I am from…Mr. Whiskers and Treasure Box where worlds morphed into a myriad of different shapes and sizes.
I am from…bookmobiles and public libraries where Mischievous Meg came home with me for two weeks.
I am from… Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys where their secret adventures transported me to places I’d never been.
I am from…Funk and Wagnall encyclopedia that had me asking so many, many questions.
I am from… university bookstores and libraries where the lights never went out and people were always reading, searching, finding and then reading and searching some more!
I am from…Bridal Magazines, wedding planners and baby books which guided me in preparing for the future and making decisions.
I am from…reading Good Night Moon with my children, under the sheets in bed, with a flashlight.
I am from…elementary schools and high schools; from anxious faces and beating hearts.
I am from…children and adolescents; from “I can’t find it, Miss!” and “I didn’t know it was due today!”
I am from…reading student essays, journals, poems and other English assignments.
I am from…years ago and years to come; from learning to read and teaching to learn!
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
About Me...
Caterpillar: Who are YOU?
Alice: This was not an encouraging opening for a conversation. I -- I hardly know, sir, just at present -- at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then.
The Duchess:
I quite agree with you. And the moral of that is: Be what you would seem to be, or if you'd like it put more simply: Never imagine yourself not to be otherwise than what it might appear to others that what you were or might have been was not otherwise than what you had been would have appeared to them to be otherwise.
~Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
Like Alice, sometimes I feel that the person I am when I wake up in the morning is not necessarily the same person I am when I retire at night. The people I encounter, the conversations I have, the stories I hear, the things I see, all alter my reality and who I become. I continue to reconstruct myself every day. What I can offer in an autobiography is to share some of the constants in my life. I was born Loretta Miceli, the only child of Eduardo and Concetta Miceli, who immigrated to Canada in 1953 and, although, they became Canadian citizens within 5 years, never forgot their Italian heritage. This, they shared with me. It afforded me the opportunity to live two cultures simultaneously. I continue to live in the best of both worlds.
I am a student, a teacher, an educational leader. I am a wife, and a mother of two. However I may morphs from day to day, my husband, Rob, my children, Erica(20) and Robert (16) and my parents (86 & 85) frame who I am at any given time. I have been married for 22 years. We met when we were 13 years old. He studied numbers and became an accountant and I studied literature and became an English teacher. Our children have their dreams. Erica is a 3rd year fine arts student at York University and in the concurrent program in the faculty of education. She dreams of being a dance teacher in a regional arts school. Robert is a grade 11 student. He plays AAA Hockey with the Toronto Red Wings and dreams of being an NHL hockey player. Whatever path they choose to follow, the only advice my husband and I have for them is that they do their best and that they protect their dignity and the dignity of those around them.
Over the course of my life, I have been blessed with friends and family who have loved me and supported me unconditionally. They have helped me celebrate the good times in my life and they’ve been with me during the lowest times in my life. Ten years ago, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I am a survivor and I thank God for having given me a new lease on life. Facing my own mortality certainly gave me a new appreciation for the meaning of life. Each year, for the last 10 years, I have given back by participating in the breast cancer walk. My daughter joins me and we walk for all women and men, past, present and future!
I have been blessed in my professional life, as well. Sometimes I stop and ask myself, How did I get so lucky! I started my teaching career at the age of 23. I was hired to teach a split grade 3/4 class at St. Joseph Catholic Elementary School in Richmond Hill, Ontario for the York Catholic District School Board. I loved it so much, I couldn’t believe I was getting paid for doing what I used to dream about and what I pretended to do every summer when I ran a neighbourhood summer school in my parents’ garage. I stayed in elementary for four years, teaching a grade 4/5 class the following year and then teaching in the intermediate division for 2 years before moving to the secondary panel to teach high school English. I taught English and then became the department head of Library, until 14 years later I was encouraged to apply for a leadership position at the board office, in the capacity of Literacy program resource teacher. I felt like I had died and gone to heaven…imagine, being able to do all the research and reading about literacy that I always wished I could have done and never had the time to do! Three years into that position I was approached and encouraged to move into another leadership role. I am now in my third year as the coordinator of secondary programs and have taught for the York Catholic District School Board for the last 23 years. I love my job…I truly do!
