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Andy Schoenborn
Learner. Teacher. Facilitator. Writer. Speaker. Award-Winning Author National Writing Project Leader & Teacher Consultant Michigan Reading Association Past President 2x Michigan Council of Teachers of English Past President [email protected] FB: andy.schoenborn |
Andy's main objective is to teach and facilitate literacy by using progressive methods that focus on student-centered critical thinking, digital collaboration, and multimedia means. His teaching experience is vast and varied. Earning a Bachelor's degree from Central Michigan University with majors in English and Social Studies and a minor in History, he began his teaching career by accepting a long-term substitute teacher position in a resource room for students with learning disabilities. It didn't take too long for him to realize that he loved teaching and learning with whoever entered his classroom.
Within a few months of working as a long-term substitute teacher, he was contacted by Anchor Bay School District's Department of Human Resources and offered two full-time positions as an English teacher or Special Education teacher. Viewing this opportunity to work with students who traditionally struggle as a wonderful learning experience, he opted for the full-time Special Education position It was during this time that he earned a Master's degree in Learning and Behavior Disorders as a way to support his most needy students.
Anchor Bay High School's administrators were impressed with his work and asked if he'd be interested in expanding his sphere of influence by working as a General and Special educator. He accepted, understanding the importance of inclusion when working with all students regardless of their ability. It was from that point on that his teaching career balanced between both the General and Special education departments.
His belief that others can be successful when they are given opportunities and take charge of their education is evident by the learning opportunities that came his way. While employed with Anchor Bay School District, he also worked for the alternative education program, Compass Pointe Learning Center. It was there that Andy taught summer school and night school, each in three-hour blocks, across multiple disciplines in addition to teaching full-time at the high school.
Eventually, his desire to return to his roots culminated in his acceptance of a full-time teaching position at Mount Pleasant Public Schools, where he was again charged with educating General and Special education populations. Within the first four years of this position, he taught thirty-three different courses, which stands as a testament to his resiliency, persistence, and drive. Understanding that every challenge is an invitation to learning, he discovered that this challenge helped him to grow immensely as a professional educator.
In 2011, Mid Michigan Community College offered him an English adjunct faculty position to teach Freshman Composition during the Fall semester, and he accepted, considering it a great opportunity to see how students learn in the post-secondary environment. Concurrently, he taught AP Literature and Composition, English Language Arts 12, and a Science Fiction elective at Mount Pleasant High School. While at Mt. Pleasant High School, students engaged in This I Believe digital storytelling, personal inquiry culminating in Pecha Kucha presentations, as well as capturing life during a Senior year interrupted by COVID-19 in The Year of Firsts and Lasts: Teenage Voices During a Global Pandemic while maintaining a focus on process-oriented, collaborative learning. His award-winning work, "Reclaiming the Arts in English Language Arts," recounting promising practices in his classroom, was published in Voices from the Middle (2016). Additionally, his 2020 co-authored work with Dr. Troy Hicks, Creating Confident Writers: For High School, College, & Life, incorporated student voices from MPHS and strategies to invite, encourage, and celebrate emerging writers.
Andy felt the call to return to the alternative education classroom in 2021 with Clare Public Schools, where he taught English Language Arts 9/10, English Language Arts 11/12, Literature, Creative Writing, and Multimedia, which incorporated an eSports team. At Clare Pioneer High School, Andy worked with students who struggled academically, socially, emotionally, and financially, helping them to see what learning, collaborating, and taking responsible risks could look like. The project-based learning he led resulted in authentic, relevant, and compelling multimodal work like The Gale of the Great Lakes: Superstorms, Superstition, and Shipwrecks, bi-annual anthologies of poetry like The Works of Life: Growth, Breakthroughs, and No Wrong Answers, and digital storytelling honoring personal experiences such as Noah's World to encourage student agency. His experiences at Clare Pioneer High School were published as "A Spark of Light in the Darkness" in the Michigan Reading Journal in 2022.
