Class Profile Page
ENGL 301 Writing & the Teaching of Writing
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Rosalie Barkley is from Sharon, Massachusetts, and is currently enrolled at Bridgewater State University studying to become an English Teacher. Her hobbies include reading and creative writing. She also enjoys being active and exercising. She has 3 sisters, 1 brother, and two guinea pigs. Her favorite season is the fall, her favorite holiday is Halloween, her favorite films are anything with hardcore action, and her favorite book is anyone she can get her hands on. She has quite a unique and bubbly personality, and it is a pleasure getting to chat with her. Pursuing a career in teaching is her dream and if we are lucky, perhaps someday we will be reading her first hit novel.
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Sydney Silverman majors in Secondary Education because she loves being able to help people, but also has a passion for dancing that she never wants to lose touch with. She enjoys almost all kinds of dancing and loves all kinds of music. In her spare time, she choreographs dances for a YouTube channel that she began working on to stay busy during quarantine. Her best friends would describe Sydney as the “hippy friend” because of her obsession with all things flowers. When the weather is good, she likes to go camping or hiking. If given the choice, she would rather venture off to the mountains than the beach any day. Thus, her favorite seasons are Spring and Fall. Some of Sydney’s favorite things are Beauty and the Beast, musicals, Halloween, and a dinner of chicken parmesan at Olive Garden. Something she does not like is cauliflower. She describes her favorite colors as “like being at a gender reveal party” because they are pink and blue. Sydney used to live in Brockton, MA and now lives in Whitman with one sister and her two pets; a cat and a dog whose names are Daisy and Gracey.
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Rachael Sweeney is currently a secondary education and English double major. She has aspirations of becoming a high school English teacher but is weighing her options in elementary education as well. Her two favorite classes that she’s taken at Bridgewater are writing about literature and an introductory secondary education class called learning, motivation, and teaching. She has a deep appreciation for poetry and had one of her poems published in The Bridge. She is a spontaneous individual, as she spends the warm summer months at the beach in her current hometown of Marshfield. At home, she works at a small coffee shop and has become intrigued with the process behind making good coffee. She loves being outside and everything that comes with it. Her personality led her and her friend to Europe to backpack for an entire month. Although that sounds expensive, she explains that travel is cheap once you’re there, and the memories are priceless. She enjoys arts and crafts, specifically printmaking. Some of her other hobbies include cooking, educating herself on the inner workings of holistic health approaches, and astrology! She also watches a wide range of tv shows like Shameless, Jane the Virgin, and Breaking Bad.
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Courtney Beale is a Junior at BSU, studying Elementary Education and English. She is planning on teaching the fourth grade, but may try to teach sixth grade after working as a sixth grade teacher’s aid. Courtney is from Attleboro. She loves the outdoors. In the Summer, Courtney enjoys the beach, fishing, and hiking. In Winter, Courtney likes to ski or snowmobile. As a hobby, Courtney does Olympic weightlifting. She got started weightlifting when she attended one of her boyfriend’s competitions and the owner of the gym convinced her to try it out. Courtney enjoys action movies, such as the Marvel series, Jason Bateman films, and Goodfellas. New Girl is one of her favorite shows.Courtney loves poetry. She says there is something very thought provoking about picking a poem apart and creating a meaning for yourself. She recommends the poem "to be of use," by Marge Piercy. It reminds her of the hard work that is being an educator. Courtney also is a writing fellow and consultant in the writing studio on campus. She speaks highly of the team that they have. Courtney babysits two children, a six-year old girl and a ten-year old boy. She has worked for this family for four years and has been helping the children navigate online learning, which she says has been tough but is perfect preparation for when she is a teacher. She wouldn’t trade her time with them for the world.
