I’m Kat Wong and I’m from Vancouver.  I currently teach as a grade 4/5 teacher at an inner city school in East Vancouver, BC.  I have only been teaching for 6 years and am still learning with my students daily.  I teach yoga classes part time online and in studio.  One of my many passions is in health and I also hold a BSc. in Food, Nutrition and Health from UBC.  When I have time, I enjoy hiking, cycling and going on adventures with my dog, Charlie.

I have several different bags for many activities that I enjoy.  For this task, I chose my purse.  I use my purse daily and carry some of my most needed essentials: mints, pen and pad, keys, headphones, lip balm, floss, toothbrush and paste, essential oils, hair elastic bag, hand cream, my cell phone would be here (but I had to use it for the camera) and a mask (interesting how the mask has become an essential item today).

I honestly could do without many of these items.  Most of the things are needed to support my hygiene and can not be substituted with technology (eg. lip balm).  My keys for work are absolutely needed as my school that I teach at is very old and does not have a keyless entry system.  I wonder if keyless entry classrooms and schools will ever take effect? Safety in mind.

The pad and paper would be considered “texts” as it a means for writing text. There is also a lot of written text on all the things that have labels such as the mints, toothpaste and floss, hand cream, essential oil bottle. The written text on these labels are for marketing and description purposes.  I think for some of these items, if there was no label or text, people would still know what the item is and could be used for.

I think some of the text technologies are the mask.  It is a “textile” fabric woven together to create a barrier.  Metaphorically muffling oral communication. Students in my class were wearing masks and every time they spoke they were taking their mask down so that they could speak more freely and so that people could hear them.  This is a counter- intuitive approach to speaking as we don’t cover our mouths to communicate, we try to amplify the communication (eg. microphones).  I had to create a fun rhyme to help my students remember to keep their masks on while speaking.  Our class reminder rhyme is “mask on, mic on.” This means that when you speak you should have your mask on!

My school and sports bags and purse contain very different articles.  However, with my purse that I chose for this activity, I think my literacies lie in the notepad and pen and the text on all the label of my products inside my purse.

The items I have are a reflection of what is important to carry with me daily. I think it could reflect the importance of care that I have for myself and how I prioritize health.  The items do not tell much of what I do, who I am or the image I have for myself.  Instead they are just things that support my daily living.  The image of myself is with my dog Charlie (who is in my dog bag). I like to take her with me on adventures.  I like to maintain a balanced lifestyle as best as I can.  I don’t think the items in my purse are a direct reflection of who I am, although may hint toward what I might care about.

I think years ago, my purse would have had a cellphone that was different. There may have been more business cards, coupons and notebooks as I now use my phone to store most of my information and contacts.  There are many apps now to carry and store member cards and information, so I do not have a separate wallet just for those cards.

I would imagine that years (perhaps 10 years) from now and depending on how many years, an archeologist might see the contents in my purse as old adapted technology.  Most of the contents in my bag are used for hygiene.  Specifically towards text and technology, I don’t think there would be much need for paper and pen as things can be dictated instead of written down all the time.

This link is a very interesting video on how the impacts of texting has on our language: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmvOgW6iV2s&feature=youtu.be

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog.