Tara Krueger




Growing up with parents who were educators coupled with a passion for working with children, Tara Krueger always knew she wanted to be a teacher. Her teaching journey began at the University of Minnesota where she received a master of education degree. She began her teaching career as a Title I reading and math interventionist at a K–8 school in Milwaukee. Working with mostly English language learners, Tara was able to utilize her Spanish skills to support student learning and continue to develop her passion for education. With a strong desire to be a classroom teacher, Tara continued her career as a multiage first- and second-grade teacher in Muskego-Norway School district. That position led her to work closely with wonderful team behind Engaging Literate Minds who enabled her to truly envision new possibilities for teaching and learning. 

After several years in Muskego, Tara and her family decided to move across the country to Colorado. Tara currently serves a diverse student population as a reading teacher in the city of Denver. She leads the reading intervention program at her school as well as early literacy professional development for staff. Tara, her husband, and young daughter love to take advantage of everything “Colorful Colorado” has to offer including hiking in the mountains, camping, and exploring the state. She visits her family as well as friends and former colleagues in Wisconsin often and will always consider it home.

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Engaging Literate Minds
Engaging Literate Minds
Peter Johnston, Kathy Champeau, Andrea Hartwig, and Sarah Helmer
Paperback
$50.00 $37.50 Save $12.50
Peter Johnston, Kathy Champeau, Andrea Hartwig, and Sarah Helmer:::100050

Engaging Literate Minds

9781625311627

$50.00 $37.50 Save $12.50
Increasingly, educators are recognizing that for children to thrive intellectually they need socially and emotionally healthy classrooms. Conveniently, this is exactly what parents have always wanted for their children—classrooms that offer and grow positive relationships and behavior, emotional self-regulation, and a sense of well-being.

Using the guiding principles from Peter Johnston’s best-selling professional resources, Choice Words and Opening Minds, Peter and six colleagues began a journey to create just such classrooms—environments in which children meaningfully engage with each other through reading, writing, making, and discussing books.

Together, they bring you Engaging Literate Minds: Developing Children's Social, Emotional, and Intellectual Lives, K-3 where you’ll discover how these teachers struggled and succeeded in building such classrooms. Inside you’ll find the following:

  • Practical ways to develop a caring learning community and children's socio-emotional competence
  • Powerful teaching practices from real classrooms
  • Engaging ways to encourage inquiry and student agency
  • Suggestions on how to use formative assessment in everyday teaching practices
  • Helpful research behind the classroom practices and children’s development
  • Ways to help students inspire and support each other

Building a just, caring, literate society has never been more important than it is today. By embracing the ideas and teaching strategies in Engaging Literate Minds, you can help children to become socially, emotionally, and intellectually healthy. Not only do these classroom practices develop the skills to achieve district benchmarks and beyond, they help develop children’s humanity.

Engaging Literate Minds