A literacy expert and president of Faber Consulting, Dr. Faber is a contract consultant for Modern Red SchoolHouse and Literacy First, two national organizations that focus on effective strategies to help schools and students succeed. She holds degrees from the Universities of Virginia, Texas, and Midwestern State and has teaching experience at all levels—kindergarten through college—including graduate and undergraduate level instruction at Belmont Abbey College and University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Additionally, she has held numerous leadership positions, serving as assistant principal, principal, and central office administrator at schools in Virginia and North Carolina.

Dr. Faber is in constant demand as a presenter and keynote speaker on national, state, and local levels. She routinely addresses audiences at more than half of the state middle school associations in our country as well as the National Middle School Association’s annual conference. When asked about the presentations at this year’s national conference in Atlanta, GA, she replied, “There were two sessions. One focused on discipline with the brain in mind. I tried to incorporate what we know from the past 30 years. The other session was a joint presentation called ‘50 Things That Every Middle School Teacher, Parent, Student, and Administrator Ought to Know’ that included two of my colleagues - a principal from Virginia and a retired science teacher. We have been doing this together for over fifteen years.” She will present at the MRSH National Educators’ Conference in Orlando and has been invited to speak at the Middle Level Conference in Canada - both in February of this year.

The National Middle School Conference, held in November, 2003, was the venue chosen for the release of Dr. Faber’s newest publication, a book entitled How to Teach Reading When You’re Not a Reading Teacher, available through Incentive Publications in Nashville, TN. This work is the natural product of her expertise in literacy, experience in the classroom, and heart for students. Good writing should be clear, concise, and correct, and her book is certainly all three - with the additional advantage of being interesting. It contains research-based strategies that are practical and effective for helping students read and understand necessary content in any subject area. She shares her impetus for this project in the book’s introduction: “If teachers truly believe that they make a difference—and I do—then teaching our students reading skills and strategies must become an important part of teaching them in every subject. This book is my way of sharing ideas that I have collected on how middle school teachers can accomplish this awesome task.” From her “three reading groups theory” of identifying reading abilities in young adolescents to sample lessons that model the teaching of comprehension strategies to students, this book does more than hold the reader’s interest; it offers help for anyone who teaches middle-schoolers. Sharon is also the author of numerous articles and monographs, including Middle School: Living in the Fast Lane, published in 2001 for the Georgia Middle School Association.

Sharon lives north of Atlanta in Cumming, GA, with her husband, Conrad, and the love of her life, her ten year old German Shepherd, Jordan - “named for Michael, of course.” She adores her children, enjoys golf, and loves to work in the yard, although it is difficult to imagine how she finds time to do so. And don’t let her impressive professional credentials intimidate you. After a conversation with Sharon, you find that you not only like her - but you also like yourself a little better. Sharon Faber embraces life, and her competence, enthusiasm, and sense of humor shine even brighter than that previously mentioned spotlight.

January 2004