I am a life long learner…I loved school from the first day of kindergarten and I knew then that I never wanted school to end…so my story continues and this Masters program will continue to help me shape who I will be tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow, each new day a new experience, a new beginning, a new me!
Alice: This was not an encouraging opening for a conversation. I -- I hardly know, sir, just at present -- at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then.
The Duchess:
I quite agree with you. And the moral of that is: Be what you would seem to be, or if you'd like it put more simply: Never imagine yourself not to be otherwise than what it might appear to others that what you were or might have been was not otherwise than what you had been would have appeared to them to be otherwise.
~Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
Like Alice, sometimes I feel that the person I am when I wake up in the morning is not necessarily the same person I am when I retire at night. The people I encounter, the conversations I have, the stories I hear, the things I see, all alter my reality and who I become. I continue to reconstruct myself every day. What I can offer in an autobiography is to share some of the constants in my life. I was born Loretta Miceli, the only child of Eduardo and Concetta Miceli, who immigrated to Canada in 1953 and, although, they became Canadian citizens within 5 years, never forgot their Italian heritage. This, they shared with me. It afforded me the opportunity to live two cultures simultaneously. I continue to live in the best of both worlds.
I am a student, a teacher, an educational leader. I am a wife, and a mother of two. However I may morphs from day to day, my husband, Rob, my children, Erica(20) and Robert (16) and my parents (86 & 85) frame who I am at any given time. I have been married for 22 years. We met when we were 13 years old. He studied numbers and became an accountant and I studied literature and became an English teacher. Our children have their dreams. Erica is a 3rd year fine arts student at York University and in the concurrent program in the faculty of education. She dreams of being a dance teacher in a regional arts school. Robert is a grade 11 student. He plays AAA Hockey with the Toronto Red Wings and dreams of being an NHL hockey player. Whatever path they choose to follow, the only advice my husband and I have for them is that they do their best and that they protect their dignity and the dignity of those around them.
Over the course of my life, I have been blessed with friends and family who have loved me and supported me unconditionally. They have helped me celebrate the good times in my life and they’ve been with me during the lowest times in my life. Ten years ago, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I am a survivor and I thank God for having given me a new lease on life. Facing my own mortality certainly gave me a new appreciation for the meaning of life. Each year, for the last 10 years, I have given back by participating in the breast cancer walk. My daughter joins me and we walk for all women and men, past, present and future!
I have been blessed in my professional life, as well. Sometimes I stop and ask myself, How did I get so lucky! I started my teaching career at the age of 23. I was hired to teach a split grade 3/4 class at St. Joseph Catholic Elementary School in Richmond Hill, Ontario for the York Catholic District School Board. I loved it so much, I couldn’t believe I was getting paid for doing what I used to dream about and what I pretended to do every summer when I ran a neighbourhood summer school in my parents’ garage. I stayed in elementary for four years, teaching a grade 4/5 class the following year and then teaching in the intermediate division for 2 years before moving to the secondary panel to teach high school English. I taught English and then became the department head of Library, until 14 years later I was encouraged to apply for a leadership position at the board office, in the capacity of Literacy program resource teacher. I felt like I had died and gone to heaven…imagine, being able to do all the research and reading about literacy that I always wished I could have done and never had the time to do! Three years into that position I was approached and encouraged to move into another leadership role. I am now in my third year as the coordinator of secondary programs and have taught for the York Catholic District School Board for the last 23 years. I love my job…I truly do!
I am a life long learner…I loved school from the first day of kindergarten and I knew then that I never wanted school to end…so my story continues and this Masters program will continue to help me shape who I will be tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow, each new day a new experience, a new beginning, a new me!
