Tim Gillespie
Tim Gillespie is a 37-year public school teaching veteran. A winner of a National High School English Teacher of Excellent Award from NCTE, he has written regularly about his classroom experiences over the years.
Tim says he loves teaching because of all the things he gets to learn while teaching. "Teaching gives me a shot at living a seamless life, linking my enthusiasm for reading with the opportunity to get my students enthused about reading; binding my efforts to help students master the writing craft with my efforts to master the writing craft. … I love teaching because it’s consequential; it means something. The stakes are high. When it is successful and when it is unsuccessful, teaching changes lives.”
Tim earned his bachelor’s degree in English from Stanford University and his master’s degree in teaching from Lewis & Clark University. He also holds a master’s degree in English from the University of New Hampshire.
He began his teaching career as an aide in an inner-city elementary school, teaching writing in grades 1-5. "That experience cemented my decision to get my certificate and make teaching my profession,” Tim says. Over the years he has team-taught a first-grade writing class, a fifth-grade writing class, eighth-grade language arts/social studies block, as well as middle school. He also served as K-12 district writing coordinator for the Parkrose School District in Portland, OR, and later he worked as the K-12 language arts specialist for the Multnomah Education Service District. He taught reading, journalism, served as adviser for the school newspaper and multicultural club, taught summer school for 18-and 19-year-olds who failed their senior English classes.
Tim also regularly taught evening classes for teachers as adjunct faculty member in the Graduate School of Professional Education at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, OR. For several summers he was the co-director of the Oregon Writing Project.
"But mostly, I have welcomed class after class after class of regular high school English students, the tuned in and the tuned out, the enthusiasts and the strugglers, all mashed together and all hoping to learn to read more ably, write more eloquently, and think more deeply.”
During his teaching life, Tim was active with the Oregon County of Teachers of English. He still serves on the editorial board of the group’s journal, Oregon English. He is one of the three co-founders of the Oregon State Writing Festival that attracts almost a thousand young writers from around Oregon every year to participate in a day of workshops and readings. Tim has published over 50 articles in publications ranging from English Journal to Language Arts, the National Writing Project’s Quarterly and Oregon English. "Writing and sharing in this way has been central to my growth as a teacher,” he says.
Tim is an avid walker, hiker, and traveler. He is also a bookworm, who’s been known to merge reading and walking. "I do not recommend this practice.” As a long-time harmonica player, he is now a member of a professional blues rock band.
