Fultondale teacher publishes 1st book.

 FULTONDALE — A Fultondale Elementary School teacher has published her first book, as well as been asked to speak at a national conference in Washington D.C.

FES fifth-grade teacher Julie Ramsay recently published her book, “Can We Skip Lunch and Keep Writing?” a guide on how to incorporate technology into writing exercises for students.

“The book is about my journey from a very traditional classroom to a more student-directed one,” said Ramsay. “It occurred to me that maybe I wasn’t teaching the right way, and I wasn’t taking advantage of all the tools we have access to.”

For the last 10 years, Ramsay has strived to incorporate technology into her lesson plans; one of her students’ more recent projects was the Coast to Coast Chronicles, a series of Wikispaces articles that are written by elementary grade classes from seven different schools across the United States. Wikispaces is an online host of “wiki” articles, which are websites that allow for simple editing through the use of a text editor in a web browser; they are often linked with other web pages to create a network of information.

That and other projects earned her an invitation to speak at a National Board for Professional Teaching Standards conference in Washington D.C. on July 27-30. Ramsay is a National Board Certified teacher, a rigorous process that signifies that a teacher meets extremely high standards for teaching.

“It’s an honor to be asked to speak. These teachers are the best of the best,” said Ramsay.

She has spoken once before at the annual conference two years ago in Atlanta. While there, an editor from a publishing company approached her.

“She said she felt I had a voice, something that needed to be shared,” said Ramsay. From that conversation, the idea for “Can We Skip Lunch and Keep Writing?” was born.

Ramsay said only 8 percent of all teachers in the United States follow the same teaching method as she does, and she’s hoping she can encourage others to follow suit with her book.

“Fultondale Elementary is a Title 1 school, which means that many students come from low-income families that may not have a computer at home. But many of them have handheld devices, and I took clues from how they were using technology at home,” she said.

While she is at the conference in Washington, Ramsay will also be participating in Hill Day, during which she will have the opportunity to meet with Alabama congressional representatives and discuss issues the educational system is facing.

To purchase “Can We Skip Lunch and Keep Writing?” visit www.stenhouse.com. It is also available as a downloadable e-book for tablet computers and electronic readers, such as Kindles and Nooks.