Ellen Michelson

photo by Ricki Glinert

A high school teacher in Toronto starting in 1989, I journalled during my retirement year, planning to write a memoir. A couple of side trips followed. One was a fellowship to Greenland for ten months to work with English teachers. The other, when I came home, was unexpected. A by-election drew me to volunteer for the Green Party of Canada. I then was Toronto Centre’s Green Party candidate in the October, 2008 and May, 2011 general elections. After Green Party leader Elizabeth May won a seat in 2011, I volunteered in her Parliament Hill office for three months. I had two responsibilities: attending standing committee meetings on Elizabeth’s behalf, and walking the dog. You can find my blogging about Ottawa on the home page (scroll down, click Next as necessary).

Writing pre-dated my teaching. More than 100,000 words have appeared under my by-line. I’ve been a Professional Writers Association of Canada member for more than 30 years, and I’ve served the association as a volunteer in various ways, most recently as Ontario Regional Director. A member of the Toronto Heliconian Club, I’ve served on its board, and am proud to be a former chair of its literature section. I’m also a professional member of the Arts & Letters Club of Toronto, and a member of the Women’s Art Association of Canada.

My first teaching job was supplying and then serving as a long-term occasional in a group of communities near Malmö, Sweden, teaching in Swedish. I earned my Master of Arts in Teaching from Harvard University; perhaps because my training there was as a high school teacher, the job I started with was in a school district without a high school. In Toronto, I taught at Northern Secondary and Western Technical-Commercial before ending up at Central Tech, musing from time to time over how so many local school names lack éclat.

Besides teaching in Toronto and in Greenland, I’ve worked with English teachers in Guatemala, and taught for a semester in an Indiana middle school. As a volunteer, I’ve helped staffers at an NGO in Nicaragua with their English, and served as a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer, teaching English in Ukraine. I travelled back to Ukraine as a member of the first Canada Corps; we were election observers for the Orange Revolution repeat presidential run-off in the winter of 2004.

When teaching in Toronto, I served as a local Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation representative, carrying district information back to my school and school concerns forward. Non-school volunteer commitments have included ushering for the Hot Docs, Regent Park, and Toronto International Film Festivals and the Village Players theatre; when possible, I sing with the Toronto Raging Grannies. I’ve helped dish up and clean up in the Bleecker-Wellesley Activity Network’s cosy kitchen, and at The 519 Church Street Community Centre’s Sunday drop-in, which boasts an industrial-strength dishwasher that astounded me with its speed every time I pressed the buttons. Turning compost and finding happy earthworms with elementary-school keeners for Green Thumbs Growing Kids prepared me to join the other Red Wiggler Wranglers in my co-op. We recently acquired our charges; their preferences and activities, as they set about improving the soil surrounding our building, are, I am learning from the experts in our group, both eclectic and precise.

Please see the sidebar for other sub pages.

Comments Off on About Ellen