepen, jumpstart, or begin their writing practice. Let me introduce you to fun, low-stakes, yet imaginative and challenging writing activities that will lead to drafts you can continue shaping in revision. You can also adapt these activities for your own classes, and we’ll engage in some quick, affirmative feedback activities your students will enjoy. We can also discuss how to maintain a writing practice during, and in spite of, the school year.

I love working with English/ELA teachers as well as teachers from other disciplines, and the activities we’ll engage in can be useful for students in many subject areas. Most importantly, in our workshop, you will all be writers, and my main wish is for you to leave the workshop excited to write more.

Half-day workshops will focus on one genre; whole-day workshops can offer deeper dives into a single genre, or can offer practice in two genres. Recurring workshops (e.g., a series of half or whole-day workshops over a semester) can be tailored to the interests and needs of the teachers.

Half-day: $100 per participant (minimum $500)

Whole-day: $150 per participant (minimum $750)

Recurring: rate negotiable

Creative Writing Curriculum Consultations for Teachers and Schools

I believe in classrooms as communities that foster individual growth. The key principles of my pedagogy are authenticity, rigor, and nurture, and I believe students crave that combination of qualities. Whether or not they continue seeing themselves as writers after completing one of my courses, I believe that what and how students learn in a creative writing class can help them to discover their potential in other endeavors and to see that potential in their peers.

Drawing on my long and rich experience as a teacher and writer (see bio or CV for details), I am happy to offer curriculum consultations for creative writing teachers and for schools looking to incorporate creative writing offerings that can lead to personal fulfillment and success for students.

Traditional elective classes and English/ELA classes: These situations present challenges and opportunities for the teachers who lead them. The kinds of teachers I’m excited to work with include:

  • a new creative writing teacher wanting to know best practices and how to build a course that will meaningfully engage a wide range of students;
  • a seasoned teacher wanting to refine or re-imagine an existing creative writing course;
  • an English/ELA teacher wanting to incorporate creative writing effectively into a traditional English/ELA class.

Note: A student’s sense of a creative writing teacher’s authenticity comes in no small part from their perception of you as a writer. Thus, one of my goals will be to encourage you to be at least as invested in the lessons you give your students as you expect them to be, and to care about your own writing as much as you hope they care about theirs—even if that’s just for the duration of a specific unit.

Individual teacher consultations: $225 (minimum). You will send me curriculum documents for your class and two sample writing lessons to review, and we will set up a one-hour video or phone meeting. (If you have not yet designed or taught the class or unit, send me whatever you can.) If you want me to offer more extensive materials review or we need a longer meeting, we can negotiate the additional fee. For teachers with limited resources, I am also happy to negotiate a sliding scale.

Conservatory-style creative writing programs. I have taught at an arts high school, where students came solely to focus on a single art form, and at a traditional K-12 school whose middle and high school arts offerings included single-semester elective courses and developmentally sequenced, multi-year arts programs for students who wanted that level of instruction. Designing a an appropriately scaffolded and sustainable high school creative writing program is exciting and challenging, and I would love to work with more schools to make this kind of immersive, focused training available. Because every school and the community it serves is different, my goal is not to present you with a template that can be replicated anywhere (spoiler: templates aren’t classrooms), but to offer you a set of best practices and then help you design a program in which those practices will serve and reflect your community.

After I receive an initial query from one of your school’s leaders, I will work with them on a contract for the consultation process. I have listed the major steps in that process below. I realize that schools may sometimes have a sincere interest in learning about a program that they cannot immediately commit to implementing; I also know that funding priorities can change abruptly. With that in mind, please don’t assume that the initial contract commits your school to the whole consultation process. We will proceed at a pace that is appropriate for your school, and my payments can be prorated accordingly.

  1. An initial video or phone consultation (60-90 minutes) with the core members of the team who will be responsible for implementing the program. The most important question for us to discuss in this conversation is: Why does your school want a creative writing program? Prior to this consultation, I would love to receive any materials that can help me begin to understand what makes your school special.
  2. A two-day site visit, to help me learn about your school and your community, which may include classroom observations and meetings with stakeholders (at your discretion): teachers, librarians, administrative staff, students, parents, writers in the community, or anyone else who may play a role in the success of your Prior to this visit, I will need to receive a brief staffing and resource summary that gives me a clear sense of how much classroom space, staff time, and other resources your school can realistically and sustainably commit. I do not need and will not ask for hard financial data; I just need a clear sense of how big we can dream. Within two weeks after the site visit, I will send a report with my assessment of the viability of implementing a creative writing program at your school.
  3. Consultation on designing the program and writing its scope and sequence, including everything from how students enroll in this program to the nature of their major assessments. As with any writing, this will take a lot of revision, and different perspectives will help in that process. Depending on what I observe during my site visit, I may have some specific recommendations about who should be involved. I am happy to take the lead in writing the scope and sequence for a flat fee; I am also happy to serve as a consultant paid at my hourly rate.

Fees:

Initial phone or video consultation: $250

Site visit: Travel costs plus $750 per day. (This includes my time writing the assessment report.)

Developmentally sequenced program design: As lead, for approximately 20 hours of work with your team, my fee is $1250. As a consultant at stages we agree on beforehand, I will charge $75/hour.

Need an evaluation of an existing program? This can be negotiated, depending on the scope of the evaluation.

[Note: I have framed these offerings with 7th-12th grade students and teachers in mind, based on the majority of my classroom experience. I am also happy to consult on undergraduate and graduate courses.]