Resume

Ashley R. Haugen

ashley.r.haugen@gmail.com

Education

Bachelor of Science: Secondary Education

July 2011

Bachelor of Arts, English: Teaching Emphasis, Minor in English as a Second Language

July 2011

Bachelor of Arts, French Language & Literature

July 2011

Study Abroad, Caen, France

August 2008- June 2009

University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho                                                                                                     GPA: 3.38/4.0

Experience

Kaplan English Teacher, Kaplan Aspect Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

August 2011- Current

·      Administered engaging lessons adhering to Kaplan curriculum and standards

·      Motivated student learning through positive feedback and encouragement

·      Evaluated individual student needs and growth while instructing large groups

Northwest Inland Writing Project select candidate, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho

Summer Institute 2011

Long-term Substitute, Coeur d’Alene High School, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho

May 2011- August 2011

·      Created original thematic units based upon the curriculum

·      Immersed students in engaging French language and culture activities daily

·      Communicated and collaborated effectively with faculty

Student Teacher/Intern, Lake City High School, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho

December 2010 – May 2011

·      Synthesizes state standards and individual student needs

·      Effectively and enthusiastically teaches students in both French and English content areas

·      Performs tasks in a fast-paced and demanding environment

·      Creates new lesson plans with adaptations for multiple skilled learners

Teaching Practicum, Moscow Junior High, Moscow, Idaho

September 2009 - January 2010

·      Improved student understanding and phonetic abilities

·      Analyzed, adapted and carried out consistent classroom management

·      Translated French texts into English

English Teaching Assistant, Jacques Monod Collège, Caen, France

December 2008 - May 2009

·      Overcame linguistic/cultural barriers to engage students

·      Developed curriculum and innovative educational activities

·      Instructed English grammar, language and culture

·      Collaborated with supervisors to ensure student achievement

French Tutor, North Idaho College, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho

September 2007- January 2008

·      Evaluated student linguistic deficiencies

·      Applied relevant concepts to adapt to individual student needs

·      Assessed student improvement through multiple intelligence assessments

Volunteer & Extracurricular Activities

Junior Miss panel member, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho

December 2010-Present

French Conversation Group, Idaho

December 2009- Present

Counselor/Speaker, Lake City Community Church Varsity Retreat, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho

Summer 2008

·      Facilitated, and Developed Body Image Workshops for 14-18 year olds

Qualifications

Flexible, knowledgeable, dedicated, passionate, hard-working, enthusiastic, compassionate, and creative

Fluent/working ability of French

Coursework and Projects

Northwest Inland Writing Project, Extensive English Pedagogy, Writing, Literature, and Grammar courses

Catching up on reading has never felt so sweet!

Teaching Philosophy

Teaching Philosophy

I know that knowledge is the catalyst for success. How do I know this? I am a product of this philosophy. My education, experiences and personal exploration of the teaching profession have provided me with the knowledge to succeed daily in my teaching career. How do I define a successful teacher? I define a successful teacher as one who is passionately committed to the importance of her subject area and its specific pedagogy. Successful teachers have authentic, joyful and professional relationships with their colleagues and students. Successful teachers incorporate intentional daily reflection on their teaching, bringing forth invaluable awareness. A successful teacher facilitates student achievement and mastery through honoring high academic expectations. A successful teacher facilitates student achievement and mastery through carefully planned, engaging and research based teaching strategies. Successful teachers also nurture an advantageous, safe classroom environment for students to rigorously learn, grow, and achieve.

I believe that much of my students’ growth and success is dependent upon the environment of my classroom; therefore, my first goal is to create a community of learners. This community is participatory, supportive, inclusive, responsive, committed and always authentic. All of my students will experience an organized and positive community of learning on a daily basis. Students can depend upon my commitment to them and my belief in their ability to succeed, given the right tools. I acknowledge the fact that many of my students are not equipped with models of how cooperative and productive environments operate. Therefore, one of my main goals as an educator is to prepare and model for my students what successful learning behavior looks like. I have a thorough classroom management plan and set of procedures to help students help themselves and learn new skills. To help students learn, I honor the importance of written reflection and oral discussion, and frequent opportunities for feedback and conferencing. I also offer up explicit directions and rubrics on all assignments and classroom procedures. Students can depend on a consistent and reliable learning environment when they walk into my classroom. I am supported in my beliefs on learning communities and how those are implemented by the works and research of Jim Burke, Janet Emig, Doug Lemov and Lucy Calkins.

Students will be actively engaged in writing, reading and mechanics mastery daily.  Through my research and experience with the National Writing Project, I am equipped with teaching/learning strategies that engage students in the content through authentic, rigorous and enjoyable ways of learning. I believe in the power of writer’s workshop, scaffolding writing instruction, conferencing, embedded grammar instruction, enlightening literature and authentic, relevant assignments. My rationale for using these strategies is that they enable and empower students to write and connect to text, while giving them structure to facilitate growth and build upon previously mastered skills. These teaching/learning strategies are reinforced by the research of James Moffett, James Britton, Janet Emig, the NAEP facts report, Linda Flower, John Hayes, Nancy Sommers, Sheryl Lain, Nancy Atwell, and Julia S. Falk.

