EMAIL: heather@tweenteacher.com
Heather Wolpert-Gawron is an award-winning middle school teacher who was a California Regional Teacher of the Year in 2004 and the San Gabriel Valley Outstanding Computer Using Educator in 2009. She is a Writing Project Fellow at the University of California at Irvine and a member of the Teacher Leaders Network where, in addition to collaborating with great teachers on issues of educational policy and practice, she is training teachers to hone their online moderating skills.
In addition to being a classroom teacher, she is also a contributor to Teacher Magazine and a blogger for The George Lucas Foundation’s Edutopia.com. She also moderates their middle school discussion group. Her articles have also appeared in Imagine Magazine, a periodical for gifted middle schoolers. Her book for Eye On Education Publishing tentatively titled ‘Tween Crayons to Curfews: Tips for Middle School Teachers is due out in 2011. She has also recently completed two workbooks, a series of activities and lessons to teach Internet Literacy, for Teacher Created Resources. A regular presenter at the CUE conference and recent presenter at the CATE conference, Wolpert-Gawron is dedicated to mentoring teachers and students alike.
But her passion remains in the classroom. She has taught 3rd grade – 12th grade, but the fact is, she loves Middle School. Wolpert-Gawron has said, “Middle schoolers are ready to talk and ponder about the big issues, yet still yell, ‘Crayons!’ when the blessed colored wax sticks appear on their desk. Teaching middle schoolers is like working with a herd of wild fillies. You have to rein ‘em in and give them slack, rein ‘em in and give them slack. It’s harder to find a sub in middle schools then in any other grade level. Why? Because they’re crazy. And I love ‘em.”
Currently, Wolpert-Gawron teaches 7th Grade Language Arts, 8th ELA, and 7th/8th Speech & Debate/Podcasting. All of her classes are guided by an understanding of multiple-intelligences and differentiated instruction. Her Language Arts classes use a Writer’s Workshop format for all of their student collaboration and fluid group activities. Her Speech & Debate elective is a nationally ranked team that has also been groundbreaking in its use of technology in education. They create, write, perform, produce, and publicize an entire podcasting network. You can listen to their shows at web.me.com/bulldogradio, www.jefferson.sgusd.k12.ca.us or at iTunes, keyord: bulldogradio.
Wolpert-Gawron began her own teaching career in a progressive private school in Culver City, learning about team teaching, collaboration, student-centered environments, and curriculum integration. It was there that she was bitten by the bugs of cross-curricular integration and curriculum design. Wolpert-Gawron has said that, “Both are flesh-eating bacteria that gnaw at my brain whenever I feel myself, or my students, drifting into the doldrums.” It was at that time that she began an elementary after-school debate team that integrated the Social Sciences, Language Arts, and Oral Speaking Skills. As for curriculum design: her history unit, “Colonial Willowsburg,” a role-playing living museum that incorporated History, Technology, Drama, Art, and Language Arts was featured in the Los Angeles Times.
During this time, she also worked on the weekends as the Shakespeare director at the Youth Academy of Dramatic Arts (YADA), directing full-length Shakespeare productions for ages 5-65. Working with children and adults alike, Wolpert-Gawron designed sets, taught stage combat, and incorporated Language Arts and History lessons into many of her researsals.
From Culver City, she made her way to a more traditional school up in San Mateo, CA. There, her methods of student-driven teaching and collaborative groupings were balanced by lessons driven by more traditional, facing-forward educational models, and she learned that in a true differentiated society, a teacher must teach using both philosophies. Continuing her love of discussion, she also set up an elementary debate after-school program.
She then joined a staff at a Microsociety Magnet school in Berkeley, CA where each elective model helped to contribute to the running of a mythical city. Not only was she an upper elementary teacher, she also developed curriculum for Court, which used a student-created constitution as a means to help with the school’s peer mediation program.
From there she joined the staff of a California Distinguished School in Dublin, California. There she taught 7th Grade CORE, honing her passion for curriculum integration and curriculum design into a History/Language Arts/Technology/Character Education unit called “Meanwhile…” She also began a theater company elective that specialized in performing Shakespeare. Her students and programs were featured in both The San Francisco Chronicle and the Tri-Valley Herald. She was named Dublin Teacher of the Year in 2004.
Upon moving back to Los Angeles, she began working at Jefferson Middle School in San Gabriel, another California Distinguished School. Jefferson is a Title I school of great diversity, resulting in a large population of English Language Learners. Nevertheless, the success of Wolpert-Gawron’s Mock Trial elective was featured in The Los Angeles Times, and her Speech & Debate team ranked 3rd in their category at the Nationals in 2006. She currently enjoys collaborating with the hard-working, brilliant members of her staff, and she is happily teaching some of the most fun and dedicated students of her career.
