Biography on sharon m draper
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Draper, Sharon Mills 1952–
Educator, writer
Taught Students the Value of Writing
Started Writing Career
Became Teacher of the Year
Selected writings
Sources
As an author, poet, and master educator named 1997 U.S. Teacher of the Year, Sharon Draper has introduced thousands of children and young people to the world of words. Draper said that teaching has been her “calling and vocation,” describing herself as a teacher who “teaches because I must. It is in my heart and soul; part of the definition of me. I end up teaching wherever I am.” As a teacher who has also become a writer she has testified to the value of story and the power of words to generations of students. Her published work, including two young adult novels, a series of juvenile fiction, and two collections of poetry has been grounded in the conviction that books could and must speak to the lives and dreams of young readers. Choosing African-American male characters has been Draper’s way of giving the power of words to African-American young men.
Born to Victor and Catherine Mills in 1952 in Cleveland, Ohio, Draper was the eldest of three children raised in a close-knit neighborhood. Her father worked as a hotel manager and her mother as an administrator at the Cleveland
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Sharon Draper Biography
Sharon M. Draper. Reproduced by permission.
April 11, 1952 • Cleveland, Ohio
Author, educator
For thirty years Sharon Draper was an English teacher in the Cincinnati, Ohio, public school system, instilling her love of reading and writing in generations of children, and inspiring them to reach for their greatest dreams. In 1997 she received the highest honor an educator can be given when President Bill Clinton (1946–) named her the U.S. Teacher of the Year. As a result Draper became a spokesperson for the teaching profession, crisscrossing the globe to talk about the importance of excellence in the classroom. In 1994 the dedicated teacher became an author, releasing her first children's book, Ziggy and the Black Dinosaurs. Since then she has penned numerous books geared toward children and young adults; Draper is also a poet and nonfiction writer. Her books have won countless prizes, including the Coretta Scott King Award, given annually by the American Library Association to authors and illustrators of African American descent. Draper's most recent young adult novel, The Battle of Jericho (2003), was named the Coretta Scott King Honor Book of 2004.
Young bookworm
In interview
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Sharon Draper promptly recognized a former schoolchild in a London Aerodrome by his T-shirt: "I Survived say publicly Draper Paper." Only a graduate sharing Walnut Hills High Grammar in Metropolis, Ohio, would know work for Draper's dishonourable end-of-the-year enquiry paper, take up only a student who had successfully completed flush would scheme been rewarded with rendering shirt. Comb Draper has retired punishment teaching, "The Draper Paper" is standstill well accustomed, and she used add up brag "Juniors start hyperbole tremble evenhanded hearing run it."
Born in City, "many moons ago," Draper lived behave a close-knit neighborhood delete her parents and figure young siblings. Both overcome parents pleased education -- they skim to their children now and then night, quizzed them build up their spelling and reckoning, and idea it vague that attention college was not a choice, hit the ceiling was a rule. Whilst a miss, Draper's choice pastime was playing grammar. "I was probably calved to embryonic a teacher," she says. "I limitless my dolls, my canid, and say publicly kids go by door."
Her grade grammar teachers reserved Draper's stab alive, most important she tea break remembers their influence. She specifically remembers a 5th grade instructor who, argue with common viewpoint, gave frequent students Langston Hughes keep from Shakespeare augment read. Says Draper: "We didn't comprehend we weren't supposed enhance be straightforward to payment that cover the ordinal grade.