Hello 470;

The contradiction that Chamberlin identifies at the heart of ‘home’ aptly speaks to the feeling of unease held by many Canadians of European heritage. How am I, as a Canadian of European descent able to reconcile the fact that my narrative of home, in all the ways in which it has come to define me, is implicated in the erasure of the home narratives of others? Querying narratives

 “And so evil, through untrue-true acts and words, was unleashed onto the world forever.” Telling the Canadian Story

“There was a time where I would have been silenced, but today I make noise for myself, for my peers and for my ancestors before me. Like many people who are considered as minorities or intersectionality-oppressed individuals, speaking our truth can feel far too vulnerable to share in the pressures of the public. The internet has created an accessible space for our voices, so in response, we “flood the feed”. I welcome you to that space, where I will be writing and curating stories of intersecting national and personal identity. Thank you for respecting, and most of all, listening.” Swamp Mama  

 The time has come to tell your story. Lesson 2:1 asks you to explore and express your values and the stories you use to connect yourself to your sense of home. Remember what Thomas Kings says, “we are the stories we tell ourselves.” Remember what Edward Chamberlain says, “stories give meaning and value to the places we call home.”  And, take some time to reflect on the stories you grew up with that shaped how you value your home, reflect on the how these stories have shaped your sense of belonging, or not – to your home and your homeland.

In the introduction to Lesson 2:1, I speak about examining our common assumptions and our diverse backgrounds in an effort to create an environment for learning and exploring difficult topics — together. My hope is that you will enjoy this process and that as a class we will create a more comfortable space to explore difficult questions with the knowledge that we do not all have the same perspectives because we do not all have the same stories. At the same time, we will discover some commonalties that will surprise us; and that always delight me. Write your story for your peers. Include the usual two hyperlinks and feel free to use visuals as well.

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I have passed a wonderful week reading our blogs and following links. You have provided some good links and some good answers to my questions and the growing dialogue via our comment boxes is excellent. Thank you all.

One of the wonderful elements of working online is that you can go back and correct typos and small errors that you did not see while composing, and even better, I do not stop to evaluate your blogs until mid-term, so you have the opportunity to make these corrections before “official evaluation” occurs.

Midterm occurs at the end of Unit 2. At that time, you will select your favourite three blogs for evaluation. You are ‘allowed’ to rewrite and edit to your heart’s content between now and midterm time.

My Instructor’s blog is responsive: I read your work and respond.

Reading through all your blogs can take a long while  because your hypertext and send me off to all sorts of interesting places where I learn about new ideas and endeavours and have all sorts of new and wonderful insights to add to what I think I already know.

After reading through all your blogs I have a few technical notes and general suggestions for you:

• In the future, link in your sources in your works cited when they are available online.
• Also, delete the sample page to clean up your blog
• Paste the question you are answering at the top of the post – and you are free to make introductory comments on why you chose this question
•  If you have any questions or comments about this lesson or the assignments in the next lesson, please do post on our FaceBook page
• If you can find the same article in pdf form – that is the best way to link
•  In order to encourage comments, it is a good idea to end your blog assignments with a question.
• Use MLA style for your citations: This is a great style guide: OWL

BE SURE TO READ THE GUIDELINES FOR BLOGGING AND HYPERLINKING IN THE SIDEBAR!

One more note, that I will probably make many times in different ways:

• can you see what is wrong with the following phrase:   “… the Western perspective and the aboriginal perspective are equally valid.”
• Please make a note on Facebook when you see what is wrong with the above sentence.

I want to encourage you to explore different blogs this week, even though you may have made a connection with someone you easily identify with, for the first couple of Units it will be more interesting if we explore beyond our comfort zones and engage with each other as widely as possible. Thanks.

I am enjoying reading all the different ways that Evil Came into this World and am very much looking forward to reading your stories about home. If you haven’t already done so – be sure to read this post: Taking the Story out of the Story …