Diane Snowball

Diane Snowball hails from Australia and travels a lot between her home and New York. In her long career, she's been a teacher of mathematics and science, teacher-librarian, K–6 classroom teacher, assistant principal, and literacy consultant, among many other positions.

She has been a literacy consultant throughout the United States and Canada for the past fifteen years and cofounded Australian United States Services in Education (A.U.S.S.I.E.), a company of approximately 300 literacy and mathematics consultants providing professional development for K–12 administrators, teachers, and parents.

She became a teacher because she was encouraged by her teachers in high school to do so. "We make a difference in children's lives, especially the neediest. It's a profession in which we always have much more to learn about, and the educational community is keen to learn collaboratively and to share ideas."

Diane describes herself as an avid learner who is very practical. "I enjoy learning about theory and understanding the implications for practice. When providing professional development for others, I prefer to give demonstrations of effective teaching and to combine this with explanations and discussion before and after teaching."

As an author, Diane does the bulk of the planning and thinking about ideas before she begins to write. "I may make some notes as ideas come to mind, mostly to remind myself about what I want included, but I've never kept a writer's notebook. Once I have decided what to write, I like to finish quickly and I like feedback for revision."