After retiring from 22 years of public school teaching, JoAn W. Martin continues to serve in a teaching capacity as a reading/writing consultant for Houston area schools. She taught several years in the Alpha program of Gifted and Talented fourth and fifth graders at the University of Houston at ClearLake. She also served as an adjunct instructor in the School of Education at UH/CL, teaching an undergraduate class, "Language Arts in the Elementary School." JoAn teaches Reading & Writing in Leeway Project at Lee College in Baytown.
JoAn grew up in Atmore, Alabama. Much of her writing reflects her childhood after World War II. Her first love is writing children's stories. Her work has appeared in the Houston Chronicle. In addition, she has published more than 30 articles in such magazines as Stable Kids, Travelocity, Byline Magazine and educational magazines such as Learning, The Mailbox and Oasis-Good Apple. She reviews children's books which are published weekly in The Baytown Sun. JoAn believes reading can change lives and writes to give children books that deal honestly with the issues kids face today, stories that show children how they can understand themselves and others.
JoAn attends writing conferences and is available for presentations. Her volunteer work includes Women's Storybook Project of Texas. She enjoys working in her greenhouse and yard to escape the intensity of writing.
JoAn Martin has published several children's novels, which include Yankee Girl (2002), Goodnight Mrs. Dinglewall (2006), Inventing Chloe (2009), and an adult novel, Retrieving Morning(2009). With the assistance of sixth grade teachers, she compiled Read and Write with Yankee Girl, materials to teach the reading objectives of TEKS.
After retiring from 22 years of public school teaching, JoAn W. Martin continues to serve in a teaching capacity as a reading/writing consultant for Houston area schools. She taught several years in the Alpha program of Gifted and Talented fourth and fifth graders at the University of Houston at Clear Lake. She also served as an adjunct instructor in the School of Education at UH/CL, teaching an undergraduate class, "Language Arts in the Elementary School." JoAn teaches Reading & Writing in Leeway Project at Lee College in Baytown.