She's earned several Masters degrees - including one in diagnosing and working with struggling readers - and studies Spanish in order to communicate closely with the families of her Latino students. Before her life as a first-grade teacher and a teacher-educator with the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project in New York City, Natalie was a Peace Corps volunteer, living in a tree house on an island in the Pacific. (Co-Author of Writing for Readers: Teaching Skills and Strategies)