Red Lake teacher in Books of Life launch

TORONTO, Sept. 20, 2012 /CNW/ - Native Language teacher Tom Doherty from St. John's Catholic School in Red Lake will participate in the launch of The Ontario Teachers' Federation (OTF) Books of Life in Toronto on Sunday, September 23, 2012 at The Word on the Street.  Tom and his students of Native Language were part of this year-long project.

Tom, a graduate from Lakehead University, has been a teacher for seven years and for the last four has been teaching Native Languages and the Arts.

Books of Life is an Aboriginal education awareness and literacy initiative of OTF, funded by the Government of Ontario.  Supported by their teachers, students from diverse school populations created books about their lives. Large schools were linked with small; rural with urban; northern with southern.  Each class chose the theme and form of its Book of Life.  They exchanged their books with students in other schools, enhancing understanding of each other.

On Sunday, September 23, 2012, at The Word on the Street in Toronto, students' work will be featured at the Children's Reading Tent at 3:00 p.m.  Annually attracting more than 200,000 visitors to its Queen's Park Circle location, The Word on the Street Toronto is the largest book and magazine festival in Canada.  OTF is pleased to be officially launching the Books of Life at this exciting event.

All of the Books of Life will be on display at the Books of Life booth at K14 and K15 in The KidStreet section.  Teachers who were part of the project will be available to talk about their experiences and the work of their students.  The project included students from all grade levels and all parts of the publicly funded schools.

The Ontario Teachers' Federation is the advocate for the teaching profession in Ontario and for its 160,000 teachers.  OTF members are full-time, part-time and occasional teachers in all the publicly funded  schools in the province—elementary, secondary, public, Catholic and francophone.

SOURCE: Ontario Teachers' Federation

Lindy Amato
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