Kelly Gallagher

Kelly, a "baseballoholic" and a self-described expert at negotiating airports, is also a teacher with twenty-four years of high school teaching experience behind him.

He is currently a full-time teacher at Magnolia High School in Anaheim, California. Kelly is also a president-elect of the IRA Secondary Reading Group.

He believes that "there is no greater pleasure than teaching someone something." Teaching is "artistic, it matters a great deal, and I can never get the job down perfectly."

Kelly thinks that professional development should treat teachers as such - professionals. "I know in the classroom that good things happen when my students have meaningful discussions. I know as a teacher myself that my craft sharpens when I am given the opportunity to have meaningful discussions with my peers. And let's have a laugh or two while we are at it."

Writing his four books for Stenhouse was a solitary experience. "Though I have written outlines prior to each of my books, I have yet to follow any of them step-by-step. That is why I find writing rewarding - because the act of writing itself generates new thinking, and new thinking is always exciting."