Why Johnny Can’t Spell

Mark Pennington is an educational author, presenter, reading specialist, and middle school teacher. He encourages teachers to “work smarter, not harder” to improve their craft and increase student learning. Mark is committed to standards-based staff development in differentiated instruction for the diverse needs of today’s students.

Mark has twenty four years of teaching experience in the elementary (six years), middle school (ten years), high school (eight years), and community college (three years part-time) settings. His MA Education (Reading Specialist) is out of the California State University at Sacramento. Mark received his teaching credential at the University of California at Los Angeles after graduating Magna cum Laude from the University of Southern California. Go Trojans!

Mark currently serves as an English Language-Arts Middle School Teacher in the Elk Grove Unified School District in Elk Grove, California. Mark presents at educational conferences and provides staff in-services in the areas of spelling/vocabulary, grammar/mechanics, and essay writing.

Mark has served as series editor for Prima Publishing’s (an imprint of Random House) Better in 5 Minutes series, and has written two of the books in that series. He has also authored three books and five resource collections for his own Pennington Publishing.