Résumé

For a one-page biography, link here. For more details, follow these links:

• Teaching experience
• Professional achievements
• Education
• Writings and Compositions
• Personal interests

Teaching experience

Walker Middle School / Marietta, Georgia since 1998

Humanities instructor in Middle School

• American history
• Literature
• Grammar and Research
• Grammar and Rhetoric
• Drama

Extra-curricular and community positions

• Elected to the vestry of St. James Episcopal Church for a three-year term, beginning Fall 2006; elected Senior Warden by the Vestry, Fall 2008.
• Director of The Walker School's arts' month program, since 2005.
• Director of "W.Arts" after-school drama for Walker Middle School, since 1999
• Representative of Middle School faculty to Walker School's long-range planning committee
• Co-chair of committee for Walker's self-study for Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS)

Other teaching positions

• St. Andrew's Episcopal School / Jackson, Mississippi, 1981-1998
• Stony Brook School / Stony Brook, New York, summer 1987
• Community Children's Theatre / Jackson, Mississippi, June 1992
• Independent Schools Cultural Alliance / London, England, Summer 1997

Professional Leadership: A Teacher Teaching Teachers

Since 1999, I've served on the Advisory Council of the local site of the National Writing Project (NWP) at Kennesaw State University, the Kennesaw Mountain Writing Project (KMWP). The Writing Project seeks to improve writing instruction throughout all schools using the model of "teachers teaching teachers."

• Writing team member, presenting a series of arts - inspired writing experiences for the fellows of the KMWP's 2008 Summer Institute.
• Director of the first Leslie Walker Memorial Contest for Young Writers of Promise, 2007-2008, continuing the next year.
• Co-Presenter, NWP's national convention in Nashville, November 2006: Planning Strategically for Building a Tech Program.
• Presenter, Research on the Web: Casting Wide, Diving Deep, a workshop on teaching research skills to students across the grades and across the curriculum by positioning them to want to know more than is usually found in a reference book or popular web reference site (developed for the KMWP's in-service program, part of a national "Tech Seed Initiative," to promote wiser use of technology in the classroom)
• Tech Liaison for the KMWP, 2006, working with a nation-wide network, having previously maintained the first blog for the site. Led the fellows of the Summer Institute 2007 through technology-related creative writing.
• Presenter, Act to Write Workshop, for teachers who want their students to write and act plays, at the Georgia Independent Schools Association (GISA) meeting, fall 2005.
• Chair of the Advisory Council, Kennesaw Mountain Writing Project 2004-2005. With colleagues there, initiated and edited the KMWP "Blog," an ongoing project.
• Drama Across the Curriculum, 2004: Workshop for Teachers (October 2004) I helped plan and present this program for teachers, drawing participants from across Atlanta and across grade levels from kindergarten through college.
• Co-developer, Drama Across the Curriculum, 2001-2: For this program developed with colleagues through the KMWP, I worked with student volunteers to create dramas for performances at gatherings of teachers from across North Georgia, basing one play on stories by immigrant students in public schools, and the other on research into family lore.
• Co-presenter, Teacher Leadership Development. Workshop presented to administrators of the National Writing Project at their national convention in Baltimore, November 2001.
• Creative-Writer-in-Residence, June 2001. I guided teachers through their own creative projects. For details, click here.
  
  

Writings and compositions

• Co-author with Darren Crovitz, "Wikipedia: Friend, Not Foe," English Journal v. 98, no. 3, January 2009.
• Essay "So Many Possibilities: The Religious Vision of Stephen Sondheim" for The Sondheim Review, November 2007.
• Contributor to Teachers' Writing Groups (Kennesaw University Press, 2007, Robbins and Seaman, ed.)
• Chapter in a book Writing America (Teacher's College Press, 2004, Robbins and Dyer, ed.) and contributor to another book under consideration at present.
• Article "An Experiment in Teaching Grammar in Context" in the March, 2001 issue of Voices in the Middle, published by the National Council of Teachers of English. (link to the article)
• Text of biographical essays for American History (link to one chapter)
• Scripts, lyrics and music for a cycle of annual musical comedy pageants to showcase St. Andrew's Humanities curriculum
• Play, written and produced: a full-length romantic farce appropriate for middle schoolers to perform, Her Yankee Secret (link to synopsis and four scenes)
• Writings devoted to the teaching of writing, including essays and a sample chapter from a writing textbook. (link to Teaching Writing page)
• Other writings not directly related to my teaching, see Personal interests.
  
  

Honors

• First recipient, with colleague Dennis McElhaney, of the Master Teacher Award of Excellence medal and grant, established by Mrs. Gloria Friedgen to honor the outstanding faculty at Walker's Hubert Middle School, Marietta, Georgia. May 2003
• Plaque dedicating a chair in the Center for the Fine Arts at St. Andrew's Episcopal School, an honor funded "In Honor of Scott Smoot" by alumni, parents, and teachers of St. Andrew's Episcopal School, Jackson, Mississippi, October 2002.
• First recipient of the Christian Allenburger Memorial Award for outstanding teaching and commitment to students, St. Andrew's School
• STAR Teacher, Mississippi, 1998
• Yearbook dedication by senior class of 1990, St. Andrew's
• Eighth grade graduation speaker, selected by graduating classes, St. Andrew's,1992 and 1996

Education

Kennesaw State University / 2001, Master's in Professional Writing

Duke University / 1977-1981, Bachelor of Arts in English, with distinction; Bachelor of Arts, Drama

Oxford University / summer, 1980, Angier B. Duke scholar

Jackson State University / 1982, Adolescent Psychology, Secondary Methods of English

Mississippi State University / 1983, Problems in Secondary Education, Educational Psychology

Centenary College / 1983, The Essay in the Age of Discovery, fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities

Millsaps College / 1984, Reading in the Secondary School, Career Education

University of the South, Sewanee / 1985-1989, Education for Ministry, undergraduate degree in theology extended through Dr. Charles Kiblinger, St. James Episcopal Church in Jackson, Mississippi

Mississippi College / 1987-1992, Private study in music composition with Dr. James Sclater

Personal interests

• Wrote a suite of six stories set in a fictional restaurant. To read pages of Stories from the Crossroads Café, go to my writings index.
• Composed words and music for choral cantata 1992-1997
• Composed choral anthems "O Gracious Light" (performed 1987), "Song of Mary" and "Song of Simeon" (performed 1999), "Chesterton" (performed Christmas, 2002), "Son of Thunder" (to be performed on St. James' day, July 25, 2004)
• At St. James Episcopal Church, Marietta, I have served in the Adult Choir, the Chamber Choir, the Adult Education committee, and the Singles Ministry (co-chair).
• Link to other writings.
• For exercise and recreation, I ride a road bike an average of 20 miles a day in summers. See my cycling page.

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