Middle School Education

Dr. Lawton came to early childhood education/child psychology through her commitment to equity and social justice. She believes that a safe, accepting learning environment enables risk-taking, growth and learning. Dr. Lawton views students as co-constructors of knowledge and draws on their wisdom and prior learning experiences in order to “lead out,” from the Latin definition for education “educare”. She think it is important for prospective teachers and those in the helping professions to reflect on their own familial, cultural, and educational experience in order to become mindful, reflective educators, and healers.

She has a B.S. from Colby College, M.S. from Wheelock College, CAGS from University of Vermont, and Ed.D. from University of Massachusetts, Amherst. 

"The creative impulse, like love, can be killed, but it cannot be taught. What a teacher or librarian or parent can do, in working with children, is to give the flame enough oxygen so that it can burn. As far as I'm concerned, this providing of oxygen is one of the noblest of all vocations." - Madeleine L'Engle, A Circle of Quiet

Mary Ann is a Professor of Language and Literacy in the Graduate School of Education at Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Prior to that, she served as a curriculum facilitator for English Language Arts and Social Studies at the middle level, and taught English Language Arts and Humanities at the middle and high school level in New York and New Hampshire.

At Lesley, she teaches courses in children's and young adult literature and literacy methods, including a specialized course in nonfiction for children and young adults, mentors the content literacy and children’s literature courses, and advises doctoral students. Previously, she served as program director of the Collaborative Internship Program, a residency-based teacher preparation program in its fifth decade. Along with Erika, she is the co-author of Teaching with Text Sets (Shell, 2012) and Teaching to Complexity: A Framework for Evaluating Literary and Content-Area Texts (Shell, 2014) and a forthcoming book with Stenhouse Publishers in 2019.

She has been a guest on public radio and a consultant to public television, and her work has appeared in English Journal, Language Arts, The Dragon Lode, School Library Journal, and School Library Connection. She blogs about children's and young adult literature currently at "The Classroom Bookshelf," a School Library Journal blog and formerly at “The Uncommon Corps.” She also reviews children's and middle grade books for Language Arts.

From 2015-2018,Mary Ann was a member of the National Council of Teachers of English's Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction (K-8) Committee, serving two years as chair.

Mary Ann was also a consultant on the new PBS kids' show "Molly of Denali." Read more about her participation.

Brooke Eisenbach's areas of academic focus and expertise are English Education, Middle Level Education, Virtual Education, Relational Care in the Classroom, Teacher Empowerment, and Arts-based Qualitative Research. 

She has a Ph.D. in English Education: Curriculum and Instruction from the University of South Florida, M.Ed. in Reading Education from the University of South Florida, and B.A. in English Education from the University of South Florida. 

Janet Sauer draws on her own experiences teaching young children, adolescents, and adults in multiple contexts to prepare educators for inclusive education. Her scholarship is based in the interdisciplinary field of Disability Studies and focuses on family engagement. She believes advocacy for the inclusion of students with disabilities in community and educational contexts is a social justice issue and is necessary for a healthy democracy. 

Dr. Sauer has a B.A. from Emerson College, M.Ed. from Ohio University, and Ed.D. from the University of Northern Iowa.

Valerie Harlow Shinas is a literacy faculty member and chair of the Language and Literacy, Reading, and TESOL department.

I joined the faculty in the Graduate School of Education in 2012 after more than a decade working with middle school students and teachers. In many ways, I still consider myself a middle school teacher – I care deeply about how we engage and motivate young adolescents to become lifelong learners. 

As a teacher educator, I use my teaching experiences to make visible the connections between theory and practice for my students.  Much of my work at Lesley University has centered on preparing teachers and teacher candidates to develop and deliver effective literacy and disciplinary literacy instruction.  With expertise in the areas of technology-integrated literacy instruction and the TPACK theoretical framework, my research interests include integration of digital tools to support literacy and learning in K-12 classrooms.  In addition, recent scholarly work has focused on teacher development and assessment of teacher practice.

Education: BA, Anna Maria College; M.Ed., University of Massachusetts-Lowell; PhD, University of Delaware.

As an associate professor of education and core faculty in the Middle and High School programs in the Graduate School of Education, I help prepare the next generation of secondary school teachers to engage their students in learning, finding more effective alternatives to traditional lecture-based, skill-and-drill pedagogy.

I have taught high school humanities for 17 years, and have had the privilege to work in suburban, urban, and international teaching and learning environments. My dissertation, A study of the effects of peace education on academic achievement in an urban middle school, exemplifies my research focus: looking at ways in which student-centered, interdisciplinary, project based learning can aid both student learning and student socio-emotional well-being.

I am coordinator for the G.L.O.B.E. (Global Learning Opportunities in Boston Area Education) consortium. We are currently running an interdisciplinary after school course in Green Technology - check out our promotional video here:

Comparative international education, and international school exchange in particular, are other passions of mine. You can follow some of my work with schools in Japan and in Turkmenistan.

I consult for Boston area middle and high schools - please contact me if you are interested in how I can help work with your school or district to meet your goals.

Education: BA, Brandeis University; MA, Tufts University; PhD, Lesley University

Amy Gooden is passionate about the intersection of language, culture, and education. She has investigated cultural pluralism in a Bribri indigenous and Jamaican descendent community in Costa Rica. She has also directed and conducted international English as a foreign language teacher training programs for K-12 teachers in China. 

Her area of work at Lesley is TESOL and Bilingual Education. 

She has an Ed.D. from Boston University School of Education, Ed.M. from Harvard University Graduate School of Education, and B.A. from Emerson College.