Hi! My name is Sarah Stephenson and I’m a middle school teacher in Kelowna, BC. For this task I chose to take a picture of my school bag. My school bag is much larger than is needed to carry around this amount of items. I’ve had it for several years and I originally bought it because I had so much STUFF to carry to and from school, or so I thought. Over the years, the amount of things in my bag have dramatically decreased because I have gone more digital in my teaching, so there is less physical marking to bring home. I also have collected a “school kit” that I keep in my desk with personal items like gum, deodorant, moisturizer, so that is why these items are not in my bag.
Colourful mask & white mask necklace: teaching in a pandemic requires me to wear a mask. Therefore I keep a spare one in my bag along with a white necklace to keep my mask around my neck.
Grey phone folio case: I keep my drivers license and credit cards in here.
Christmas card: This card was given to me from one of my students. Inside there is a lovely, handwritten note which I decided to keep to lift my spirits.
Red lanyard with school ID: I need to have this on my at all times. It is my ID and also my swipe card to get into my school.
Green change purse: There always seems to be a need for a loonie or toonie to buy a box of Girl Guide cookies or to contribute to a card or gift for a colleague.
Headphones: I work in a classroom with 4-5 adults and sometimes I need to just put on my music so I can get my work done.
Burt’s Bees lip chap: wearing a mask has stopped me from wearing colouring lipstick because it just ends up on the inside of the mask. Now I wear this clear lip chap.
Lemon Strepsils: Teaching through a mask is taxing on my voice and throat. I bought these for days where my throat is very sore after talking all day.
Hair brush with elastic: For those brief moments when I get a reprieve to freshen up and brush my hair.
Pair of black gloves: For when I’m on supervision or when it’s a really cold drive home.
Pen and yellow sticky notes: To record all of my thoughts.
How might these items be considered “texts” and what do they say about you, the places you inhabit, the cultures with which you engage, and/or the activities you take up?
In my bag, the Christmas card from a student and my school ID are both examples of “texts” and identify me as a teacher. My school ID shows that I’m currently practising and the card expresses my passion for the profession. The note inside reminds me of my love of teaching.
Thinking about the title of the course, what are the “text technologies” in your bag, if any? What do these items say about how you engage with language and communication?
The Christmas card is an example of a print text that I value. I value it because it is handwritten and written directly to me. The lack of other print texts in my bag could convey my use of digital texts. As mentioned, I have actively worked on being more digital in my teaching, that includes my lessons as well as students’ work.
What do the items in your bag say about the literacies you have?
My bag illustrates my transition from print to digital communication. However, it also demonstrates my nostalgia for a personal, printed note.
How does the narrative of the (private) contents of your bag compare with the narrative produced by the image you have of yourself or the image you outwardly project?
I think that my school bag is an accurate representation of myself. It includes evidence that I’m a teacher working in a global pandemic. I think that if I had taken a picture of my purse, then there might have been private items that would have given a different impression of me.
How do you imagine an archeologist aiming to understand this temporal period might view the contents of your bag many years in the future?
Any archeologist could decipher that I’m a teacher working in the time of Covid. This is evident with my ID badge, the mask, the lozenges, and lip chap. They could also interpret the personal Christmas card as a memento to inspire me to push through the harder days.