Task 1 – What’s In Your Bag?

Hi everyone!

My name is Alanna, and I have chosen to share the contents of my (rather large) laptop bag with all of you. I have worked as a TTOC in both the Surrey and Langley school districts this school year, and I am saddened that COVID-19 has put this on hold. Working as a TTOC means entering into new schools, classrooms and learning environments daily. There have been times where I have accepted an assignment to teach Grade 12 business classes for the day, only to arrive at the school and receive a call from dispatch informing me they have changed my assignment and that I will instead be teaching Kindergarten at a nearby elementary school. With this uncertainty and unpredictability in mind, I always ensure my laptop bag holds various important items that help me navigate each situation I face as a TTOC.

The items in my bag include:

1. Laptop and charger
2. Headphones
3. Pencil case
4. Tylenol (in case of a sudden pounding headache)
5. Tea (for when I need a moment of warmth and peace)
6. A notebook that I use to jot down my positive/negative experiences at various schools
7. Sticky notes (I have learned that you can never have too many sticky notes as a TTOC – they are great for labelling different materials that you are leaving for the regular classroom teacher, such as work that students have handed in)
8. Business cards (I always leave a card for the teacher that I covered for)
9. District ID badges (one for Surrey and one for Langley)
10. Lip balm
11. Halls (in case my throat gets dry or sore midway through the day)
12. Emergency snack (in this case a Clif bar)
13. Day planner (used to keep track of weekly MET work and TTOC shifts)
14. Monthly planner (used to keep track of due dates in the MET program so that I can see them all at a glance)
15. Surrey Schools Staff Benefits & Information folder (I use this to hold my Missed Prep time forms and other important district documents)
16. UBC clipboard (this contains various back-up resources for multiple age groups in case things are not going according to plan, or in the rare instance where there is no plan!)

What is your daily need for the items in your bag? How might these items be considered “texts” and what do they say about you?

I use the items in this bag at varying frequencies. Some are daily use items, such as my laptop, charger, planner, sticky notes, business cards, and ID badges. Others I use rarely, or only in cases of “emergency,” such as the Clif bar, Halls, and Tylenol. The items in this bag would look quite different if I had my own classroom, as I would be able to store many of these items in a desk drawer rather than hauling them back and forth from school to home. The presence of these items in my bag, rather than in a desk, is a text that communicates the life of a TTOC. These texts illustrate my lack of classroom hub, the “on-the-go” nature of my job, the two districts that I am a part of, and the duality of being both a teacher and a student simultaneously. These items tell the story of someone who is organized (or at least strives to be), and, as my large planner in the top left corner suggests, a “busy bee.”

What are the “text technologies” in your bag? What do these items say about how you engage with language and communication, and the literacies you have? What would this same bag have looked like 15 or 25 years ago?

My bag is riddled with text technologies, and they show my tendency to use both print and digital texts. While I could easily use the calendar on my laptop to keep track of both my TTOC shifts and MET due dates, I love keeping a physical planner. I find it therapeutic to write my to-do lists by hand and check items off as I accomplish them. While I rely on my laptop and cellphone for much of my storage of text and records, I will never give up my planners. These text technologies reflect several of my literacies related to digital technology, reading and writing.

I would consider my laptop the most important item in this bag, and I typically refer to my backpack as my “laptop bag” despite it being filled with much more than just my laptop. The importance of this laptop signifies my reliance on technology, both as a teacher and student. I use my laptop to record attendance, send emails, troubleshoot problems, connect to class projectors, check in on Canvas, read articles, write papers, and… the list goes on. Being a TTOC 15-25 years ago would be an incredibly different ordeal, and my bag would reflect these differences. Not having a laptop or personal device in my bag would make it even more imperative for me to have ample back-up resources, as I would not simply be able to simply do a quick Google search in times of desperation. My bag would likely contain more paper and hand-written notes, and, of course, no laptop.

How does the narrative of the (private) contents of your bag compare with the narrative produced by image you have of yourself or the image you outwardly project?

As a TTOC, I meet different students every day. This means that students do not know my identity beyond what I portray in the 70 minutes I spend with them. Thus, I try to appear completely put together and like I know exactly what is going on, when sometimes this is far from true! This facade is especially important when I am with younger students. For example, when I entered into that Kindergarten classroom after thinking I would be with Grade 12’s all day, I had to appear entirely confident and prepared, when really I was thrown into completely unknown territory. With older students, I feel I can be a little bit more honest about my expertise (or lack thereof) in different subject areas. My goal is for students to sense that I am calm, cool, collected, and confident. Behind my easy demeanor and outward preparedness is a bag full of “back-up plans” and emergency resources, and knowing that these items sit in my bag certainly eases my anxiety about lessons going astray.

How do you imagine an archaeologist aiming to understand this temporal period might view the contents of your bag many years in the future?

Without knowing what future computers and personal devices will look like, I imagine my laptop alone would be a clear “sign of the times.” My business cards contain both my phone number and email addresses, and these are further indications of commonly used technologies, such as cell phones and personal computers. The presence of three separate notebooks with their contents written by hand would likely also suggest a transitional period in time where communication technologies still consisted of both digital and print (hand-written) text. Many years in the future, the contents of this bag would likely be cut in half (to be generous) and instead encompassed on a smaller, more advanced device.

This activity has inspired me to evaluate my own interactions with text technologies, and what they say not only about the norms of the present day, but also what they say about me. The contents of our personal bags are an extension of ourselves, and it was both fun and valuable to analyze the stories these items tell.