Ulama Finn--Autobiography
schools. I try to enhance the learning of these students in the reading
program. I have high expectation for all students regardless of their
reading proficiency levels. However, my concern is that administration
does not place enough focus on "reading", which is in my opinion, the
vehicle by which students will succeed in the content areas.
I was born in rural Jamaica, and I grew up with seven brothers and sisters, my late father, and mother. In retrospect, I can describe my family as dysfunctional. My father was quite a charmer but he was a seasonal drunk. My mother was a dreamer whose pastime was wishing and hoping that he would quit "drinking". I too, was a dreamer in that family. Thanks to the local library, I dreamed vividly of far away lands. Lands, which unfold their splendors in the books, I borrowed. The characters were my role models. I tried to emulate their actions, whether at boarding school, college or for that matter, any social events.
From the end of this phase, school was like a roller coaster ride. Inevitably, I dropped out of elementary school at age thirteen. My teenage years were really hectic, but I decided to adhere to our motto in elementary school: "The heights that great men reached and kept were not attained by sudden flight but they while their companions slept, were toiling upward through the night".
Simultaneously, with mixing formula, changing diapers retaining enough information "to pass" The Jamaican School Certificate of Education Examination, (JSCE), I taught a few classes for the Jamaica Movement of Adult Literacy, (JAMAL). Seeing the plight of these adults, skilled artisans, who would not get the recognition and promotion they deserve, because they were unable to read; I re -affirmed my vow to become a teacher and decided there and then that I would teach reading.
The pleasant results from the JSCE created a niche for me at my alma mater, and I started my teaching odyssey as an untrained teacher. This chapter of my life was enlightening and rewarding. My dreams and
aspiration were beginning to bear fruits.
In 1982 I entered The St.
Joseph's Teachers' College in Kingston, Jamaica, "to become a teacher."
During my sojourn there, I strategically balanced my time between home,
twenty miles away and college. My participation in students' affairs
was an important episode of my college life. However, president of "my
year" for two consecutive years and chairperson for various charitable
activities were satisfying experiences.
Graduating from college with a diploma in teaching plays a pivotal point
in my life. In 1995 my daughter and I graduated from university and were
the first bachelors on the family tree. I was elated. Nevertheless,
college and university years were difficult ones for me. For one, I was
a full time student holding down a full time teaching position with a
daughter who was my senior and a husband who eventually succumbed to
chronic renal failure, during my first semester at university.
Presently, my four children are married and are living in different
parts of the world; Heather in France, Andrew in England,
Stephen in Jamaica and Malicha in the United States. Allere, my fifth
child, was a soldier with the Jamaica Defense Force (JDF), died a few
years ago.
As we progress into a technological and communicative age, it is my
ambition to seek employment at my alma mater (St. Joseph's Teachers'
College). The intent is to change the method in which adults are trained
and also to incorporate technology in the teacher-training curriculum.
From my perspective, it is absolutely necessary to revolutionize teacher
training, and I am confident that a Master of Arts Degree in Adult
Education and Distance Learning will facilitate me with the essential
skills/strategies to appropriate sound andragogical and pedagogical
preparation, which will ultimately lead to successful teaching and
learning.
I still love to read, and there are so many things that I want to learn.
Additionally, I enjoy traveling to some of those" far-away
countries", such as France, Switzerland, Italy, etc.; I read about so
long ago. Incidentally, just a couple of weeks ago, I went to one of my
classes while vacationing in the French Alps.
