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When you think about your name not much thought comes up for me. I have had this name for almost twenty-six years. I could not imagine life not as Victoria Lee Arnold. I love my name and I love how my name can be different forms and still mean one thing. It makes me even more unique than I already am. After looking up Victoria I learned my name has a meaning in both English which is a variant of Victories, and in Latin-American my name means winner. My daddy also told me that he loved Victoria because he knew the name symbolized Victory over all obstacles. After learning the meaning behind my name, I love it even more and appreciate my parents for falling in love with this name for me. I usually introduce myself to people as Tori and some ask if it is short for Victoria which I will roll my eyes and say yes, but some people never make the connection and believe my name is Tori, I like it because it makes me feel sneaky and like it is an alter ego. I will roll my eyes because if I went by Victoria fully, I feel I must be on my best behavior and put together 24/7, which I am not. I believe Tori fits my personality and attitude better.

After discussing my name with my parents, I learned that both my mama and daddy fell in love with the name and chose me to own it for my whole life. First, the significance of my middle name is that it is my mama’s first name, Lee. Since they both fell in love with Victoria my daddy loves and care for my mama so much that he wanted to incorporate her name somehow into mine and that is how I got my middle name. My parents also knew they did not want me to go by Victoria and did not want me to be Vicky or any derivative of that, so they decided to shorten it to Tori. My first name does not relate to any family members, it is unique, but my middle name is related to my mama’s name.

Surprisingly, I have had some bad opportunities that my name has given me. In high school I used to pole vault and I was at a meet and on the roster, it had my full name. At the meets there is an announcer who calls each person up when it is their turn. Well he began by saying Victoria and I guess after the first couple of rounds that was too difficult, so he began to announce, “Vicky Arnold up next”. I remember feeling so embarrassed because that was not my name, not even close to my name, but I was too shy to correct him. I remember watching my family behind the fence just laughing away when he would call me up, but how else can you react to something as silly and small as that? Another issue I have faced with my name Tori is when I go to introduce myself to new people, they might not hear Tori right away. I have introduced myself before and had them call back, Cory or Lori and I am just like no it is Tori with a T. Whenever that happens, I feel slightly uncomfortable because I just want people to get my name correct on the first try.

Of course, while I was in my mama’s belly my parents went back and forth on the perfect baby name for me. After chatting with my daddy, I learned he wanted to name me Victoria Elaine, but my mama was not going for the middle name. He also wanted to name me Toria after the British band Kinks. I guess they had a song with that name that he loved and wanted to name me that. Thankfully my mama stopped him. Eventually they both agreed and fell in love with Victoria Lee which stuck as my name. My nickname I have had my whole life is Tori, because that is what my parents decided before I was born. My grandma on my daddy’s side of the family will call me “Miss Victoria” and I hate it so much because it makes me feel I must be on my best behavior. One of my friends gave me a nickname of Torticles, I have no idea why, but my friend group has just reduced it to Torts. Another nickname I got was from my old soccer coach, he would call me Viki Lee because he said it sounded like a country singer.

Overall, I love my name and I am so thankful my parents blessed me with this beautiful name. After learning the meaning of my name and being able to reflect after almost twenty-six years I fell more in love with my name. I appreciate this assignment because now I am able to embrace more of myself and where I come from more than I had before.

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My smile is my favorite physical feature. It is my favorite because I got my smile from my mama and I am always smiling showing it off. When I smile at others it makes them smile back, too.

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My goofy personality is my favorite characteristic about myself. I love how no matter where I am or what I am doing I can always have a great time. I can put a smile on anyone's face and I can make friends with anyone. My positivity is also great to have in life.

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This is my important object because my faith is everything to me. This is why I wear my cross everyday. I know I am close to God and He is close with me. The other necklace I share with my mama and sister. They mean everything to me, so to be able to share something more than just our DNA I love! Our necklace says Mother Daughter Friends Forever.

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This picture I made represents my cultural discomfort and fears. I am scared that when I am blessed with my own classroom I will not have enough of a variety of books where all my unique and diverse students will feel welcome and included. I never want any of my students to keep out of place or to think I do not love them, because I will love each students for everything they add to the classroom to make it perfect.

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Literacy practices of your everyday life

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Literacy practices of your everyday life

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My literacy practices of my everyday life is reading and learning from the Bible. My faith means a lot to me and if I better myself a little more each day I feel great! The way I live and base choices is from my learnings through the Bible. How I treat people is through reading the Bible. I try to give love the way Jesus did.

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When it comes to my privilege I decided to take a picture of my home since birth. I am apart of a white, middle class, loving family. We have been blessed to be able to live in the same house for almost thirty years. This is my home and I have had so many memories that I will carry with me all throughout life.

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Where I come from I was raised in the suburbs. My daddy always took my sister and I into the woods to explore any chance we got. We even have another home that is in a small town. I am accustomed to the "country" lifestyle. Therefore, I would say my biases are people who live in the city or are from a different world than the country.

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My cultural values and beliefs are that family is everything. They are what keeps me going everyday. They are my biggest supporters and I am theirs. I love nothing more than these wonderful, powerful, loving individuals. I am lucky enough to have some great role models that I watch be the best versions of themselves daily. I am so happy I have such a strong unity that I know will always be there for me and me for them.

