Elizabeth Jorgensen is a teacher at Arrowhead. Jorgensen teaches Journalism and Creative Writing at North Campus. In addition to her teaching career, Jorgensen has also written four books.

• Gwen Jorgensen: USA’s First Olympic Gold Medal Triathlete 
• Sijo: Korea’s Poetry Form
• Go, Gwen, Go
• Hacking Student Learning Habits: 9 Ways to Foster Resilient Learners and Assess the Process Not the Outcome. 

Jorgensen says, “As a writing teacher, I want my students to know that I’m doing the same things they are: writing and submitting pieces to writers’ markets. Being a published author is a lot of work and time, but I hope my publishing credits inspire my creative writing students. Seeing my books, I hope, gets some of my students to believe that publishing is possible for them too.”

The first book Jorgensen published was Go, Gwen, Go which came out on October 19, 2019. Jorgensen and her mother, Nancy Jorgensen, were co-authors of this text. According to the book description on Amazon, the book follows “the personal life of a professional athlete, complete with family crises and holiday celebrations. In this inspiring story, Gwen Jorgensen and her family grow together, from average to Olympian.” This specific book is also available in the AHS library. 

Jorgensen said, “We felt like we had a story to tell. My sister went from ordinary Wisconsin accountant to the World and Olympic Champion. We thought people would be interested in hearing how that could happen.”

The second book published by Jorgensen was on February 20, 2022, titled Sijo: Korea’s Poetry Form. Jorgensen co-edited this book with Lucy Park. The book contains artwork by Wansook Kim. According to the book description on Amazon, “Sijo, a 700-year-old Korean poetry form, is flourishing in modern-day poetry circles. Writers around the world are composing and publishing sijo, teaching it to classes, and competing with it for prizes.” This book sells on Amazon for $23.99 in paperback. 

The third book published by Jorgensen was on April 14, 2022, called, Hacking Student Learning Habits. Jorgensen was the only author for this book. According to the book description on Amazon, “…Jorgensen shows how to create process-based assessments that help students develop habits of higher-order thinking. It is about embracing, trying, failing, and trying again, and turning ‘What did you get on the test?’ into ‘How did you get that on the test?’” Hacking Student Learning Habits focuses on how teachers can make learning for students more effective. This book sells on Amazon for $34.95 for hardover, $28.95 for paperback, and $8.49 for Kindle. 

Jorgensen says, “Hacking Student Learning Habits is specifically for teachers. This book explores process-based assessment, which is the way the writing students are graded at Arrowhead.”

The latest book published by Jorgensen was on October 3, 2022, called Gwen Jorgensen: USA’s First Olympic Gold Medal Triathlete. This book was written by Jorgensen and her mother, Nancy Smirl Jorgensen and sister, Gwen Jorgensen. 

Jorgensen says, “This book was written for young adult and middle grade readers. We hope young people pick this book up and are inspired to chase their own goals and dreams.” 

According to the book description on Amazon, “It is a story of disappointment, failure, change, growth, and accomplishment.” This book sells on Amazon for $16.95 for hardcover and $13.99 for Kindle.

Jorgensen says anyone can be a published author. She said, “When I first started writing, I joined a writing group. This was huge. It held me accountable and the people in the group gave such great advice. If anyone wants to write a book, that’s my advice: join a group. I recommend AllWriters with Kathie Giorgio.”

Jorgensen says, “If Arrowhead students, faculty or community members are interested in any of these, I hope they check out the books from their local libraries. If they want to purchase books, I encourage them to patronize local businesses. Signed copies of Gwen Jorgensen are available at Books & Company in Oconomowoc.”