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Megan Canterbury is a crazy hardworking student and loving mother. She is the daughter of Irish immigrants and is the first person in her family to go to college. She was born in Quincy Massachusetts but grew up in Cape Cod; she lived there with her parents and her younger brother Jack until she went to Babson College for a degree in Business with a focus in Environmental Sustainability. She soon realized this was not what she wanted to do with her life. She moved to California before moving to Ireland for four years to be with her family. While in Ireland she had her daughter, Saoirse and thought she was going to stay there for the rest of her life. But then she took a job as a long-term sub for students with IEPs, and she fell in love with teaching. She moved back to Massachusetts and now lives in Dighton with her partner Patrick and three-year old Saoirse. She attends BSU and is seeking a degree in English Education. Megan likes to go on walks in the woods and even has an app on her phone that helps her find trails; she also has a love for painting. But she spends most of her time taking care of her daughter and focusing on her schooling. She works extremely hard to be there for her daughter and is excited about becoming an educator in the future.
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Maria Pestilli is a friendly, young, Irish-Italian woman from Hanson, Massachusetts who is a junior at Bridgewater State University. She is passionately studying Secondary Education as well as English, with the dream of becoming a middle school English teacher in her home state. Maria loves reading and her favorite book is The Hobbit by J.R.R Tolkien; she is an avid Lord of the Rings fan. Her other hobbies include videogaming, quilting, baking, and she loves animals, especially her registered show horse named Dizzy who she has had for 17 years. Her passion for horse shows took her on adventures across New England throughout her childhood, and she has travelled to Florida and Ireland, too. She lives on a busy farm with seven people, a combination of family members and friends who she enjoys spending time with, and they are accompanied by chickens, ducks, turkeys, geese, cats, dogs, a parrot, and of course, horses. Maria is excited to get married to her fiancé Kaylynn in the spring of 2021, and until then is focused on her studies as she works to follow her passion of inspiring children.
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Vanessa Semeraro has the profound ability to create a friendly and welcoming environment the moment she enters a room, reflected by her major choice of Early Childhood Education. Currently halfway through her senior year, Semeraro hopes to graduate fall 2021. She first enrolled in North Shore Community College. Semeraro initially jumped from majoring in Nutrition to Business. During a conversation with her mother on the topic the idea of majoring in Childhood Education was brought up. It wasn’t until she began working at a daycare that she realized how much she enjoyed the art of passing knowledge onto younger generations. Once again Semeraro swapped majors, but this time she was confident that this decision would be the final one. Outside of the classroom Semeraro’s life is filled with adventures around the world. At age 22 she has already been to more countries than most Americans will in their whole lives. Her favorite vacation spots were in Ireland and Jamaica. While at home she enjoys working out, cooking, and running. Semeraro is the second youngest of five sisters. Her family owns three pets: a black lab named Calie, a mixed dog named Bodhi, and a cat named Roo. |
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John Cronin is a 21-year-old man junior, majoring in English with a Writing Studies Concentration. English became Cronin’s passion once he realized English was his strong suit and that he could do without the math and science. John isn't sure what he is going to do after graduation, but he feels confident that he will figure it out and that his skills as a reader and writer will serve him well. Cronin transferred to Bridgewater from Bristol Community College where he started his English major. As for life outside of Bridgewater State University, John lives quite a normal and steady lifestyle. He enjoys keeping himself healthy by working out, specifically running, and as his mind healthy by reading quite a bit. His favorite genre consists of any that strikes interest, but fiction has to be the top genre he reaches for on the bookshelf. Another past time activity Cronin enjoyed was entertaining his mind with Game of Thrones. He dove deep into the show and it soon became a favorite. John is the second oldest of his four siblings and the proud caregiver to a Golden Retriever named Abe, as well as a Mini Poodle named Mosest. Johne doesn't come from much of a traveling family, but Maine is one of their favorite places to go. |
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Stasia Wing is from Hudson, MA and is a Junior here at BSU majoring in Elementary Education and English. She has a passion for English so she is leaning towards teaching 5th or 6th graders so she can focus primarily on that subject. When she is not in Zoom University working towards her degree, she is working at her old High School or Middle School as an IT Assistant in Marlborough, MA. In her free time, she likes to look at astrology posts and read what they have to say about her zodiac sign, Cancer. Cancers are well known for their compassion and selflessness and one of the many ways she encapsulates those traits is by doing her part to help protect the environment by thrifting her clothes, which is a significantly more sustainable way to shop. She has not bought a “new” piece of clothing in over a year. If you are ever looking for somebody to talk about classic movies, The Bachelor or Bridgerton with, Stasia is your girl! She also loves movies like The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink, and anything by John Hughes. Along with that, she is stuck in the early 2000s with her music taste and enjoys listening to artists such as P!ATD, Fall Out Boy, Blink 182, and many more! She is also a huge lover of Taylor Swift and is a master when it comes to discussing her whole discography and theories revolving around her lyrics.