Organization is an important element to me as an individual as well as in my classroom. I need organization to succeed in the world. I strive in having structure, and planned, intentional focus. I wasn’t always so highly organized. Therefore, I recognize that some students may need help in organizing themselves. I commiserate and understand entirely. I demonstrate organization in my lesson planning, unit cohesiveness and daily procedures. I believe that if I am intentional and organized about goals, objectives and procedures, I am more able to be more flexible and creative in areas that are useful and productive. An example of this would be if I am organized and intentional with class time, and students honor the objectives, we have more time to expand our knowledge and delve into some even more interesting discussions, projects and skills. Doug Lemov’s classroom model and research validates my belief on the topic of organization and intentional lesson planning.

I believe that learning is exciting and enjoyable. I am joyful and enthusiastic by nature and I am, consequently, always energetic and enthused in my delivery and facilitation of my daily lessons. I commiserate and understand my students and love to laugh with them often. I model what the joy of learning looks like everyday and rejoice to see students join in. I am aware of myself and aware that my own person is as functional an asset or tool for learning as theory and pedagogy. Parker J. Palmer wrote an entire book, The Courage to Teach, on a healthy approach to being at ease with yourself, your strengths, even weaknesses, and how they can come together harmoniously in the classroom. I embrace this philosophy wholeheartedly.

I firmly believe that it is within my power, responsibility, and will to be prepared, knowledgeable, patient and committed to student success. As I daily model this with my own actions and relationships, I also expect students to take responsibility for their actions, respect each other and to put forth their best effort each day. 

One Liner

Banana-
People make such horrible noises when they eat you.

Bananas and Biology

Nestled

Happy safe

Tangled tightly, made from within

Formed in the rippled womb

Its divisions are a trilogy

Intentional imprints of god’s design

Monkeys eat it this way

Why do we open them backwards?

They say it’s all biology

Slimy

Grainy green and yellow leaf, not from here

Bitter

Thickly protected, yet delicate to the touch

Babies gumming on its end

Melts and squishes

Between my tongue and

Strange roof of mouth

Book Review: "Writing With Power" by Peter Elbow

Book Review

Writing with Power: Techniques for mastering the Writing Process

By Peter Elbow

Abstract on this review:

For those of you who teach High School composition/English, this book is a must-read. If you are a Teacher-Writer, or aspire to be one, this book is essential. Peter Elbow’s honesty is uproariously provocative and hilarious. He brings in his own experiences as a student, teacher and especially as a writer to compile his philosophy on the writing process. My own teaching philosophy has been significantly shaped by Elbow’s approach to writing and teaching writing.

Peter Elbow is passionately interested in the writing process. He interweaves three themes throughout this powerful book. The first theme he addresses is that writing calls upon two conflicting skills: the ability to create and the ability to criticize. While these two can harmoniously help create a powerful piece of writing, they can also leave us paralyzed. It is important to separate these two skills purposefully. These skills should be employed always in relation to one another, but never simultaneously…or maybe just sometimes. Elbow emphasizes the importance of having a duplicitous relationship with our writing: that of connected creator one minute, and then that of detached and uninvested critic the next. “For it turns out, paradoxically, that you increase your creativity by working on critical thinking. What prevents most people from being inventive and creative is fear of looking foolish…But when you know that this creativity is just the first of two stages, and that you are getting more critical in the second stage, you feel safer writing freely, tapping intuitions, and going out on limbs”(10).

 The second theme is the theme of comparison. Elbow warns us not to think that others are blessed with a certain easy and available faculty with words. We must embrace the belief that almost everyone has the ability to rise to a certain occasion, usually prompted by personal importance or an urgent circumstance, and express a thought or event with eloquence if they are given the right opportunities and connections.

The third theme is to not give in to the helpless feelings we so often encounter when we right, but also be forgiving as we revise and see room for improvement. When Peter Elbow discusses revision, he is convicted and obviously has struggled through some difficult processes through his own writing journey. Elbow suggests that the most honorable aim for revising is the “desire to make things work on readers…I didn’t get to productive revising till I insisted on being heard”(122). Elbow approaches this topic of painful stage in writing, revision, with much insight and possible variations to aid in our quest for effective revision. Elbow insists on the importance of audience and how our revision processes and feedback should always be in accordance with our concrete purpose and audience.

Peter Elbow snarkingly pokes fun at himself, saying that he probably is talking to too many people when addressing the issue of audience and his book on writing. He specifies further that his audience is really “that person inside everyone who has ever written or tried to write: that someone who has wrestled with words, who seeks power in words, who has gotten discouraged, but who also senses the possibility of achieving real writing power”(6).  His audience is anyone who has attempted to write and found it in the least bit painful and cumbersome. I love this. He unites us all based upon the principle that nobody is perfect and that we are all striving to understand this craft. He creates a sense of community and understanding between fellow writers and teachers of writing. His audience is intentionally broad, for being a writer encompasses all of us, to a certain capacity.