Sensing the need to reach larger student populations, Andy accepted a 2024 in-district transition to teach 7th grade Social Studies at Clare Middle School. There he learned with pre-teens using project-based learning, inquiry stances, and a culture of collaboration. With a focus on World History, he taught students about the spectrum of Thinking like a Historian, how to plan and curate personal inquiry like Cambodia's Angkor Wat with scripts, and to use digital geography tools like Google Earth and StoryMap JS to think like tour guides and gain a broader perspective of the impact of historical time periods. Students were both immersed in historical thinking and personal interests to maximize their engagement as learners and historians.
In 2024, Andy began taking courses at Central Michigan University as a doctoral candidate in educational technology. Blending his past experiences with a continued pursuit of knowledge-building, he learned the nuances of critical scholarly research. Focusing his study on the productive uses and frameworks for using artificial intelligence and generative artificial intelligence, he is seeking ways to ethically and responsibly leverage these emerging assistive technologies in ways that will promote productive friction and deep learning practices for students.
Andy's commitment as a lifelong learner and contributor to the teaching profession might be best captured by the organizations to which he belongs. As a past president for the Michigan Reading Association and a two-time past president for the Michigan Council of Teachers of English, he regularly met with educator leaders from across the state to promote literacy in Michigan. He is a National Writing Project teacher consultant and leader for the Chippewa River Writing Project and, as such, creates and facilitates professional development for teachers statewide and nationally. Working with ELA and Social Studies professors from Central Michigan University, he is routinely called on to mentor prospective teachers who seek experience either through their mid-tier program or as student teachers.
He is an avid reader both for pleasure and profession, a writer who enjoys helping others to realize their potential, and a person who continually seeks ways to improve on past practice.
Within a few months of working as a long-term substitute teacher, he was contacted by Anchor Bay School District's Department of Human Resources and offered two full-time positions as an English teacher or Special Education teacher. Viewing this opportunity to work with students who traditionally struggle as a wonderful learning experience, he opted for the full-time Special Education position It was during this time that he earned a Master's degree in Learning and Behavior Disorders as a way to support his most needy students.
Anchor Bay High School's administrators were impressed with his work and asked if he'd be interested in expanding his sphere of influence by working as a General and Special educator. He accepted, understanding the importance of inclusion when working with all students regardless of their ability. It was from that point on that his teaching career balanced between both the General and Special education departments.
His belief that others can be successful when they are given opportunities and take charge of their education is evident by the learning opportunities that came his way. While employed with Anchor Bay School District, he also worked for the alternative education program, Compass Pointe Learning Center. It was there that Andy taught summer school and night school, each in three-hour blocks, across multiple disciplines in addition to teaching full-time at the high school.
Eventually, his desire to return to his roots culminated in his acceptance of a full-time teaching position at Mount Pleasant Public Schools, where he was again charged with educating General and Special education populations. Within the first four years of this position, he taught thirty-three different courses, which stands as a testament to his resiliency, persistence, and drive. Understanding that every challenge is an invitation to learning, he discovered that this challenge helped him to grow immensely as a professional educator.
In 2011, Mid Michigan Community College offered him an English adjunct faculty position to teach Freshman Composition during the Fall semester, and he accepted, considering it a great opportunity to see how students learn in the post-secondary environment. Concurrently, he taught AP Literature and Composition, English Language Arts 12, and a Science Fiction elective at Mount Pleasant High School. While at Mt. Pleasant High School, students engaged in This I Believe digital storytelling, personal inquiry culminating in Pecha Kucha presentations, as well as capturing life during a Senior year interrupted by COVID-19 in The Year of Firsts and Lasts: Teenage Voices During a Global Pandemic while maintaining a focus on process-oriented, collaborative learning. His award-winning work, "Reclaiming the Arts in English Language Arts," recounting promising practices in his classroom, was published in Voices from the Middle (2016). Additionally, his 2020 co-authored work with Dr. Troy Hicks, Creating Confident Writers: For High School, College, & Life, incorporated student voices from MPHS and strategies to invite, encourage, and celebrate emerging writers.