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Danielle Delaroca is a junior at BSU from North Attleboro, MA. She is currently double majoring in Secondary Education and English with a minor in Special Education. Her goal for the future is to teach in a 9th or 10th grade classroom, but at the moment she is working as a Peer Assistant for Intro to Linguistics. She has a guilty pleasure for TV shows like New Girl and Schitt’s Creek but for movies her heart also leans towards many 80’s classics. One of her favorite movies of all time though just happens to be from the 90’s, 10 Things I Hate About You. She resonates well with her zodiac sign Pisces and could tell you a thing or two about what it’s like being a water sign. When it comes to music Danielle’s taste is across the board from alternative, to pop, and to even indie. She loves artists like Harry Styles and Taylor Swift. She enjoys the artistry in Taylor Swift’s music especially in her favorites like “August”, “This is Me Trying”, and “Champagne Problems” from her two new albums released this year. And of course, she has hopped onto the “Drivers License” train as of late. Music is a very big part of Danielle’s life.
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Rowan Kelley is a Secondary Education and English major. She is also a full-time student who is taking five courses despite the pandemic. She is currently a Junior who transferred last semester from Northern Essex Community College. She was originally born in Western Mass but now lives in Haverhill in an apartment with her roommate. She has one pet, her cat, whom she adores and has had for several years. She enjoys doing yoga in her free time and watching Law and Order: SVU whenever she has the chance. Her all-time favorite book is the Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, which inspired the television show named the same and that she thoroughly enjoys watching. Just like her favorite color, which is purple, represents devotion, she devotes her time to making sure that the people around her are happy. Even though she always tries to not come off as rude to other people, she tries her best to be as honest as she possibly can—a quality that she characterizes as her greatest strength. If she could turn back time, she would change her decision about dropping out of High School and starting college later on at the age of 21.
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Patricia Diaz Fernandez is a Secondary Education and English major. She’s currently a full-time Sophomore living on campus, but she’s originally from Brockton, Massachusetts. Patricia is a Resident Assistant on campus, and her favorite part of the job is decorating the bulletin boards. Not only does Patricia love anime, but she adores yoga, arts and crafts, and anything that will make her feel good. Unsurprisingly, she’s passionate about anything related to helping someone out, whether that be answering a question or just making sure someone is happy and having a good day. Patricia considers her greatest strength to be how much she cares about people, and even if she doesn’t know them, she will go above and beyond to ensure their success and happiness. One of her favorite books is The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and her favorite show is Supernatural featuring 2 brothers, Sam and Dean, who hunt down evil supernatural creatures. Patricia’s favorite color is yellow, due to its association with feeling happiness, positivity, and cheerfulness. Patricia is very comfortable with where she is in life as well as who she surrounds herself with, and personally, she would not change anything about herself or her life. |
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Andrew Mortarelli is a Secondary Education student at BSU. He lives in Bridgewater and plans on teaching English to high school students. He chose BSU because it was close to home, his Grandmother used to work there, and because BSU is known for its education program. Andrew decided to declare a major in English because his senior year English teacher influenced him. However, what inspired him the most to pursue a teaching career was the fact that he loves seeing people learn and being able to encourage others. Ever since childhood, Andrew knew that he wanted to teach. He started mentoring other students, and he had a real passion to help others achieve their goals in life. A fun fact about Andrew is that he loves to act. He may seem like a timid kid, but he acted in high school plays in front of numerous people. The only reason why he isn’t pursuing an acting career at the moment is because he says the acting business can get a little too competitive. Another hobby of his is Legos. He loves building Legos just as much he loves Percy Jackson books, or maybe more. His favorite TV show is The Flash, even though it tends to get a little too repetitive after a few seasons.
