Jessica

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Jessica Smock is a writer, educator, former teacher, researcher, and mom to a toddler son. She lives in Buffalo with her family, their Boston terrier, and very bossy cat. She earned her doctorate in educational policy and development from Boston University last year and is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Wesleyan University. She writes about parenting, education, and books at her blog, School of Smock.  You can find her on Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest. Her writing and expertise have been featured on the Huffington Post, the Brain Child website, Scary Mommy, iVillage, the Chicago Tribune, and Babble.

In high school, college and in her early twenties, Jessica was passionate about journalism and writing and worked at local and college newspapers as a reporter and editor. After earning a Masters of Arts in Teaching, Jessica was a teacher and curriculum writer for more than 12 years. She primarily taught English, particularly focusing on developing a writing workshop program for her students. Her favorite part of the school year was creating an end of the year book of her students’ best writing. As a Teaching Fellow at Boston University, Jessica was an instructor in writing and research methods.

Jessica’s dissertation research was about the experiences of urban adolescent girls at elite New England boarding schools. She became fascinated by the role that these girls’ social lives — their friendships, their relationships with teachers, their dating lives — affected their overall experience.

While Jessica has left academia for right now, she still enjoys reading nonfiction and research. She likes writing about anything from feminism to fiction, from toddler tantrums to teaching.

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