Kim Cowperthwaite, M.Ed., is an English language arts teacher at Freeport Middle School in Freeport, Maine where she has also worked as a teaching coach and leads a student writing club. She holds a Master’s degree in Literacy Education, a B.A. in Communication, and is a Teacher Consultant for the Maine Writing Project. She is a graduate of the 2017 Peace Literacy Summer Workshop.

Central to Kim’s practice as an educator is to guide young adolescents in understanding humanity, developing their individual and authentic expression as writers and speakers, and becoming positive members of online participatory culture. She teaches in a workshop format in which students frequently choose their own projects, collaborate in small groups, and lead their own discussions. Her students share and present their work throughout the creative process and give each other support and feedback. Kim believes Peace Literacy is a crucial structure that needs to be established first and foremost in a classroom in order for students to feel safe and empowered as learners.

For online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, Kim’s students completed the Peace Literacy Unit Navigating Crisis, Uncertainty, and Technology for which she developed question sets and activities to enhance the lessons.