Literacy As Freedom
I’m not certain that I can find any definition, in any text form, which quite captures all the facets of literacy. I see literacy as ever-changing and redefining itself depending on the context in which it is being analyzed. In its simplest form, I suppose the definition provided by UNESCO is as close to capturing today’s definition of literacy as any:
Literacy is about more than reading and writing – it is about how we communicate in society. It is about social practices and relationships, about knowledge, language and culture. Literacy…finds its place in our lives alongside other ways of communicating. Indeed, literacy itself takes many forms: on paper, on the computer screen, on TV, on posters and signs. Those who use literacy take it for granted – but those who cannot use it are excluded from much communication in today’s world. Indeed, it is the excluded who can best appreciate the notion of “literacy as freedom”.(UNESCO, Statement of the United Nations Literacy Decade, 2003-2012)
However, every time I read this statement I recognize that there are gaps, things that are missing, things that need to be noted or adjusted. Depending on when I read it and why I’m reading it, those gaps change. I deem it necessary to position myself before I offer my views on literacy, for then you may better understand my stance. I am a child of immigrant parents who have less than 5 years of formal education, which in some countries would qualify them as illiterate. I went to an inner city school and graduated at the top of my class. I went to a relatively young and progressive university. I married one year into my teaching career. I became a mother at 26 years of age. I am a hockey mom and a dance mom. I am an aunt to 13 nephews and nieces. I have taught elementary students and high school students. I have been the dean of library in a high school. I have been a literacy program resource teacher. I am the coordinator of all secondary programs in my board. All of my experiences have influenced my ideas on literacy and my ideas continue to morph with every new experience in my life.
As a child of immigrant parents, I agree that Literacy is about more than reading and writing – it is about how we communicate in society. My parents are a perfect example of this. For them, more important than reading and writing in the national language (English) was how they communicated in their new society. Quickly, they discovered that in order to succeed in their new country, they had to make friends and engage in societal rituals. This meant that they needed to be able to interpret and understand their surroundings. They needed to be able to convey their ideas to others so that others understood them. Much of this was done without reading or writing in its traditional sense, but rather by speaking and listening and reading body language, signs and posters. They were forever questioning and problem solving, in whatever way they knew best. Like my parents, we are all challenged with the task of connecting with the society in which we live. How well we do may depend on our degree of literacy.
This poses another dilemma, because I don’t see that literacy can be measured by whether we speak the language or not, whether we share the same culture or not, whether we participate in the same social practices or not. So if It is about social practices and relationships, about knowledge, language and culture then it is important that we qualify what that means. I see this to mean that literacy is about being able to understand and respond competently to others. It’s about the relationships we establish. It’s about how we create them and how we nurture them and how we behave in social situations. It’s about whether or not we engage in positive or negative social practices. Literacy requires that we are knowledgeable and that we can use language effectively, both to understand and to be understood. It draws our attention to culture and the importance of recognizing, embracing, respecting and responding to all cultures…familiar and unfamiliar. It is important to know how to learn about individual and organizational culture and interact in the various cultural environments in which we find ourselves. Hence, it is negligent to leave out the conversation that needs to be had in this arena of social practice, to which this particular definition refers.
Literacy…finds its place in our lives alongside other ways of communicating. Again, communication is highlighted. How can it not be emphasized, when nothing else really matters if we can’t communicate it? I find it difficult to believe that anything can be exalted if it can’t be communicated. If a gem cannot be seen, it does not shine; if music cannot be heard, it has no sound; and if we cannot communicate, we do not grow. Therefore, we need to emphasize that we must strive to communicate, in whatever way we can.
Indeed, literacy itself takes many forms: on paper, on the computer screen, on TV, on posters and signs. Evident in this statement is the fact that since UNESCO wrote this, other forms of communication have surfaced. We cannot limit our definition of literacy to a finite number of forms that it can take. There is critical literacy, media literacy, information literacy, financial literacy, visual literacy, global literacy, …just to name a few. Today we have blogs, wikis, podcasts, facebook, video games and other forms of interactive information sharing. There is a shift in how people communicate. We are charged with the responsibility to be current and remain actively literate…for responding to change is part of being literate. But, we must remember that simply decoding information, without making sense of it, analyzing it and being able to communicate it, is an example of ‘fake literacy’. We need to look at the world through a critical lens. This will help us to see things from different perspectives and then we can bring various interpretations of the world to others and to ourselves.
Ultimately, Those who use literacy take it for granted – but those who cannot use it are excluded from much communication in today’s world. Indeed, it is the excluded who can best appreciate the notion of “literacy as freedom”. Literacy as freedom allows us to live life to its fullest. As a mother, a daughter, a wife, an aunt, a teacher…I am responsible for continuing to grow in my capacity as a literate learner, so that I may help others to grow, as well.
