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Teaching English and Journalism
A world of words
Steve Gardiner discusses book publishing with a group of students in the library at Billings Senior High School.
"Books fall open, you fall in, delighted where you've never been; hear voices not once heard before, reach world on world through door on door; find unexpected keys to things locked up beyond imaginings. What might you be, perhaps become, because one book is somewhere? Some wise delver into wisdom, wit, and wherewithal has written it. True books will venture, dare you out, whisper secrets, maybe shout across the gloom to you in need, who hanker for a book to read." David McCord
Steve has been teaching high school English for 29 years and advising the high school newspaper and yearbook classes for 15 years. In 2006, he received the Distinguished Alumni Award from Chadron State College and served as the Commencement Speaker. He has also received three national awards for journalism advising, the Medal of Merit from the Journalism Education Association, the Special Recognition Adviser from the Dow Jones Newspaper Fund, and finalist for National Journalism Teacher of the Year. In addition, he is certified by the JEA as a Master Journalism Educator, and is currently the publications adviser at Billings Senior High School, Billings, Montana. The publications he advises include:
Bronc Annual—The yearbook has won several awards for excellence from the National Scholastic Press Association and the Columbia Scholastic Press Association.
Bronc Express—The school newspaper is published monthly during the school year and appears in a web-based version at Bronc Express Online. Many of his students have published articles in the local newspaper, The Billings Gazette, and in literary magazines.
Steve has been a judge for state journalism contests in Wyoming and New Jersey and his students have won many individual and staff awards from the Montana Interscholastic Education Association and the National Federation of Press Women.
He also advised the yearbook, newspaper, and literary magazine at Jackson Hole High School in Jackson, Wyoming, and Chalk Talk, the official newsletter of Teton County School District, from 1985-1995.
During the 1982-1983 school year, Steve and his wife Peggy, an elementary teacher, taught at the American School in Lima, Peru. While there, Steve taught English classes including AP Junior English and advised the Literary Magazine.
With the birth of his third daughter, Steve spent the 1990-1991 school year on parental leave, a Mr. Mom situation which he described as “the greatest adventure of my life.”
National Endowment for the Humanities
Steve received three fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities to attend summer seminars and institutes and major American universities.
Harvard University (1989) The Origin of Species—The seminar examined the influences of Charles Darwin on science and literature. Steve wrote his final paper on Darwin's influence on 19th Century British literature.
Columbia University (1991) Shakespeare—Members of this summer institute studied eight of Shakespeare's plays.
University of Chicago (1995) Studies in Indian Buddhist Literature—This seminar analyzed a number of major Buddhist writings and their influence on world literature.