Frances Lonergan, Lower School Literacy Specialist, Cape Henry Collegiate School, Virginia Beach, Va.

Karen, once again you came to us as a breath of fresh air, offering us more ideas than we could have wished for and inspiring us to grow as a community of writers. Thanking you for the care and attention you gave to us is the least I can do. Many, many thanks!

Diane Wildman, High School teacher, South Carolina

I have enjoyed knowing Karen Haag both personally and professionally for over 20 years. Her greatest strength is her tenacious thirst for learning through classroom research and adapting and applying new strategies to help both students and teachers. Also, because she understands from first-hand experience literacy issues with students of all intellectual abilities in grades K-12, she has been a powerful influence shaping the way I meet the challenges of my developing 10th-grade English students. Working daily in my classroom for a full year, she helped me re-think how carefully managed "talk" time dramatically helps students who struggle with reading comprehension. Because of her impact on my students, their reading and writing scores dramatically improved. I strongly recommend connecting with Karen. She's a rare find that is making a difference with every life she touches.

Carey Haney, ELL Teacher, Cabarrus County, NC

Your presentation was WONDERFUL!!! You create such a safe atmosphere. I found myself pinching myself because you kept reiterating, "This is how I do daybooks, but there are many other approaches." I want to implement daybooks with my ELL students. I have BIG plans for them.

Jacquelyn Brown, 2nd grade teacher, Macon County

Your workshop was so helpful!!! I revamped many of my practices because of the great ideas I learned from your workshop. It was the best writing workshop that I ever attended-thanks!

Patti Daniels, 5th Grade, Charlotte Country Day

Thank you again for a stimulating afternoon. Good teacher that you are, I know that you appreciate it when you attend any conference/meeting in the middle of a horribly busy time AND find it to be wonderfully rewarding. I just translated my notes from your ideas and hope that we'll be ready to roll tomorrow as we map out our first daybook activities!

Tammy Tisdale, Director of Accountability, Macon County Schools

The No Child Left Behind Legislation requires a teamwork approach in order to be successful. In Macon County, Karen Haag has been an invaluable part of our team. By sharing ideas with me as a central office administrator and teaching her wonderful techniques to our teachers, I feel that she has provided our county with a true advantage. We were one of the 18 counties that made Annual Yearly Progress. Her abilities as a teacher and a leader were integral to our success and will continue to be. As an administrator, I will never let a year go by that my teachers do not have access to her excellent staff development and follow-up that she provides.

Participant, WRESA, North Carolina Workshop, Big Gains in Content Writing

Finally...something to help us face the test without feeling like we are compromising what we know we should be doing to teach our kids. I'm starting daybooks Monday!

Brian Kissel, Asst Professor, UNC Charlotte

I just had to give you a quick compliment. I just spent some time looking at your website. It's fantastic! You've done such a really good job showing and explaining your teaching beliefs and practices. This is such a great resource for my students so I'm adding your website to my list of recommended sites. Thanks for taking the time to create such a thoughtful website! :-)

John Moran, Department of Public Instruction, North Carolina

This visit wasn't planned. It caught me by surprise when visiting a school seeing Karen doing what she does best: working alongside teachers. I am in awe every time I have the opportunity to observe her teaching. I think it has to do with her attention to intention; I think it has to do with the fact that she knows the right time to step back and quietly wait, then, at the right moment she is able to provide renewed direction; and finally, I think it has to do with the fact that she is a learner herself and in her demonstrations of what is possible allows others to "try it on" before they, too, pay it forward.

Meredith H. Vetter, Director of Studies-Lower School, Charlotte Country Day School

Karen Haag's wealth of teaching experiences, of past and current research, of synthesizing this new learning into demonstrated lessons that make learning for students "challenging, engaging, and authentic" in the classroom has been invaluable to teachers and students in our school. We thank Karen for her dedication and commitment to us, her strengths in modeling what it means to be active in learning, inquiring, and self-reflecting, and her willingness and patience in providing opportunities where we improve the craft of teaching.

Dr. Katherine Propst, Assistant Supt. for Organizational Development and Accountability, Cabarrus County Schools, N.C.

Karen designed a schoolwide program to improve reading scores for W.M. Irvin Elementary. As a result of her leadership, we united to teach students how to use the proficient reader strategies, especially in our intermediate grades. Karen conducted staff development, demonstrated teaching for staff and developed lesson plans. Close to 90% of our children scored on grade level in reading in 2 years. Our school was named North Carolina's Title I Distinguished School of the Year for Closing the Gap in 2005. Karen loves to help teachers learn a process of teaching reading that gets results.

Dr. Lil Brannon, Associate Dean for Academic Programs, UNC-Charlotte

Karen is such a fine presenter. She has the gift of being able to translate complex theory into productive classroom practices AND inspire teachers to use those practices in their own classrooms. Her website is a true treasure.

Dr. Elizabeth Soffer, K-5 principal, Pittsford, N.Y.

The talk around here is totally different since Karen was a resident coach at our school. Teachers are discussing on grade-level and across grade levels. The videos, Karen's stories and lessons, and the demonstrations provided a vision of what changes teachers could make for the students and themselves to make teaching comprehension possible, even for some very gifted students.