Running head: WEBB FAMILY CULTURAL AUTOBIOGRAPHY

Webb Family Cultural Autobiography Madeline Webb Ivy Tech Community College

WEBB FAMILY CULTURAL AUTOBIOGRAPHY INTASC Standard, Description and Rationale Standard #9: Professional Learning and Ethical Practice

The teacher engages in ongoing professional learning and uses evidence to continually evaluate his/her practice, particularly the effects of his/her choices and actions on others (learners, families, other professionals, and the community), and adapts practice to meet the needs of each learner.

Name of Artifact: My Cultural Autobiography Date: February, 2013 Course: EDUC 130 Brief Description: For this assignment, students were asked to research their family, culture and history. The student presents the information in the format of a two page cultural autobiography of their life. Rationale: To document my understanding of Standard #9, Professional Learning and Ethical Practice, I chose to include my cultural autobiography assignment to represent my continuing reflection on how my upbringing and culture may impact how I treat students and how I teach students. By being aware of my background I am able to recognize biases and issues that may prevent me from becoming a culturally competent teacher.

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Introduction My name is Madeline Mary Webb. I was born in Brisbane Queensland on September 5, 1988 at the Mater Hospital. I come from a very small family and grew up in Queensland, Australia. We have strong values especially when it comes to looking after family and working hard. I dont believe that we have many traditions in the Australian culture but we do enjoy eating shrimp and going for a swim at the beach each year after Christmas lunch. Family History My mother is Eileen Allanah Webb and she is married to my father Anthony Paul Webb. I also have one older brother who is two and a half years older than I am called Timothy Adrian Webb. We grew up in Queensland for the majority of my childhood until we moved to Western Australia when my mother got a new job. Our family moved around a lot and I changed schools multiple times throughout my primary and secondary education. I don't believe it affected me too much and in actual fact I believe it helped me be able to get to know new people quickly. After finishing high school I was going to attend the University of Western Australia to study architecture. I had other plans though. Since I was seventeen years old I knew I wanted to travel the world. I attended beauty school and became trained in many different areas of the industry. I worked full time in a cosmetic surgery and saved up lots of money to go traveling. When I turned 21 I packed up my things and started on my journey. After traveling for 8 months I decided I wanted to do some study and that is how I ended up at Ivy Tech. Both my parents are teachers. My father is a high school teacher and has worked in many areas including teaching math, religion and he currently works in the design and technology department at Trinity College in Perth, Western Australia. My mother is a professor of law at the University of Western Australia. She started her career as a Japanese teacher before going back to school to pursue law. She not only teaches but also writes many text books and speaks about different issues in terms of

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property and consumer law. My brother worked as a roof carpenter for many years and is now teaching carpentry to other future carpenters. So it would seem by this short summary of my immediate family that teaching is in our veins. My parents met on the Gold Coast in Queensland where they were working at Palm Beach School, in Currumbin. My mom was doing her teaching practical and my dad was already teaching at the school. They met at a work party and spent the whole night talking finishing with milkshakes at 6am the next morning. My dad dropped my mom off at her apartment and asked for her number, to which she replied you dont have anything to write it down on. He said that he would remember and that Monday he phoned her, six months later they were married, 31 years later they are still happy and in love. My family values loyalty, commitment, hard work and family. We stick together no matter what. Moving back a generation I will start with my mothers side. My mother is the eldest daughter of my grandparents. My grandfather is Adrian Ponting and my grandmother is Patricia Ponting. They had one other child, my aunt, Ursula Mary Ponting. This side of the family all worked as pharmacists. My grandmother met my grandfather working as a pharmacist after she graduated. They have been married for 53 years and still going strong. They are catholic and still attend church every week so this is an important part of their lives. However they do not push their religious practices on us. After working in pharmacy for quite some time my grandfather purchased the farm that he grew up on and started a dairy farm. I also spent a lot of time and at one point lived and attended a school in the country for close to a year. My Great Grandfather was a policeman and my great grandmother was a teacher. I am not sure when this part of the family came to Australia but I do know that our roots go back to Ireland. In 2007 I went to Blarney and other locations in Ireland and met distant relatives with my family. I know that my grandmother and grandfathers great grandparents are buried in Ireland. My dad's parents are my granddad Barry Webb and my grandma Patrica Webb. They had three children together and my dad was the eldest. His sister Julie Webb was in the middle and Jeff Webb

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was the youngest. My granddad was a carpenter and also worked for Australia Post. He moved over from England when he late teens. He worked as a fruit picker in Victoria and met my grandma through mutual friends. We still have some family living in South Hampton in England to this day. My grandma lost her mother young and was working in a nursing home when she met my granddad and moved to Queensland with him. After marrying my granddad she stayed at home and looked after the house and the children. She has ties in France and England also. My Grandma and Granddad were together for 51 years before he passed away two years ago. Conclusion No matter what happens in all our lives we remain extremely close and as we do not have an extremely large family, I only have one first cousin; it makes our unit even tighter. We do not have any real cultural traditions but ewe really value family and we have all grown up as Catholics even though my grandparents are more devoted then the younger generations. In terms food that is important to us and our culture I would say vegemite, my Granddad Adrians eggplant stew and my Dads mums tuna patties as staples that we have at family dinners. I am very grateful to have the family I have and the values we share.