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Djenifer Fernandes Goncalves is a sophomore at Bridgewater State University studying English and Secondary Education. Djenifer (pronounced like Jennifer), is from Brockton, and her favorite show to watch is The Office, with her favorite movie is What Happened to Monday. She loves to read and write, if she could travel anywhere, it would be to go to Paris, Greece, or Brasil, and her favorite place that she’s visited is the Cozumel Island in Mexico. Her favorite book series is the Robert Langdon series, written by Dan Brown, with her favorite book in the series being The Da Vinci Code. She got into that book series by reading that book, and one of her teachers in school saw her reading it and gave her the other books in the series because he knew she would enjoy them. That same teacher is who inspired her to pursue education as a career, and she claims that had she not had him, she would never have even considered education as her college major. In a high school setting, she would like to teach juniors and seniors. One thing about her that she wished more people knew was that she is determined, and she won’t give up easily. |
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Angel Walsh is a Secondary Education and English major. She is currently a full-time student taking six classes. Angel's dedication to schoolwork takes up most of her time. In her free time she has interesting hobbies that include enjoying the beauty of nature and her family. Angel is the oldest of four siblings. She is married and loves being an aunt and hanging out with her 7-month niece and 5-year-old nephew in her spare-time, whom she adores. In her free time, she makes fun new discoveries with them. Her niece is at the age where she is very curious and exploring the world around her. Angel is a huge animal and hunting advocate. She is educated about hunting responsibly and has a passion for sharing it with other people. Angel both loves animals and hunting. She can explain to you how hunting is helping the environment in MA with the current overpopulation of whitetail deer. Angel has great reverence for nature and a love for animals. Angel hopes to teach high school seniors once she begins her teaching career after graduation from BSU. She had an inspirational senior teacher who made learning fun and interesting in her final year of high school. This is part of the reason Angel decided to pursue a career in education. The movie Freedom Writers also inspired Angel to want to become an English teacher, and she highly recommends the movie to anyone looking for a powerful film.
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Sarah McNaughton is a sophomore here at Bridgewater State, she transferred from Stonehill College last semester. She is currently studying Secondary Education and English. Once she graduates, she plans to teach middle school. Sarah loves the literature that is taught, and the freedom to be goofy with her future students. She believes that middle school is a fun age to teach and that there is a lot of flexibility in what can be taught. When she is not in class Sarah works within a middle school special education classroom as a substitute teacher, and she also works at Carters clothing store. Sarah has a fraternal twin brother who attends Assumption University. An interesting fact about Sarah is that she was recently an extra on a movie set. The movie is called Godmothered and it premiered on Disney Plus. When she is not in school or working Sarah enjoys to go for runs. It helps to relieve her stress from work and school. A recent hobby that Sarah has picked up is skiing. She loves to ski; she says that being out on the slopes brings her a lot happiness. Sarah also enjoys spending down time with her three-year-old chocolate lab named Wyatt.
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Catie Mullen is a happy and kind-hearted girl, from Southbury, CT. She is very outgoing and loves to spend time with her friends. She is in her sophomore year and is majoring in Elementary Education and English. Catie is a part of the dual-licensure program at BSU to also receive her master's degree in Special Education. She has always known that she has wanted to be a teacher. Her older sister Jackie went to Bridgewater State for teaching as well. Jackie is a big role model in Catie's life, and she really looks up to her. Catie's future goal is to be a third or fourth grade teacher. She loves to read in her free time. She likes to read drama, romance, and mystery novels. Catie wants to bring in her love for reading and children's imaginations into her future classroom. She loves to stay active and go on walks and hikes with her golden retriever puppy name Bailey. One of her favorite things to do in her free time is go to spin class. Catie is the Administrative Vice President of Gamma Phi Beta (one of the sororities on campus). She loves meeting new people and getting involved on campus. Catie is looking forward to learning a lot in this class and getting to know everyone this semester.
