Walking Trees: Portraits of Teachers and Children in the Culture of Schools

Walking Trees is the dramatic story of how Ralph Fletcher survived the wrenching highs and lows of a year teaching public school teachers how to teach writing to their students. The characters - principals, teachers, and students - are unforgettable. So are their stories. The enormous difficulties facing these public schools are juxtaposed with events in the greater world in a rich narrative that reads like a novel.

RALPH FLETCHER is a nationally known educational consultant and speaker. He is the author of What A Writer Needs, Walking Trees: Teaching Teachers in the New York City Schools, and Breathing In, Breathing Out: Keeping a Writer's Notebook, all from Heinemann. His short stories and articles have appeared in Redbook, People, Cosmopolitan, and the Wall Street Journal, and he has published his third book of poetry, I Am Wings (Bradbury Press, 1994). He has worked with teachers and children across the United States, in Europe, and in the Middle East. He spent three years as a senior member of the Teachers College Writing Project in New York City involved with staff development. Ralph's talks are humorous, anecdotal, and practical. His work with teachers has its roots in his classroom experience as well as his own writing. He has the utmost respect for the difficult, important job teachers have in helping students find their voices for the writing that will shape thei