Biography
MARY KIM SCHRECK works as a consultant, coach, and author. She is particularly interested in how creativity impacts every phase of the educational process and is associated with student engagement and reaching equity. After 36 years in the classroom, she currently serves as an education consultant for Solution Tree Press and has been working with Dr. Bonnie Davis as a cadre member for Educating for Change. She has published six books in the last eight years. Four books of poetry, and two professional development books— Transformers: Creative Teachers for the 21st Century (2009) published by Corwin Press, and You’ve Got to Reach Them to Teach Them (2010) published by Solution Tree Press. Mary Kim has served as editor of Missouri Teachers Write for three years, and has written numerous articles for national and state education journals.During her career as a classroom teacher, Mary Kim spent years in almost every possible teaching setting available. She taught at an all-girls private academy, then in a small 270-student rural school that served Grades 6–12. From here she worked in a public school of over 4,000 students in three grades on a split-shift schedule. Most of her teaching career has been spent in the Francis Howell School District in Missouri where she served as Communication Arts department head for a decade, headed her district's NEA teacher's organization of over 4,000 members, and spent years on state steering committees. She wrote curriculum and assessments at both the district and state levels. Her classroom lessons have won national awards, been published in national journals and textbooks, and have been used as pilot examples for Understanding by Design research. In the past ten years, Mary Kim has presented to hundreds of educators across the country through various workshops, presentations, and consulting opportunities. In 2009, while fulfilling a consultant contract in Kansas City, Mary Kim used her experiences as the active research base on the subject of student engagement for the book You’ve Got to Reach Them to Teach Them. The title of this new book aptly sums up her philosophy on how teachers can successfully implement research-based strategies to insure student engagement and achievement. She lives on the Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri with her husband.
Workshops
WORKSHOPS OFFERED BY MARY KIM SCHRECKTEACHING FOR CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION: A 21ST CENTURY NECESSITYWith a more sophisticated emphasis on classroom standards and assessment, the time is right for teachers to take a fresh look at their ability to integrate their personal creativity in the implementation of best practices as well as to engage students in higher order thinking activities. This hands-on session will ask teachers to discuss their ideas on what genuine creativity looks like in the classroom, why creativity and innovation are leading standards needed for 21st Century skill mastery, and how they can strengthen and nurture day to day creativity in themselves and their students.YOU HAVE TO REACH THEM TO TEACH THEMAll the great programs, manuals, lesson plans in the world will not succeed if the students are not willing to participate. A fine and powerful line exists between motivation and engagement. We all agree that student engagement is a fundamental necessity to raising scores and closing achievement gaps in every school. In this session Mary Kim will lead teachers in hands on activities that entice students to join in. She will also provide a method of self-checking for teachers to evaluate and begin to shift behaviors that turn off students. We will examine what students themselves say about what gets them involved and what makes them put their heads on their desks. I LINK THEREFORE I THINK(the impact of prior knowledge on substantial learning)Helping our students understand and remember the material we cover is crucial to success at every grade level. In this session Mary Kim will review current brain research in regard to how the mind makes meaning by connecting prior knowledge to new informationespecially through the use of student hemispheric strengths and tendencies. She will give participants examples of effective methods to both access and build prior knowledge as well as practice using them. She will show how to avoid pitfalls of misunderstanding that often make learning more difficult.THE WRITING PROCESS: A HANDS-ON METAPHOR Participants in this workshop with have the good fortune of playing with the creative process using the medium of Play Dough as well as words..this is a powerful constructivist metaphor for how the brain produces ideas, forms meaning, and serves as its own censor.Explaining to students the way their brains work to create new ideas, to fashion writing, to explore their world is never an easy task for teachers. This workshop gives a concrete hands-on tool to discuss and experiment with these very abstract terms.Depending on the time allotted for this session, other ways in which the role of metaphor as the vehicle of communication between the right and left brain functions will be tested and explored as well.RE-VISITING RUBRICS IN THIS AGE OF ASSESSMENT With a more sophisticated emphasis on classroom standards and assessment, the time is right for teachers to take a fresh look at the construction and use of rubrics as best practices and how they facilitate the ability to objectively assess and communicate student learning. This hands-on session will ask teachers to discuss why rubrics havent worked well in the past, and how they can be made more effective for both teacher and student use in the future.THE CREATIVITY FACTOR IN THE UNDERSTANDING BY DESIGN STRUCTURE One of the most comprehensive and logical approaches to curriculum design to be implemented across the country in the last decade is that of Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighes Understanding by Design. In this session Mary Kim will demonstrate that the Understanding by Design provides the best structure for freeing the creative teacher to do his/her best work. She will demonstrate how planning backwards, when correctly implemented, demands and empowers teachers to use their most professional abilities and expertise in creative, innovating ways. This session addresses the Essential Questions: Under what circumstances can and should teachers be expected to use creativity in their planning? What are the least restrictive yet sensible guidelines for teacher creativity to be effective? How can both teachers and administrators determine when creativity in planning is appropriate and necessary? MOTIVATING RELUCTANT ADOLESCENT READERSThe current emphasis on reading proficiency is prompting teachers in the six through twelve grade levels to re-think their job descriptions. We are all indeed reading as well as writing teachers even before we are given our class descriptions for the year. The MAP, as well all other standardized tests, is primarily a reading test at every level. We all know that to have students perform with more accuracy and understanding, their reading skills need to improve.One goal for this workshop is to try out and then fill the pockets and notebooks of participants with the latest in effective strategies generated today by researchers across the country. Through a fully hands-on approach, Mary Kim will immerse each participant in activities and structures which will help them to deal with the complexities of reading as a developmental process at the secondary level. We will cover topics such as motivating reluctant readers, finding diverse and interesting material, dealing with hard to read textbooks, tailoring assignments to individual needs and reading levels, working with vocabulary and poetry, connecting to student lives, structuring the class for conversation over material, and much more.PICTURE BOOKS IN THE SECONDARY CLASSROOMIn this workshop Mary Kim will demonstrate how books primarily written for younger children can provide delightful structures and writing prompts for older students. This workshop will give you ideas on how to wider the repertoire of materials and strategies beyond the basic text book that will serve to stimulate quality writing. We will match picture books to the 6 traits principles of writing as well.
