Professional Development
The Indiana Writing Project offers professional development opportunities for both teachers and administrators, as well as for teacher consultants. View our opportunities below.
"Teachers teaching teachers."
This is a core principle of the National Writing Project. Teachers who are well informed and effective in their practice can be successful teachers of other teachers as well as partners in educational research, development, and implementation. Collectively, teacher-leaders are our greatest resource for educational reform.
Learn more below about the teacher-leaders (we call them "Teacher Consultants") who facilitate professional development for the Indiana Writing Project.
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Susanna L. Benko, Ph.D.
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Assistant Professor of English at Ball State University.
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Supervises university student teachers.
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Teaches ELA methods and young adult literature courses.
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Taught middle and high school English in Indiana and Pennsylvania.
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Earned PhD in Language, Literacy, and Culture at the University of Pittsburgh.
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Researches teacher education, writing instruction and task/curriculum design.
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Reviews and facilitates professional development in Common Core State Standards.
Carie King
Carie is currently a Visiting Instructor of English at Taylor University in Upland, Indiana. Though she is in her ninth year teaching at the college level (Taylor and Ivy Tech), she spent several years prior as a High School teacher in Georgia and Minnesota.
Carie earned her BA and M.Ed. both in English at the University of Georgia. She is currently working on her Ph.D. in Composition and Rhetoric at Ball State University.
Jeri Tarvin
Jeri started her teaching career 13 years ago. She attended Anderson University after her children began 1st grade. Once she achieved her undergrad in elementary education, she began her teaching career at Liberty Christian Elementary in Anderson, teaching 6th grade. She spent the next 5 years earning her Masters in general education, also from Anderson University, as well as teaching 5th and 6th grade.
After her oldest son graduated high school, she decided to take the secondary plunge, and applied for an English Language Arts position in the secondary building at Liberty. While teaching reading came as second nature to Jeri, teaching writing was a challenge. Her journey as an ELA teacher took many twists and turns. In 2010, she attended Indiana Writing Projects Summer Institute (ISI). After ISI, Jeri marched back into her classroom and implemented writing workshop into her daily routine. A year later, she implemented reading workshop from the gentle urgings of Nancie Atwell’s book, In the Middle.
Because of Jeri’s involvement with Indiana Writing Project, she has journeyed to Washington DC and Chicago for conferences, she has watched countless students return to their love of reading and writing roots, and she has grown exponentially as a teacher leader in her school and community.
Tammy Taylor
Tammy is an Assistant Professor of Education at Indiana Tech. Recently stepping out of the elementary classroom to prepare pre-service teachers, Tammy has been teaching, coaching in classrooms, and facilitating professional development for the past twenty years.
The Indiana Writing Project initiated Tammy’s literacy quest, prompting her to learn from Donald Graves, Lucy Calkins, Ralph Fletcher, Mem Fox, and Katie Wood Ray. As Co-Director of the Summer Institute at the Indiana Writing Project, she assists teachers, PK-16, as they improve classroom instruction through their own inquiry. Tammy also provides professional development to schools through IWP.
As a coach, presenter, and teacher leader with All Write!!!, Tammy has had the opportunity to participate in ongoing study groups facilitated first by JoAnn Portalupi and later by Carl Anderson. It is through these authors and other experts in the field that she has based her work with students and teachers in NE Indiana.
Focusing on the professional development model of teachers teaching teachers, Tammy is committed to helping teachers improve classroom instruction through mentoring, reflection, and classroom observations.
"Real life isn’t scripted. Neither is real teaching."
-Debbie Miller, Teaching with Intention
Lindsey Thompson
​Lindsey spent 10 years teaching English and social studies in Minnesota and Indiana and has recently left the classroom to serve as the Professional Development Coordinator at Delaware Community Schools where she works with teachers to effectively integrate technology into their classes.
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Lindsey earned her bachelor's degree from Minnesota State University, Mankato, in English and Speech Communication Education. She earned her master's degree in PreK-12 Reading from University of Nebraska, Kearney, where she focused on content-area literacy and struggling adolescent readers.
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She attended the Indiana Writing Project Invitational Summer Institute in the summer of 2014, and she currently serves as the Co-Director of Technology and is a member of the Professional Development and Continuity Committees.
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You can reach Lindsey at lindseythompson83@gmail.com.
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