About

Alan Sitomer is California’s 2007 Teacher of the Year. In addition to having been an inner-city high school English teacher and former 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 The Insight Education Group named Alan Sitomer the Innovative Educator of the Year.

Mr. Sitomer has also authored 16 books to date for esteemed publishers such as Disney, Scholastic, Penguin/Putnam, RB Education and Triumph Learning. These include eight young adult novels, three children’s picture books, two teacher methodology books, and a classroom curriculum series for secondary English Language Arts instruction called The Alan Sitomer BookJam. In the past he’s been honored by the American Library Association (the A.L.A. named Homeboyz a Top Ten Book of the Year 2008, receiving the prestigious ALA Quick Pick Recognition for young adult novel which best engages reluctant readers) and within the next 18 months Alan will have three new titles hitting the shelves.

Mr. Sitomer is currently working to re-shape literacy education by providing professional development (with particular emphasis on Common Core and STAAR) while engaging in policy dialogue and continuing to author new materials for classroom use.

To date, Alan has several hundred thousand copies of his books in print.

A few of the conferences that Mr. Sitomer has either keynoted or appeared as a featured speaker include:

• NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English)
• ASCD (Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development)
• National Title 1 Annual Conference
• IRA (International Reading Association)
• ALA (American Library Association)
• NMSA (National Middle School Association)
• FCTE (Florida Council of Teachers of English)
• MRA (Michigan Reading Association)
• TLA (Texas Library Association)
• CATE (California Association of Teachers of English)
• Plus many, many more.