Meet Nora

Hi, I am Nora Bryant and I am the morning basic/beginning instructor here at Ozark Literacy Council. I recently retired and was looking for ways to give back in the community when I came across a call for teachers at Ozark Literacy Council.

I’ve been in Fayetteville since 1995. I was the director of volunteer programs for a local domestic violence shelter for women. I worked at a testing laboratory in Rogers where we tested Walmart products. Most recently, I retired from Catholic Campus Ministry where I was an administrative assistant for Fayetteville’s Catholic Campus Ministry organizations.

Before moving to Fayetteville, I was a teacher in TX. I taught kindergarten through 12th grade at a private school, with as many as 17 students. It was an old-time, one-room, type school.  I coordinated lesson plans, class schedules and appropriate curriculum for each grade level.  It was not uncommon for an upper grade level student to assist in the teaching and grading process. I specialized in English – my favorite subject to teach and was reminded of my own home schooling.

This is my first experience teaching adults, but I am enjoying this new challenge. I enjoy meeting my students and learning about their cultures and languages. I recently learned to say thank you in Swahili although I immediately forgot it after the lesson! Learning words and phrases in unfamiliar languages is hard! Even as I learn a lot about the cultural differences between myself and my students, I am constantly reminded that our differences can unite us. Language is really the biggest barrier here for my students’ success.

I believe that the importance of literacy is too often taken for granted or overlooked. I’m confident our world would be a better place if we knew how to communicate, understand, and appreciate all cultures. I know of no better way to unite us than for us all to become teachers.