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My favorite literacy experience occurs every Sunday. I love going to church and learning and reading new concepts and ideas from the Bible. My literacy church experience was so impactful I gave my life to Christ so I could learn and grow more through the power of the written word.

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Your strength on teaching culturally diverse students

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Your strength on teaching culturally diverse students

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I would say my strength on teaching culturally diverse students is my heart and the huge amount of love I can offer. I decided on my heart as a strength because love is universal. Everyone can tell when someone loves them no matter where they come from. I feel I have this ability to make people who do not know me know I have love for them. This is also crucial as a teacher to make your students feel safe and you believe in them.

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Your weakness on teaching culturally diverse students

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Your weakness on teaching culturally diverse students

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I feel this picture I made best represents my weakness on teaching culturally diverse students. In the illustration I made my brain smaller when it comes to knowledge on cultures other than my own. It is a weakness, but I plan to educate myself daily to help make my brain (knowledge) grow. I feel the only way to turn this weakness into a strength is by learning along with my students.

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The Important Book: Your favorite literature experience

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The Important Book: Your favorite literature experience

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These two books are my favorite literature experience. They are my favorite because these two books where the books my daddy would read to me and my sister before bed. Both of these books are spinoffs of famous fairy tales I was told growing up. My sister and I enjoyed these books so much because my daddy would change his voice for the different characters and really make the stories come alive.

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My favorite place to read and write is this chair that is located in my room. This chair is very comfy and it gets me out of bed and I feel I can get more done. The pillows I placed also adds more comfort and I can put some in my lap to rest my laptop or book on.

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I am Tori
I am white, female, and my family is apart of the middle class social status
I am fun-loving, goofy, always smiling, and brightening others lives
I am in love with Jesus, church, and reading the Bible
I am strong with my huge heart to give my students love
I am always growing to be the best version of myself for the world
I am Tori

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My thoughts on this literacy as I completed the project are all positive. I really got to look deeper into my life than I usually do. I got to focus on how I see myself instead of worrying how others see me. It also made me love myself in a different form than just surface level love. The implications of knowledge I gained about myself for my teaching career is that I need to broaden my knowledge of other cultures other than my own. This is something I need to work on because not all my students will have the or similar backgrounds as myself and it is my job as their teacher to relate the best I can to where they are coming from. I know I will never fully ever understand what they go through because I have not experienced it myself, but I can educate myself enough to be able to emphasize with them.

The awareness of who I am culturally impacts my teaching greatly. I am human and I come with biases and prejudices but I am trying to leave them at the door and come with an open mind and heart full of love. I believe it is extremely important to consider the identity of the teacher and his/her cultural background as a part of their teaching process. I feel this way because it justifies the way they run their classroom because they put importance in their room that is important within their culture. By getting to know the teacher fully explains their teaching processes as well.

It is imperative that teacher identity in recognizing that children are not illiterate and fail at school due to deficits in their culture and in their cognition because every student is capable of learning. Some students have more support than others but teachers cannot give on them and just label them as illiterate or a failure. It is very important for teachers to understand "funds of knowledge" to promote a culturally responsive classroom. It is important because the teacher must know their students cultures and where each comes from so the classroom can be inclusive for each individual student and make all the students who are diverse a big loving family.

The "funds of knowledge" that I bring to school as a teacher is first off my culture. I bring my culture everywhere I go, so it is no question why I would not bring it to the classroom with me. I also bring my life experiences that I can incorporate into the lessons for my students. I also bring background knowledge that I can attempt to connect previous lessons to what I am teaching then. Lastly, I can bring politically, historically, and worldly scenarios to help broaden the students views and ideas of the world outside of their own cultures. I believe I fall in the middle of that spectrum because I can still gain more knowledge to help me bridge that gap I have from my own culture and the culture of my students in my classroom. But I have the desire and willpower to educate myself. Again, I know I will never fully be able to understand someone else's culture if I have not personally faced it, but I want to at least be able to be there and have meaningful talks about where they come from.

What I have learned in this class has made me more critical of what people, books are saying and showing about "good literacy" because it is having me look inside myself and identify where I stand and where I need to improve. It also showed me that I need to have a variety of books, artwork, and instructional materials used in my classroom to help emphasize welcoming all cultures in my classroom. To better promote equity and better serve my students I will create a classroom where everyone is a family and no one is left out. I will also provide an array of options for books that express different cultures that my students can either learn about or relate to.

References
Mohr, K. A. (2004). English as an Accelerated Language: A Call to Action for Reading Teachers. The Reading Teacher, 58(1), 18-26. doi:10.1598/rt.58.1.2

Kiyama, J. M. (2011). Family Lessons and Funds of Knowledge: College-Going Paths in Mexican American Families. Journal of Latinos and Education, 10(1), 23-42. doi:10.1080/15348431.2011.531656

Mui, S., & Anderson, J. (2008). At Home With the Johars: Another Look at Family Literacy. The Reading Teacher, 62(3), 234-243. doi:10.1598/rt.62.3.5