Literacy is about more than reading and writing – it is about how we communicate in society. It is about social practices and relationships, about knowledge, language and culture. Literacy…finds its place in our lives alongside other ways of communicating. Indeed, literacy itself takes many forms: on paper, on the computer screen, on TV, on posters and signs. Those who use literacy take it for granted – but those who cannot use it are excluded from much communication in today’s world. Indeed, it is the excluded who can best appreciate the notion of “literacy as freedom”.(UNESCO, Statement of the United Nations Literacy Decade, 2003-2012)
However, every time I read this statement I recognize that there are gaps, things that are missing, things that need to be noted or adjusted. Depending on when I read it and why I’m reading it, those gaps change. I deem it necessary to position myself before I offer my views on literacy, for then you may better understand my stance. I am a child of immigrant parents who have less than 5 years of formal education, which in some countries would qualify them as illiterate. I went to an inner city school and graduated at the top of my class. I went to a relatively young and progressive university. I married one year into my teaching career. I became a mother at 26 years of age. I am a hockey mom and a dance mom. I am an aunt to 13 nephews and nieces. I have taught elementary students and high school students. I have been the dean of library in a high school. I have been a literacy program resource teacher. I am the coordinator of all secondary programs in my board. All of my experiences have influenced my ideas on literacy and my ideas continue to morph with every new experience in my life.
As a child of immigrant parents, I agree that Literacy is about more than reading and writing – it is about how we communicate in society. My parents are a perfect example of this. For them, more important than reading and writing in the national language (English) was how they communicated in their new society. Quickly, they discovered that in order to succeed in their new country, they had to make friends and engage in societal rituals. This meant that they needed to be able to interpret and understand their surroundings. They needed to be able to convey their ideas to others so that others understood them. Much of this was done without reading or writing in its traditional sense, but rather by speaking and listening and reading body language, signs and posters. They were forever questioning and problem solving, in whatever way they knew best. Like my parents, we are all challenged with the task of connecting with the society in which we live. How well we do may depend on our degree of literacy.
This poses another dilemma, because I don’t see that literacy can be measured by whether we speak the language or not, whether we share the same culture or not, whether we participate in the same social practices or not. So if It is about social practices and relationships, about knowledge, language and culture then it is important that we qualify what that means. I see this to mean that literacy is about being able to understand and respond competently to others. It’s about the relationships we establish. It’s about how we create them and how we nurture them and how we behave in social situations. It’s about whether or not we engage in positive or negative social practices. Literacy requires that we are knowledgeable and that we can use language effectively, both to understand and to be understood. It draws our attention to culture and the importance of recognizing, embracing, respecting and responding to all cultures…familiar and unfamiliar. It is important to know how to learn about individual and organizational culture and interact in the various cultural environments in which we find ourselves. Hence, it is negligent to leave out the conversation that needs to be had in this arena of social practice, to which this particular definition refers.
Literacy…finds its place in our lives alongside other ways of communicating. Again, communication is highlighted. How can it not be emphasized, when nothing else really matters if we can’t communicate it? I find it difficult to believe that anything can be exalted if it can’t be communicated. If a gem cannot be seen, it does not shine; if music cannot be heard, it has no sound; and if we cannot communicate, we do not grow. Therefore, we need to emphasize that we must strive to communicate, in whatever way we can.
Indeed, literacy itself takes many forms: on paper, on the computer screen, on TV, on posters and signs. Evident in this statement is the fact that since UNESCO wrote this, other forms of communication have surfaced. We cannot limit our definition of literacy to a finite number of forms that it can take. There is critical literacy, media literacy, information literacy, financial literacy, visual literacy, global literacy, …just to name a few. Today we have blogs, wikis, podcasts, facebook, video games and other forms of interactive information sharing. There is a shift in how people communicate. We are charged with the responsibility to be current and remain actively literate…for responding to change is part of being literate. But, we must remember that simply decoding information, without making sense of it, analyzing it and being able to communicate it, is an example of ‘fake literacy’. We need to look at the world through a critical lens. This will help us to see things from different perspectives and then we can bring various interpretations of the world to others and to ourselves.
Ultimately, Those who use literacy take it for granted – but those who cannot use it are excluded from much communication in today’s world. Indeed, it is the excluded who can best appreciate the notion of “literacy as freedom”. Literacy as freedom allows us to live life to its fullest. As a mother, a daughter, a wife, an aunt, a teacher…I am responsible for continuing to grow in my capacity as a literate learner, so that I may help others to grow, as well.
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