Hello, my name is Emily. I am a secondary science educator for a small rural district. I teach grades 7-12. This is my 5th year teaching. For my bag, I chose to use my work bag that I take to and from work with me. The items in the bag include: my computer, mouse, work weekly planner, journal, multiple post-it note sizes, and a small bag of pens and pencils. Typically, it has student work I need to grade, too, but I chose to keep that out of the photo.

Every day, I use my computer, an obvious piece of technology, to plan lessons, respond to emails, create resources, grade student work, and access curriculum for my classes I teach. My planner goes hand in hand with this and serves as a central hub for all things work-related, including Post-it notes, which I also have many in my bag. Pens, a primitive type of technology, are used in both my planner and my journal weekly, if not daily. As an individual, I find that I remember things better when I write them down, so items like my planner, post-its, and journal all help me to remember important dates, times, and information. I think this speaks to my ability to blend literacy of both technology and analog practices.

If I were to assess the person who carries this bag of items, I would say they are organized and have a plan. Now, given that you cannot see inside the journal or planner,  one would have no idea if these items are effectively used or even remotely embody the idea of organization. If I were to compare that idea with the real-life version of myself, I think there are times when I match the bag’s assumption, and times when I do not, and vice versa, as over time the bag will accumulate little random bits of trash and old or forgotten lists.

If I were to look at my bag from 15 years ago, I would have been 12 and in grade 6/7. This was fun to think about. I can imagine the old crumpled bit of notebook paper, textbooks, and a tattered binder, covered in doodles, my name in a loopy font, full of class dividers and a planner. fun to think back and compare how I have changed or stayed the same. The leather cover of my planner hides the colorful stickers on its cover and the colorful pens I use to color-code classes. It is fun to see the little pieces of my inner child still peeking through in my professional life.