As Dr. Boroditski notes around 18:25 of this video “When you teach people to talk in a new way, you teach them to think in a new way.”  This probably the most powerful statement and piece of truth I have taken from this video and this assignment.

You’d think after growing up within the French Immersion program throughout grade school and now as a language educator for over a decade, I would have come to this realization by now?  But it wasn’t until I listened to Dr. Boroditski’s presentation that I came to understand that by switching languages, that one can also alter the way they think.

Her examples of gender use within certain languages (22:00) resonated with me as a French speaker.  Growing up I remember listening and singing the “Mr. Moon” nursery rhyme in English, but as I grew older and started to learn the French language, it seemed odd to me that the moon is referred to “La lune” with a feminine connotation.  And as I came to realize through this presentation, genders for certain words alternate between various languages.

Now that I am teaching French and these gender terms to new French learners, having to explain and rationalize why certain words are masculine or feminine proves very difficult, especially to certain students who are strong supporters of the LBGTQ2+ community.  Thankfully, over the last few years there has been a push to reform French into becoming a more inclusive language and consider using more gender neutral terms (Timsit, 2017).

For myself, now that I realize there are some major difference in my own thinking when I decide to speak French in an English dominated part of the world, I must also ask myself what what effect does this language-based “code-switching” (Washington-Harmon, 2020) have on my teaching practice and my students? Do I shift or alter my own behavior to appeal to my French-speaking students compared to my English-speaking students (Washington-Harmon, 2020)?

Lots of self-reflection going on after this task.

References

Boroditsky, L. (June 2017). How the languages we speak shape the way we think. [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/iGuuHwbuQOg

Timsit, Annabelle.  (2017, November 24).  The Push to Make French Gender Neutral: Can changing the structure of a language improve women’s status in society?  The Atlantic.  Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/11/inclusive-writing-france-feminism/545048/

Washington-Harmon, Taylyn. (2020, August 13).  Code-Switching: What Does It Mean and Why Do People Do it?  Health.com.  Retrieved from https://www.health.com/mind-body/health-diversity-inclusion/code-switching

I am Michael McDowall.  I am a public-school educator currently working in the Prince Rupert School District (SD52) where I have lived and worked for the last 7+ years alongside my wife, Alicia, and daughter, Mya.

For this assignment I chose a bag that I commonly make use of while at work when going on field trips.  As an educator I try to make use of my natural surroundings and all the benefits that come with place-based learning.  Although I love using technology in the classroom, much of life’s learning takes place outside of the classroom environment and this is what I want to share with my students.

This bag carries a solid collection of all the things a teacher may need when taking 24 students out into the community to show them the wonders of the world around them: First aid kit, lunch bag, a sweater, hat, bug spray, water bottle, coffee mug, several granola bars, masks, keys, wallet, a couple of bus passes, and a swiss army knife.

Reflecting on some of the texts found within this collection, I notice they make strong connections to myself as a person and the area I live in (and even locations I used to live in):

1. A large, black sweater with picture of a salmon on it and the text “Oona River”. Oona River is a location across the Skeena River from Prince Rupert where I have visited several times to help with salmon enhancement activities.  I volunteer and am part of the board for the local fish hatchery.  Further evidence of this is the blue fish attached to my keys (that’s my key to the local hatchery).
2. A navy blue “Port Edward Fire Rescue” hat. I am also a volunteer firefighter and First Responder, currently holding the position of Deputy Chief for the Port Edward Volunteer Fire Department (Port Edward is about 10 minutes out of Prince Rupert).
3. A coffee mug with the logo and name of the SD52 Aboriginal Education Department on it “Wap Sigatgyet”. Nearly every educator lives on at least a small amount of caffeine, hence the coffee mug, but this mug sports the logo of the Ab Ed Department which is at the core of education in Prince Rupert.  Having children learn outdoors is at the core of traditional indigenous teaching and this is something I try to do as much as possible in my practice.
4. A bottle of bug spray made by “Off” with the text “Deep Woods: Sportsmen”. Prince Rupert is surrounded by a lot of nature.  The next nearest city by road is 160km away in Terrace via the ‘Highway of Tears’, with nothing in between except lots of wilderness and the Skeena River, not even cell phone service.  Thus, the term ‘deep woods’ seems quite fitting.  Also, it occurred to me that the term ‘sportsmen’ seems outdated for modern times.
5. Two bus passes with the text “Transit TICKET: WORTH $2.00 TOWARDS FARE”. The Prince Rupert School District does not provide transit, therefore if you want to go across town you have to be prepared to walk or go via public transit.  These are the realities for myself as an educator in the district and bus passes are a reality.  Luckily over the summer, the Province of BC has announced that children 12 & under now ride free on public transit, so bus passes may be a thing of the past for this teacher.
6. The granola bars all have multiple “MADE IN A PEANUT FREE FACILITY” on their wrappers. Any modern educator such as myself knows that if you want to provide snacks to your students these days, they need to be peanut free.  This is especially true this year for myself as I have a student who is deathly allergic to peanuts.
7. My keys have a “Toronto Maple Leafs” chain. I am a self-proclaimed sports junkie (all sports) and my favorite hockey team is the Toronto Maple Leafs.  The key chain is gift from a student which I received a few years ago.  I love sports and that is most definitely part of who I am.  Though, we may not want to dig too deep into the spelling of “Leafs”!
8. My lunch bag has an “Exhaust Masters” logo on it. Finally, my red lunch bag was given to me when I changed my muffler several years ago when I lived back in my hometown on Vancouver Island.  It also occurrs to me that it is somewhat ironic carrying around a bag with ‘muffler’ label on it, when this is in my backpack when I walk around with students teaching them about the benefits of being outdoors and walking in their community.

Text Technologies

I don’t have a lot of digital technologies in my bag, as I often carry my cell phone in my pocket.  The two key fobs attached to my vehicles would be the closest piece of formal digital technologies found within my bag, although only one of them contain the text “Lock” and “Unlock”.  The bus pass also contains a more covert form of technology as it has a bar code on the back which the machine on the bus can scan and read.  My wallet would also contain various cards connected to far off digital ID systems including debit, credit, gift certificates, and driver licenses.

Imagining what the contents of this bag would have been 25 years ago, I think they would have quite similar.  There would have been some slight changes including no masks due to a pandemic, no portable coffee cup with an “Aboriginal Education” logo on it (sadly that wasn’t an educational priority at the time), nor would have the “Peanut Free” decal on the granola bars.  In addition, chances are the car fabs most would have not been part of the collection as well.

Although I am not exactly sure what an archeologist might think if they found my bag and its contents far into the future, the word “synthetic” comes to mind.  Not only are most of the objects in my bag made up of synthetic fibers and materials, and are constructed from the different reaches of the globe, but also all of these items combined make up the synthesis of who I am as a person.