Getting "personal"

The last four months have been some of the most challenging of my career.  New in the role as Literacy Coach, I have the privilege of working side-by-side with educators and students to teach and learn what we can in the realm of literacy.  As a Coach, I facilitate this learning and dialogue, not by having all of the answers, but by investigating them together with others.

When in my undergrad at Trent University, my Women's Studies professors talked a great deal about "the personal is political."  I find myself reflecting on this, and how the personal needs to be embedded into education, and needs to be central in our programming so that what we do is meaningful and connected to our students.  From their prior knowledge, background, interests, strengths, passions, identities, etc., we need to cultivate a space to allow students to thrive and grow, not ignoring the personal, but embracing it.

What I have realized is this is a daunting task... there is no end in talking about what we can tackle in literacy, what we can focus on, what we can learn and improve in.  Whether talking about reading, writing, listening, speaking, viewing or producing, we are questioning and connecting to each other and the world around us. 

What is our role?  How do we make sense of it all?  I look forward to the coming months of collaboration and discussion!