14:25

During this part of Dr. Borditsky’s speech, she mentioned how an aboriginal community in Australia would greet each other by asking which direction they’re going. In Western cultures, greetings are often questions about our well being such as “how are you?” or “how have you been?”. I was born and raised in China. Growing up, a common greeting we had was asking whether you’ve eaten. I found this part of Borditesky’s speech interesting as it shows how language and culture place different importance and emphasis when greeting other.

17:38

During this part of Dr. Borditsky’s speech, she talked about the many ways different cultures use directions to represent time. In North America, we are used to representing time from left to right on a horizontal linear line. However there are other cultures that represent time vertically and also based on cardinal directions. This was something new I learned from watching the speech and it made me think about how a concept can be greatly affected by culture and the intersectionality of language and experience.

18:31

During this part of Dr. Borditsky’s speech, she talked about when a person learns a new language and a new way to talk, it changes how they think. This was interesting as it relates to my experience learning English as my second language. Since I currently speak English the majority of time in my everyday life, when I do speak Mandarin, I sometimes use incorrect grammar that would be correct in English. This shows how learning a new language affects the way I now think.

33:55

During this part of Dr. Borditsky’s speech, she talked about how meaning of phrases can change if we change the grammar and how it affects the processing of information and what we pay attention to. I think this is loosely related to being a teacher. When I’m teaching I try to use different wording and emphasize more important content to help my students know what is more important and what they should spend more time learning.

36:17

During this part of Dr. Borditsky’s speech, she talked about how different cultures have different base systems for counting and how they represent numbers differently using their bodies. In North America we are taught to use our ten fingers to represent the first ten numbers. When I first came to Canada during grade school, I remember using a one hand counting method for representing the first ten numbers and my classmates and teachers were very confused. This shows that not only are languages different, but body language and how we interpret language using our bodies also have interesting distinctions across different cultures.

42:49

During this part of Dr. Borditsky’s speech, she talked about how words have different associations which attach different meanings. The example in the video was how changing the label from prunes to dried plums drove up sales significantly due to the prior “negative” association with the word prune to old age. This shows how language is ever changing especially when people of newer generations are using existing words to mean new things. Examples of this would be “fire” – to mean great or delicious, “bet” – to mean I promise, and “salty” – to mean upset or jealousy.

For this task, I used my daily work bag that I carry with me. I am a high school teacher and the items in my bag are used almost every day. I have my work laptop that I teach from and my work keys to the school and classroom. These are the items I use the most from my bag. I have a few electronic items such as chargers, headphones, and storage devices. I use the chargers to power my electronic devices, the headphones to use during my prep time, and storage devices for keeping copies of work files. I also have different coloured Sharpie pens in my bag. This allows for me to write things down wherever I am or do markings on the go. I have a few personal hygiene items such as tissues, disinfectant wipes, and hand sanitizer. When I don’t have access to a sink, I can use these items to keep germs away. Lastly, I found some papers that I forgot about from the last school year when I coached basketball at my school. These were plays and practice plans that I received during a basketball coach conference that I forgot about.

The item that relates mostly to “texts” is my laptop. I use it to not only consume texts from articles, websites, and blogs but I also use it to create my original texts such as lessons plans, presentations, and assignments for my students. Another item that relates to “texts” in my bag is my headphones. Texts are used to convey information, I often use my headphones to listen to podcasts and watch educational videos online. Lastly, the sharpies and pencils in my bag are used to edit text when I assess my students’ work.

I use technology heavily in my everyday life and I believe that is reflected from my bag. Over half of the items in my bag are related to technology such as charging wires, headphones, storage devices, and my laptop. These technology items display my technology literacies. Some people might also assume that I have great physical literacy based on the coaching documents. I also like to be prepared for messes and disinfecting high touch surfaces as apparent by the disinfectant wipes, tissues, and hand sanitizer I bring in my bag.

As a teacher who is still relatively young and early in their career. An issue I have had in the past was looking professional and being able to differentiate myself from my students. When I first started teaching, I made sure to wear semi-formal attire as to stand out from high school students. The image I want to outwardly project of myself is a well put together teacher. The contents of my bag doesn’t explicitly communicate that, but it does enable me to do my job as a teacher.

The bag of a teacher 15 or 25 years ago would contain a lot less technology. Although computers were around, they were not as portable as today. Computers and digital devices were also not accessible to average consumers due to high costs. A teacher 15 or 25 years ago would have more stationaries and textbooks that would help them teach everyday.