Welcome to My Profile Page
Hello! I’m Denise and I am 41 years old. I was born in Sao Paulo*, a metropolis in the south-east of Brazil. I came to the Netherlands in 2019 and since then I have been living in Den Haag, together with my husband and our nine-year-old son. We consider ourselves a multilingual family. I speak:
Educational and Professional Background
I majored in Letters, in Portuguese and English, at Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciencias Humanas. That is the humanities faculty of Universidade de Sao Paulo (USP), and had my teaching credentials at that same time. While studying for my bachelor, I also worked as an English teacher, teaching children English as a Foreign Language (EFL). After graduating, I started working not only at language institutes but also at regular schools. I took on a Pedagogy program to have the credentials to be a Primary classroom teacher. I started working in International Schools in Sao Paulo and then in Den Haag.
In my Bachelor years I remember coming across the term palimpsestos, palimpsests in English, and I think that was when my curiosity about the medium(s) humans used in order to write started. And of course, I do love a good-looking book! Throughout my college years (and that was almost 20 years ago) I bought quite a few theoretical, but also fictional books that just “looked important” or were “pretty”. Until this day they are on my shelves. I have to admit that there are some which I have not managed to read…yet.
It was also during my university years that I studied children’s books from an analytical perspective. Prior to that I was mainly a consumer of these kind of books. It was only after a specific course in my bachelor program that I started looking at them with different eyes. No wonder I have a lot of children’s books in my own personal library. They were also used for read-alouds to my students, clearly, but also to satisfy my own “collector” pleasure. The illustrations are often times so incredibly beautiful and intricate. Important to note - I am quite attached to my books, so I almost never lend them, especially to my fellow teachers…
Previous Knowledge and Expectations
As I said in our Introduction class to this program, I am looking for something else than teaching at the moment, for a career change. Because I have been in the education field ever since I graduated, I feel I do not have a lot of experience in bibliography or the study of books. Certainly nothing related to digital media and/or the markup languages that we are studying and right now practising, like this HTML language. Most of the topics we have had so far are novelty to me. That is what excites me and scares me at the same time. I suppose that is the general feeling you get when you go through changes. And that is fine.
| Prior Knowledge | None about markup languages and software that uses these languages or codes. |
| Expectations | I expect to learn how to read and use confidently the XML language/code. |
Other Interests
Ever since I became a mother, my interests have been going through shifts, as one can imagine. Going to the cinema almost on a weekly basis, going to concerts or just picking up a new book to read for pleasure, in peace, were activities that I set aside. Now, I am gradually owning my “freedom” back; but my interests have changed, of course. Some of the things I like doing at the moment are:
My favorite Brazilian novel is Grande Sertão: Veredas by João Guimarães Rosa. A book in English, not a novel, that has become one of my favorites is Women Who Run With The Wolves: Contacting the Power of the Wild Woman by Clarissa Pinkola Estés. I have the copy of the latter in Portuguese - the cover looks more delicate and feminine than the English version one. I find it quite interesting how the covers of translated versions can be so different from each other at times. I wonder who is the one that makes this sort of decision...
I hope my first attempt of using HTML to create a webpage was pleasing on the eye and easy for you to read.
See you around!
Denise
* While writing this profile, I heard the news that Sao Paulo has earned first place in 'City with the worst air quality in the world'. A feat that I must say I am not proud of at all.