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Maire Sholes motto is "I'm quiet, but it doesn't mean I'm not listening." Born on August 19th in Mansfield, MA, Maire came into her family smack dab in the middle of three brothers. When asked about being the only girl in a house full of boys Maire's eyes light up: "It's something!". Both parents are MA natives and rounding out this family unit is a dog named Karlie, a box-terrier-poodle mix. Karlie may be small, but she has a big personality.Here at Bridgewater Maire is in her junior year, studying to be a teacher. Her majors are secondary education and English literature, and she has a strong preference for teaching high school students. Her passion for teaching stems from the hardships she once faced in the classroom. Feeling that her teachers weren't as encouraging as they could've been, Maire strives to be the kind of teacher that believes in and encourages each student, as she believes that this will help her future students grow and be successful in their journeys overall. These days you can find Maire studying vigorously for her heavy load of four courses this semester or helping her dad out by working alongside him in his flower shop.
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Mercedes Reid is currently in her third year at Bridgewater, majoring in Secondary Education with a minor in African American studies. She’s taking five classes during this current term and intends to teach after she graduates. When she becomes a teacher she hopes to work in a community that struggles with poverty in hopes of making an impact on the life and education of a student who needs it. At the moment, along with being a BSU student, she also works managing the main dining hall at Curry College in Milton. She was born on February 17th in Boston, to a mother from Maryland and a father from Jamaica. She has four siblings: three sisters and a brother as well as one nephew. Mercedes originally lived in Boston before later moving to Mansfield Mass, an experience she described as a culture shock, due to the shift from living in a city to suddenly living in a much smaller and quieter town. Mercedes’s favorite color is yellow and enjoys reading. She, like many lovers of books, couldn’t choose a single book to call her favorite, instead, naming her favorite author as Octavia Butler, having read most of her work and loving every word of it.
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Olivia Halpin is a junior studying English and Special Education/moderate disabilities. She plans to become a reading specialist for kindergarten or first grade. She is from Plymouth and has three sisters who she is close to. Olivia is also close with her adorable ragdoll cat Dixie. Her coastal hometown offers many fun summer activities. She spends her summers at the beach with her family and friends. She likes to walk, read, and watch the sunset. Currently Olivia teaches a K-6 gym class at a private school. She also enjoys working with and teaching children at her church. She helps run the children’s program at her church and loves doing so. Another job she has is at Shaw's, where she cooks in the kitchen. In her free time, she likes to write, paint, and draw (especially with charcoal). She also likes to hike in New Hampshire and Maine. One day she wants to go waterfall hiking. Although she has not traveled out of the country yet, when COVID ends she hopes to explore the world and plans to do international student teaching. As for music, she is a big country fan. Lastly, her all-time favorite food is Crab Rangoon.
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Lee Torda had to celebrate her 20th anniversary teaching at BSU over Zoom. Despite that, she is deeply grateful for the 20 years of students and colleagues she has had the privilege to know and work with at BSU, which has been her only institutional home since completing her PhD at the University of North Carolina Greensboro in 2000. Originally from Cleveland, OH, and super excited about the most recent season of Brown's football, Lee lives in Jamaica Plain, possible only because of her very kind landlords that have not substantively raised the rent since 2010, with her husband; three indoor cats: Luke, (after Skywalker), Diego (husband picked it), and Noodle (after her favorite food); and one outdoor cat named Little (because he is). She is very devoted to her nephews, nieces, godsons, and all manner of young people and happy that they don't live in her actual house. She loves to read, to go for overly long walks believing that there is no bad weather just bad gear (see photo), and listen to podcasts like The Moth Story Hour, The Confessional, and This American Life. She has an unnatural addiction to British cop shows, and, above all else, she really loves to teach. During the pandemic, she is trying her hardest to meet each day with radical hope.
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Need to be in touch with me?
LEE TORDA 310 Tillinghast Hall Bridgewater State University 508.531.2436 [email protected] www.leetorda.com CLICK HERE TO JOIN MY ZOOM SPACE. |
Fall 2022 Open Hours for students (office hours):
MW (in-person or Zoom) 12:00 (noon) to 1:30 T (Zoom only) 4:00-5:00 And by appointment (in-person or on Zoom) Make an appointment, either face to face or on zoom, during office hours or at another time: Let me know you want to meet by adding yourself to my google.doc appointment calendar here: https://goo.gl/3CqLf. If you are meeting me on zoom, Use the zoom link to the left on this page, repeated every page of this site (and in my email signature). |