Stacy Pendergrast is an innovative teacher who pushes the boundaries of the status quo in public education. She earned her bachelor’s degree in elementary and special education from Seton Hall University, and she holds a master’s in special education from Rutgers University. For over three decades in public K-12 education, Stacy has created and implemented effective programs for students as well as parents and teachers working with students at all levels — preschool through higher education. Stacy believes authentic writing models and mentor texts are the best teachers. In her “Protest Writing” course, teenage students champion individual rights through their writing. They study a wide range of protest writers such as Henry David Thoreau, Martin Luther King, and Joan Baez who served as models for creating social change. As students analyze classic and contemporary protest writings, they began to identify their own personal beliefs worth fighting and writing for. To develop their own writings, students examine striking “details of injustice” and communicated such details using powerful language techniques used by famous protest writers. Students explore various topics within the genres of poetry, lyrical works, and essays. Through examination of mentor texts, students experiment with various types of writing, ranging from slave sorrow songs to political speeches to rap music lyrics. To further work in pre-writing stages, students debate opinions on such contemporary and controversial issues affecting teenagers such as “Kyleigh’s Law,” school budget cuts, and alcohol and drug testing in school. Each student brings at least one piece of writing to final draft publication stage.

Stacy Pendergrast obtained her National Board Certified Teacher in the area of Exceptional Needs in 2008, and she has helped hundreds of students maximize their strengths while addressing challenges that often present in our systems of education. Stacy has considered herself a poet and writer throughout her life, and in 2011, to follow this passion; she earned an MFA in Creative Writing from Chatham University in Pittsburgh. She particularly loves haiku forms, including senryu and haibun, as well as narrative poetry and memoir. Stacy’s work is published in many journals nationwide. Active in Poets Roundtable of Arkansas, she currently serves as the press secretary for Jo McDougall, the Poet Laureate of Arkansas.