CV
Mary Kim SchreckEducational Consultant EXPERIENCE Instructor for the MISSOURI LITERACY ACADEMIES facilitated by the Missouri Writing Projects Network in partnership with the Missouri Regional Professional Development CentersTeach for America Team Facilitator and Workshop PresenterGateway Writing Project Trainer-Mehlville School District (2004-2007)Literacy Consultant for Trice Educational Resources, Sweet Land, Texas (2002- present), (literacy coach at Vashon H.S. St. Louis two years, Van Horn H.S. Kansas City three years)Trainer for Missouri National Education Association Initiatives: Beginning Teacher Training, Priority Schools Initiative, Praxis II preparation, I Can Do It classroom management coursesLanguage Arts Teacher/Dept. Chair: Francis Howell North HS (1979-2001); Browns Business School (1976-1978); Special School District (1971-1975); Holman Junior High, Pattonville School District (1971-1973); McCluer HS (1969-1971); Cardinal Stritch HS grades7-12, Iowa, ((1968-1969); Notre Dame Academy, Quincy, IL (1966-1968) EDUCATION Specialized Training of Trainers: Priority Schools Initiative, Scholastic Red, Reading 180,Step Up to Writing, Praxis I,II Student Assistance, Beginning Teachers Assistance California Program-I Can Do It for Classroom Management, Ruby Payne on PovertyGateway Writing Project Institute Degree Hours: Truman University and UMSL 58 hours post Masters degree, Lindenwood College/UMSL Masters in English Education, Notre Dame College (English major, Speech, Drama, Theology minors) West Palm Beach Poetry Festival: weeks work with poet, Mark Doty PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES Editor of MISSOURI TEACHERS WRITE, literary magazine for the Missouri Association of the Teachers of English (2005-present)MAP Consultant: Kansas City School District (2005-2006), trainer for summer MAP workshops Columbia, Stockton, Moberly, St. Charles (2003) Member of the MAP Communication Arts Item Content Team, 2000Featured Speaker: IRA State Conference, 2006; Write To Learn Conference, 2007, 2008Workshop Writer/Presenter for Certification Training for Para-Pro, Praxis II at every Missouri university and college (2002-present); Beginning Teacher Certification (2000-present)Member of the MAP Communication Arts Item Content Team, 2000; Maryland state, 2005Conference Presenter for the following organizations: NSDC Conferences Missouri Council of School Administrators Reading Academy Missouri Division of Youth Services Programs Kansas City ASCD Conference DESEs Write to Learn Conferences NCTE National Conventions National Reading Association Conferences, and State Conventions Show-Me Professional Development Conferences MNEA and MSTA State Conventions Principals Academy Missouri Writers Guild Local OrganizationsKeynotes: Tennessee State Convention of Teachers, 2007; Oklahoma Regional Convention of Women Educators DKG, 2007; Kaysinger Rural Teachers Association, 2008; Missouri Delta Kappa Gamma Conference, 2008; Write To Learn Conference, 2008Cadre Member of the Cooperating School Districts (CSD), Missouri Humanities ConsortiumWriter for the State sponsored Show-Me Performance Task Writing Project with Grant Wiggins PUBLISHED WORKS/ARTICLES Pulse of the Seasons (2004) (2005) and The Red Desk (2005), Crystal Doorknobs (2006) Body Language (2007)books of poetry published by TigressPress, Columbia, Missouri. Articles for THE MISSOURI ENGLISH BULLETIN (2001,2004); for THE ENGLISH JOURNAL (1998-2001) five articles; NCTEs NOTES PLUS (1994-2003) four articles; MISSOURI READER (1999) feature article, section in Bonnie Daviss How to Coach Teachers Who Dont Think Like You (2007)Poetry in MISSOURI TEACHERS WRITE, WELL-VERSED, MISSOURI CONSERVATIONIST, other poetry magazines AWARDS AND RECOGNITION Recipient of the HOWELL OF FAME AWARD, 1999Recipient of the 1998 Celebrate Literacy Aware from the IRA Council, MissouriNational Finalist and Missouri State Winner in the NEA/KODAK Cameras in the ClassroomTwo First Place Ribbons for the Missouri Great Rivers Project Curriculum DevelopmentOutstanding Secondary Educator, Pattonville School DistrictTeacher of the Year, Francis Howell NorthMissouri Certificate of Commendation from the Missouri Council of Teachers of EnglishMost Influential Teacher awarded by University of Missouri, Columbia
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