Mr. Scott Johnson

My name is Scott Johnson and I am excited to start this new journey as a reading coach at Piney Woods Elementary after being in the classroom for 25 years! I first started teaching in California where I taught for 9 years. I taught grades 1st through 5th in a variety of contexts (e.g., traditional grades, looping, and multiage). I left California and moved to South Carolina where I was a Graduate Teaching Assistant at the University of South Carolina for three years. There I taught courses in reading and reading assessment. In 2008 I had the chance to go back into the classroom and work at The Center for Inquiry in Richland Two where I taught 4th and 5th grades for thirteen years.

 I have been married for 17 years and have three children. My wife Malisa works at Lake Murray Elementary. My daughter Emily is a junior at Spring Hill High School and my twins, Elsie and Eli, are 7th graders at Dutch Fork Middle School.

 I have a master’s degree in Reading / Language Arts from Fresno Pacific University where I focused my studies on spelling, miscue analysis, and second language acquisition. After receiving my masters, I continued my education at the University of South Carolina completing a Ph.D in Language & Literacy with a focus in anthropology. Along with working at PWES, I currently serve as an adjunct professor at Columbia College, teaching in the Divergent Learning program. My areas of focus are communities of practice, inquiry as a collaborative process of constructing meaning, teachers and students constructing meaning alongside each other, and teacher beliefs and their practices.