Bio

Alan Lawrence Sitomer is California's 2007 Teacher of the Year. In addition to being an inner-city high school English teacher and professor in the Graduate School of Education at Loyola Marymount University, Mr. Sitomer is a nationally renowned speaker specializing in engaging reluctant readers who received the 2004 award for Classroom Excellence from the Southern California Teachers of English and the 2003 Teacher of the Year honor from California Literacy. In April 2007 Alan was named Educator of the Year by Loyola Marymount University and in February 2008 Alan was named Innovative Educator of the Year by the Insight Education Group.

Mr. Sitomer has also authored four young adult novels published by Disney which include The Hoopster, Hip-Hop High School, Homeboyz and The Secret Story of Sonia Rodriguez.

Homeboyz was named by the American Library Association as a Top Ten Book of the Year 2008, receiving the prestigious ALA Quick Pick Recognition for young adult novel which best engages reluctant readers.

Alan is the author of Hip-Hop Poetry and the Classics, a text being used in classrooms across the United States to illuminate classic poetry through hip-hop in order to engage disengaged students in both poetry and academics.

Additionally, Mr. Sitomer has just written a teacher's methodology book for Scholastic titled Teaching Teens And Reaping Results In A Wi-Fi, Hip-Hop, Where-Has-All-The-Sanity-Gone World.

You can learn more about Alan as well as tap into the host of free educational resources he provides at www.AlanSitomer.com