Ginger Lewman

I am an educational consultant with ESSDACK, an educational service center in Hutchinson, Kansas who specializes in Project Based Learning, Technology Integration, Gifted and High-Ability Learners, and Creativity.

As the founding Director of Turning Point Learning Center’s f2f Program, for half a decade, I worked to create the LifePractice Model, learning to create a mash-up of Project Based Learning and 1:1 laptops with a Democratic approach to learning. Online PLN's have been the key to making it work!

Graduating from Emporia State University in 1994 with a BSE in Social Science, I promptly began teaching the day school at a residential boys' home for The Farm, Inc. where I quickly discovered differentiated instruction and how to engage students well beyond my formal pre-service teaching instruction. I taught all core subjects to 11 troubled boys at a time, ages 11-18, at the home's two dining room tables, using previously-discarded 20 year old text books.

Eventually uncovering a lifelong passion, in 2004, I earned my Master’s degree in Psychology and Special Education with an emphasis in Gifted Education. I began working as the Gifted Services Coordinator at Emporia Middle School and also serving as NCA Steering Committee Chair.

I have served on the Board of Directors for the Kansas Association for the Gifted, Talented, and Creative for 8 years as a Region Representative, State and Federal Legislative Liaison, Conference Chair, and the Kansas Education Liaison, and have been a member of the National Association for Gifted Children, working at both the state and federal levels, advocating for the needs of gifted children in Kansas.

Currently, I serve as the co-chair of the Professional Development Committee for the Kansas Learning First Alliance (KLFA), am on the Board of Directors for Advocates for High-Ability Learners (AHA Learners), am a member of the Kansas Council for the Social Studies, am a Google Certified Teacher (yay GTACO ’09!), and am a Discovery Education Network STAR Educator. I was also recently named "Teacher of the Month" for Northeast Kansas by 27 KSNT and Fox KTMJ television out of Topeka.

I also have a wonderfully understanding husband of nearly 19 years and the cutest little terrier mutt you’ll ever know!