Who We Are
Mary Knight is a frequent presenter and writing workshop facilitator at schools and conferences around the country. Her novel, Saving Wonder (Scholastic) was the winner of the 2017 Green Earth Book Award for Children’s Fiction, a Parents’ Choice award, and was selected as a Notable Book for Social Studies by the Children’s Book Council. With an M.F.A. in Writing from Spalding University, she is also a writing mentor at the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning in Lexington, Kentucky.
Christie McLean Kesler is a literacy specialist, professional developer, teacher, and writer in the Pacific Northwest. She supports teachers in expanding and deepening their instructional practice through facilitating in-service, presenting, and coaching. As a Senior Instructor at Western Washington University, she has been teaching and mentoring pre-service teachers for over two decades. Her love for teaching and learning began in the elementary classroom.
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​CoreEmpathy bloomed from the seed idea that a focus on academic standards alone is not enough for the kind of inspired learning experience we know is possible in the literacy classroom.
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There is something else that needs to be at the core of the learning. And that something else, we discovered, is empathy.
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As empathy is cultivated, literacy skills soar, simultaneously.