Literacy Profile

Hello, my name is Denny Fisher.  I'm from a small town in western Pennsylvania called Bedford.  My original aim was to pursue a Nutrition degree at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, but pulled out at the last minute because I was indecisive of what I really wanted to go to school for.  From there I attended a small community college and just declared my major as English because I couldn't decide on one and thought, "Hey, I like to read. I'll go with English."  However, I should mention that I have to be in the mood to read, usually from a subject the novel deals with that I feel like having a better understanding of, and also out of obigation to do so.  Although, I can usually get interested in required reading (teachers just have good taste).  I will say a part of me has always had a knack for reading.  I use to be in book clubs in the elementary grades that would go to competitions.  But then I lost sight of reading until about my senior year in High School, our teacher had _Beowulf_, _Night_, and_Oedipus Rex_ to name a few.  From there I started getting back my appreciation for reading and how powerful of a tool it is for learning.  Topics for leisurely reading I tend to go for usually seem to fall into the realm of that individual that has to overcome adversity either with his personal beliefs or against society at large.  Therefore, I like popular titles such as _1984_, _Siddhartha_, _Frankenstein_, _The House of Mirth_, and _Zastrozzi_ to name a few (and yes, I love the gothic genre of fiction).  And last of all to wrap this up, I want to show students in my own classroom of how powerful of a tool reading can be, whether it's garnering knowledge on a chosen topic or building your rhetoric, and how it serves many functions in helping students think more "outside the box" that allows them to be more creative and knowledgable in a wide array of subjects.