This is time for celebration. I’m so excited about the kickoff of the new webpage. Now that everything is in one place, there is no excuse not to stay involved.
Our first endeavor, the ELL book study, didn’t turn out to be very successful, but we aren’t going to give up. So, to get everyone used to going to the BLOG, let’s have an entry where everyone introduces themselves. I’ll leave the first comment as an example.
Hello, my name is Karin Perry and I’m the librarian at Whittier Middle School. I went through the Oklahoma Writing Project in 2002 and loved it. I’ve been involved in some capacity ever since. I served as a mentor for 2 years and Co-Director of the Summer Institute for 3 years. Now, I’m the Co-Director of Continuity. It is my job to give everyone a chance to keep in touch and stay involved.
I live in the country on 40 acres with 30 goats, a donkey, a mini-mule, a mini-horse, a dog, and a cat. Oh, I live with a husband too. We’ve been married for 14 years. I plan to finish my PhD in May 2010. It will be in English Education. I’m currently writing my dissertation. In my spare time I watch movies/TV, work on the computer, and read. My passion is young adult literature. I’ve maintained a book review blog for over two years and have built up quite a following. I love it! You can visit my at http://karinlibrarian.wordpress.com.
I’m Janis Cramer, newly retired co-director of OWP. I taught high school English and creative writing for 30 years, at Muskogee High School for 18 years and Mustang High School for 12. I figure I taught at least 4000 students in all those years. I was also Student Council sponsor at both schools for a total of 12 years. I went through the summer institute in 1987 when Gail Tompkins was the director. After I retired, I took on the OWP in-service job. Now that I don’t have to work every time I sit down at the computer, I’m planning to write my memoirs. Fortunately I don’t have to start from scratch but have plenty of creative non-fiction stories to begin with. You’ve heard or read many of them.
I live in Bethany with my husband Jerry. I have two sons of my own and two granddaughters. Others highlights of my life are spending ten minutes alone with Bob Dylan in 1989, winning the Medal for Excellence in Teaching from the Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence in 1994, climbing a mountain in Rwanda to see gorillas in 2001, and beating breast cancer in 2009.
Hi, everyone. I’m Leah Esker, OWP Class of 2000. This is my sixth year of teaching, and I’ve taught grades 7-12 in 4 different schools in Oklahoma. Currently, I’m at Whittier Middle School in Norman, teaching 8th grade English, where Karin Perry and I have just started a creative writing club!
From late 2001 to 2007, I was out of the OWP loop. We lived in California from 2002-2005, and I stayed at home with my two boys, Aidan and Evan, for 7 years. During that time, I read more books than I ever had before, as it was the first time in my life that I didn’t have reading assigned to me. I got involved in La Leche League and Attachment Parenting International, and I helped establish an active local online group of about 50 moms. Despite all of this, I had a love/hate relationship with my at-home-mom status, so I felt sort of lucky that economic necessity drove me back into teaching in 2008, a few years before I had planned.
I live on Boyd St. in Norman, just outside of football parking range, in a 1926 yellow house with one bathroom. My husband, Matt, was an Air Force pilot for years, then a commercial pilot for one year. This past April, he was furloughed and decided to see what this teaching business is all about. He’s alternatively certified in math and is currently suffering/enjoying his first year at an alternative school in Mid-Del. My son, Aidan, is 7 and a second grader at Lincoln Elementary. Evan is 3, and Gingerbread Preschool on Villa St. is his second home these days.
During my free time, I love to listen to music, attend indie rock shows, travel, go camping & geocaching with the family, and put off working on my old house. Guilty pleasures include Jon & Kate Plus 8 hater blogs, Real Housewives series on Bravo, Apartmenttherapy.com, and poking around thrift stores.