Andy felt the call to return to the alternative education classroom in 2021 with Clare Public Schools, where he taught English Language Arts 9/10, English Language Arts 11/12, Literature, Creative Writing, and Multimedia, which incorporated an eSports team. At Clare Pioneer High School, Andy worked with students who struggled academically, socially, emotionally, and financially, helping them to see what learning, collaborating, and taking responsible risks could look like. The project-based learning he led resulted in authentic, relevant, and compelling multimodal work like The Gale of the Great Lakes: Superstorms, Superstition, and Shipwrecks, bi-annual anthologies of poetry like The Works of Life: Growth, Breakthroughs, and No Wrong Answers, and digital storytelling honoring personal experiences such as Noah's World to encourage student agency. His experiences at Clare Pioneer High School were published as "A Spark of Light in the Darkness" in the Michigan Reading Journal in 2022.
Sensing the need to reach larger student populations, Andy accepted a 2024 in-district transition to teach 7th grade Social Studies at Clare Middle School. There he learned with pre-teens using project-based learning, inquiry stances, and a culture of collaboration. With a focus on World History, he taught students about the spectrum of Thinking like a Historian, how to plan and curate personal inquiry like Cambodia's Angkor Wat with scripts, and to use digital geography tools like Google Earth and StoryMap JS to think like tour guides and gain a broader perspective of the impact of historical time periods. Students were both immersed in historical thinking and personal interests to maximize their engagement as learners and historians.
In 2024, Andy began taking courses at Central Michigan University as a doctoral candidate in educational technology. Blending his past experiences with a continued pursuit of knowledge-building, he learned the nuances of critical scholarly research. Focusing his study on the productive uses and frameworks for using artificial intelligence and generative artificial intelligence, he is seeking ways to ethically and responsibly leverage these emerging assistive technologies in ways that will promote productive friction and deep learning practices for students.
Andy's commitment as a lifelong learner and contributor to the teaching profession might be best captured by the organizations to which he belongs. As a past president for the Michigan Reading Association and a two-time past president for the Michigan Council of Teachers of English, he regularly met with educator leaders from across the state to promote literacy in Michigan. He is a National Writing Project teacher consultant and leader for the Chippewa River Writing Project and, as such, creates and facilitates professional development for teachers statewide and nationally. Working with ELA and Social Studies professors from Central Michigan University, he is routinely called on to mentor prospective teachers who seek experience either through their mid-tier program or as student teachers.
He is an avid reader both for pleasure and profession, a writer who enjoys helping others to realize their potential, and a person who continually seeks ways to improve on past practice.
Professional Publications
2020 -- Co-Authored with Troy Hicks
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2018 -- Chapter 5: "The Value of Authentic Feedback"
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2014 -- Chapter 23: "Authentic Writing Through Digital Feedback"
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Peer-Reviewed Publications
2024 -- Contributing Author of "Now the Hard Work Begins: Inviting Writers to Use AI Tools"
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2021 -- Contributing Author of the poems "Six Feet Away," Earth Day Presence," and "I See You"
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2018 -- Author of the award-winning "Reclaiming the Arts in English Language Arts"
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Awards
2023 Michigan Association of School Librarians
"Community Collaboration Award"
2017 Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe ISE Award "Inspiration, Support, and Encouragement"
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2021-22 Communications by Design "Impact Teacher of the Year"
2014 Great Lakes Bay Region RUBY Award "Recognizing the Upward, Bright, and Young"
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2019 NCTE Linda Rief Award for "Outstanding publication in a peer-reviewed journal."
2013 MCTE Ray Lawson Excellence in Teaching Award "For faithful service, inspirational qualities, and distinguished leadership."
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