Dawn Harris is a passionate and energetic educator who lives by the motto, “Relationships First.” Her enthusiasm for creating connections is infectious and she thrives on the opportunity to learn about the things that motivate and inspire teachers and students alike. In her roles as a secondary English Language Arts Educator, Gifted and Talented Teacher, and Associate Professor of Teacher Education, Dawn continually strives to bring authentic and engaging learning experiences to students of all ages.
Throughout her career as an educator, Dawn has taught in urban, rural, and suburban districts meeting the needs of children from a wide range of backgrounds and cultures. In addition to general ELA coursework, Dawn’s classroom teaching experience also includes teaching English as a second language, creative writing, film studies, and response to intervention instruction. Dawn’s professional teaching experiences have been showcased in scholarly journals and at local, regional, national, and international conferences.
Prior to becoming an educator, Dawn spent more than 10 years in marketing and publishing in the private sector. This experience has given Dawn insight into the skills and knowledge students need in order to be prepared to enter into a competitive, global workforce or into college once they leave high school. This insight helps to support Dawn’s work in developing veteran, novice, and pre-service teachers as they seek to educate students for tomorrow’s work today.
As a licensed Curriculum, Instruction, and Professional Development Specialist, Dawn’s primary goal in all things is to support educators with planning learning that ignites curiosity and that engages and inspires students in a way that impacts their growth and achievement every single day.
Dawn’s first book, Plan Like a Pirate, was released in 2021.
Trenches story: isn’t currently going through one, but coming out of COVID was. Managing students’ learning styles. Differentiation post-COVID is different than pre-
COVID. Calls for us to lead students to prepare for post-secondary skills.
Talk about transition from marketing sector to education. She worked for the yellow pages. Needed multiple skillsets, strategic job. Led & taught ppl in that position. 2008-9 with economic fallout, company disbanded. Was inspired by a friend who went into education. Teaching HS kids is a bit more challenging. Marketing experience, does it help you when getting your book out there? Authenticity is key.
Current role-still teaching ELA? Right now, she teaches film analysis, also teaches G/T, year 11 (ACT Prep), grade 10- rough year. Kids have big tests in OH. Focus on critical thinking, taking new knowledge & making it more transferable. What is our obligation to share it with others? How do we help kids craft messaging. Using The Crucible to focus on current events. They need to find out who they are as creators. What are they passionate about?
Talk about book Plan Like a Pirate, what are important take-aways you tell ppl in breakout sessions? She talks about becoming the teacher she is today. It’s a manifesto of sorts. She’d lost interest in education ½ way thru E.S. Wonderful teacher her junior year who changed her trajectory. Talks about crafting a good learning experience for students. How are we covering academic & content-related vocab in our learning? Anti-racist teaching & learning. Helping students understand structures in place. How do we manage the eval process? Manuscript- had written 60-80 pgs. just so happened to be in a Twitter chat. Said she’d written this. Shelly Burgess asked about it. Not difficult to write. Enjoyed the editing process.
Teach Better ‘22? (**editor’s note: we mention Teach Better ‘23, at the time of recording the conferences was planned for October ‘23 in Akron, OH. It has since been canceled. **) Where will you be speaking in the summer? She gets work through Burgess and schools who come to her for consultations. Is working w/ a local counseling firm. Charles Williams & her work with Waterloo district in ON. She does book study groups for Plan Like a Pirate. Just attending ISTE, not presenting. Just to hang out. She does a lot of local stuff in Oh, Pennsy. OH teacher leadership summit. Does G/T prep for her district.
Out of everything: Don’t be afraid to be creative how you invite students into learning. Go beyond that. Ask them what they need. Click To TweetWe don’t have to make all the decisions as educators. Develop kind of CR Culture where they know what it means to learn. Internalize, obtain, transfer.
Where can ppl find you online? Twitter @dharriseds Lead Like a Pirate Twitter chat Sat. morning 10:30. Educationundone.com she has lots of resource libraries (check email for other links). dawn@educationundone.com
View this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/kn_fErglYFk
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