Hello, my name is Amy and I am a Grade 4/5 teacher. The “bag” and items that I have selected to showcase are from my basket that I carry around at school. I started carrying this basket when my classroom was located in a portable and I needed something to carry all my items back and forth from the main building. But, it was also during the time when my exploration and inclusion of outdoor learning began to increase.

Everything that is in my basket is either needed while I am teaching, needed for teaching, or discovered when teaching. My basket, like many bags, fluctuates with what it holds. It might hold more permeant items (such as what is pictured), temporary or task-specific items (such as a snack or measuring tapes), as well as found or discovered items (such as pinecones, leaves, or moss).

After taking the photo, I found it interesting to see that the majority of the items might communicate a themed text technology of “Health and Wellness”. Some items are more obvious in their connection to this theme, such as the bandages and hand sanitizer, but others might not be as obvious. For example, we use the chime and stick mallet for our “Mindful Minutes”. The Mindful Minutes are practiced to support our brains, bodies, and emotions in favour of optimal learning(Hawn Foundation, 2011). The purpose of this might be missed if a viewer was not familiar with neuroscience literacies and their connection to teaching and learning (Schunk, 2012). Also, my phone would be included in this category as well because I always have it with me on our outdoor explorations for safety reasons and/or in case there is an emergency with one of the kids.

The text surrounding sanitizer has shifted in the last year and a half. Being that we are still currently within a pandemic, a future archeologist might understand why sanitizer is in my basket today. But prior to the pandemic and the ubiquitous use of hand sanitizer, the narrative for why I originally had sanitizer in my basket was quite different. Being in a portable, we didn’t have a sink, and with learning and exploring outside, some children would feel they touched something “dirty” and wouldn’t have immediate access to soap and water. Also, we discovered on one of our outings that hand sanitizer minimizes the itch of mosquito bites. Having “dirty” hands and the itch of mosquito bites proved to be a distraction from learning, so the sanitizer also acted/acts as a way to offer ease and comfort, so that the children could/can remain more focused on the learning task.

Another category of text technology within my basket is “documentation”. First, my FOB acts as an identity document while at work. My phone has documents in it, it has apps that can identify items in nature, and it has access the limitless documents and documentation on the internet. The camera on my phone allows me to visually document the children in the process of learning, as well as their discoveries, and post these photos to their ePortfolios. The pencil and markers allow for myself or others to write or record information, and the paper clip is often used when we are visually documenting our findings as helps to communicate a sense of scale.

Finally, the basket itself is an item. And it, arguably, acts as a text technology and metaphor of my own teaching craft. This style of basket is open container. Being an “open” basket might communicate that what is inside may or may not be personal, and that what is inside is “owned”, but that it isn’t entirely private. Within my teaching craft, it is important to be “open” to learning and to discovering, and flexible with how, when, why, and what is learned. Similar to what’s inside my basket, I am the “owner” of my craft’s contents as an author, co-creator and guide, but my teaching craft isn’t private. Rather, it’s on display and openly accessible to learners and colleagues.

15 or 25 years ago, my basket (as a container) would have looked very similar. However, its purpose and contents would not. Basket technology hasn’t necessarily evolved, but teaching technology has. For example, 15 or 25 years ago much of formal schooling happened within classroom walls and didn’t venture into outdoor learning spaces, we weren’t as readily practicing strategies such as the MindUp curriculum to support social, emotional and cognitive well-being, and we didn’t use cell phone cameras to document and communicate learning on ePortfolios. In another 15 or 25 years, I’m quite certain that baskets will be around, and I’m curious to discover what future text technologies might live in mine.

References:

Hawn Foundation. (2011). The MindUp curriculum: focused classrooms, mindful learning, resilient students. Scholastic.

Schunk, D. H. (2012). Chapter 2. Neuroscience of Learning. (Links to an external site.) (Links to an external site.)  Learning Theories: An Educational Perspective (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.