On the issue of audience, Elbow possesses an excellent framing question for writers: Whom do I want to serve? We should know whom our writing is serving. It can serve our selves, or the search for truth; it can serve that board of trustees, the dissertation panel, or the editor of Seventeen Magazine. It’s all about knowing who will be reading it and why they will be reading it.  Audience is not an afterthought; it is an intentional focus. Elbow writes “most people struggle along as they are writing something in an effort to make it ‘good writing in general’ instead of thinking carefully or precisely about ‘good for what effect on what reader’”(226).

“Writing for Teachers” was one of my favorite chapters. “As adolescents, especially, we are subject to the tyranny of the crowd. Worse than being caught with your pants down is being caught caring deeply, being corny, vulnerable, pure. But a special teacher gives us permission to care about honor or Dostoyevsky or relativity or irony—not just gags or girls or cars. A good teacher understands us. A good teacher can hear beyond our insecure hesitation or faddish slang to the authentic voice and reach in and help us use it”(217).  I took this chapter as a necessary challenge to become that “special teacher.” I was inspired and equipped with much advice on how to help students become better writers. How we assign papers, and especially how we give feedback to our students can be indicative to their legitimate investment in the craft or not. This is serious business, teaching writing.

After reading Writing with Power, I feel well acquainted with the philosophies and personality of the college professor I never had, but always desperately needed and wanted. Elbow infuses the pages with knowledge, wit, understanding and conviction. I treasured this book and its presentation of a writer’s mind, soul and heart. He balances practicality alongside creativity. Blending them in the form of hilarious anecdotes, and handbook-like excerpts and advice. I suggest this book unreservedly for any writer, or writer-wanna-be, out there.

"What's Right with Writing" by Linda Rief

Response to Linda Rief’s article What’s Right with Writing

What have we learned about writing and the teaching of writing?

1.     Writing is thinking. Writing is for many a way of working through our thought processes in a more tangible way. Writing is an way to communicate thoughts, understandings, opinions, if we are given enough time, choice, models and responses to do so.

2.     There is no one process that defines the way all writers write. Writing is a recursive process. Although there are many great strategies that we may teach, our students and even our own writing process may vary based upon the form, audience and purpose of that particular piece of writing.

3.     We learn to write by reading extensively and writing for real audiences. This is to emphasize the interest factor, and authenticity. It is hard enough to get our thoughts out on paper most days, and trying to shape our argument to fit a make-believe audience can seem pointless and convoluted.

4.     Writers need constructive criticism. Specific comments help writers cling onto as strengths as a driving force. Specific comments also help students focus in on key elements to be improved. We can’t point out EVERY error in their paper and then expect them to want to revise and go through the demoralizing time and time again.

5.     Evaluation of writing should highlight the strengths of process, content, and conventions, and give the writer the tools and techniques to strengthen the weaknesses.

6.     Writing is reading.

Why does writing matter?

            Writing matters because it is the very act of committing our thoughts to paper that will help us build conviction, authenticity and have accountability to our thoughts. Writing is the place where idea origination, creation, and verbal constructions are collected. The act of writing is creating thoughts on a medium separate from own skull walls. We can separate ourselves from our thoughts and approach them critically, analytically, however we need or want to. Writing can shape our thinking and help develop it fully, while also allowing us to see it in a new light.

What do our students need to help them write well?

1.     Time . I will commit a generous amount of time so that my students can engage in writing daily. I want to provide them with time to process and think. They will not be writing alone. I will be writing with my students to demonstrate that I value and honor the act of writing daily, and for my own writer’s soul and health. I acknowledge, however, that quantity does NOT equate to quality of writing. Daily writing will be supplemented with models, samples and an abundance of literature to help students establish a strong sense of what good writing can look like. (There is a lot out there!)

2.     Choice. Ownership is essential for authentic writing, growth, and motivation in the subject. If students have an interest to start off with in their writing they are more likely to delve into it from a more intrinsic interest, building a love of learning. I hope that students grow more comfortable with using writing as a way to explore their interests and express their thoughts. Writing is another way to instill a love of learning and the joy of exploring the world around them.

3.     Models. Another way to look at reading and writing and their relationship is to compare it to the relationship of “sense and grasshopper.” The sense guides the grasshopper to mastery through shared experiences, listening, observing and apprenticing the ways and habits of the sense. Students should look to well-written essays, literature, and poetry as their sense. They serve as the ultimate and most knowledgeable mentors to the craft students are attempting to improve on each day. Students need an example of what they are striving for. They need to know where they fit into the mix among all the red corrections on their paper. They need to establish in their minds what are some examples of good writing.

4.     Response. As educators we need to create a safe place for students to fail, achieve, and take risk. We need to respond to them and their writing in a way that speaks to their strengths, some weaknesses, and validates their heart and soul they have just displayed for you on the page. Give them something constructive to cling to, and something to change.

What stands in the way of powerful writing instruction?

1.     Me

2.     My school’s administration

3.     Testing anxieties

4.     Testing

5.     But, mainly it’s me. I must hold myself accountable to these statements and implement them reflectively and ardently because I believe in them completely.