What’s in My Bag?

Hello! My name is Megan Ravenhill. I am a Grade 8 teacher for the Saanich School District which resides on the W̱SÁNEĆ traditional territory. I am currently in my second semester of the MET program at UBC. The bag I chose to use is my work back, also known as my “teaching” bag. I use it Monday to Friday and it carries all of the items I need to feel prepared for teaching and being in the workplace.

The contents in my bag include: 

• Apple AirPods
• Apple charging accessories
• Inhaler
• Face wash
• Hand Sanitizer X3 (Orange bottle, Clear Bottle, Wipes)
• Hand Lotion
• Floss Sticks
• Deodorant
• House key & School keys
• Wallet that carries bank cards, identification cards, vaccination card, gift cards, and a letter from my husband.
• Soap
• 1 Blue pen, 1 Purple pen
• Chapstick
• My glasses
• 2021 Agenda
• 1 Notebook
• A ruler
• Ziplock bag of medications such as ginger gravel, Tylenol, allergy medicine, etc…
• Ziplock bag of extra non-medical face masks

*Items normally in my bag but not pictured: iPhone & MacBook*

Daily Need for Items: 

The items in my bag are items that I can use on a daily basis, and in most cases, I do. For example, as we are currently in an ongoing pandemic and schools are known to carry germs, I use the hand sanitizer to clean my hands before I eat, help other students, or have to touch my face. The wallet that comes with me everywhere allows me to identify myself, make purchases, and verify my vaccine status (due to current BC protocols for non-essential services). Another necessary item in my bag is my inhaler, as it is something I have to take before any type of physical activity. Additionally, my glasses provide me the ability to read my students work, create lesson plans, and respond to emails to my coworkers.

There are items in my bag that don’t necessarily have a required “need” but allow me to feel prepared in case of situations that arise. For example, the ruler is something that comes in handy when I have to either measure or align something, and I prefer to keep one in my bag as I do not have one in my personal office at school or at home. My AirPods come along with me as they offer me a moment of peace during a hectic day and while I am on a prep. Another item that is contained in my wallet is a letter from my husband after a tragic moment in our life and it reminds me to persevere and continue to be strong. Overall, the items in my bag allow me to feel comfortable, prepared, and organized.

Relations to Text Technologies, Language and Communication, and Literacies.  

The items I consider to be most related to “texts” are 2021 agenda, iPhone (not pictured), MacBook (not pictured), and the items inside my wallet. Although, similar to Teresa Dobson’s example from CANVAS, most items in my bag have a label that has been digitally printed coming from a digital device.

My 2021 agenda relates to text as it includes pre-printed text such as holidays, motivational quotes, and calendar dates. I also have the ability to provide text to the agenda and use it as my key form of organization and communication with myself. My agenda says a lot about my obsession and anxiety of feeling prepared and worry of forgetting important dates.  My iPhone represents my participation in the digital age. It is the way I communicate with friends, family, and coworkers. It allows me to stay to have both synchronous and asynchronous communication. My MacBook is a text as it allows me to create lesson plans, use email, and read course information and assignments. Both of these digital devices represent my career as teaching requires the use of text and technology. Additionally, these devices represents my commitment with expanding my knowledge as I use these devices to connect to the MET program which allows me to read, write, and share with my fellow classmates. In particular, these devices help me engage with language and communication by the ability of the keyboard. The keyboard digitally prints words on to my screen and allows me to include various emojis that represent my emotions, language translation for the conversations with my ELL students, and the options to provide punctuation to clarify my expression.

What would this same bag have looked like 25 years ago?

I believe there would be parts of my bag that would look different and similar 25 years ago. Noticeably, the AirPods and charging accessories would not be present, and I believe most people would have left those at home as the charging chords looked much different. Additionally, although not pictured in my bag, there would be no laptop as we have only been somewhat recently privileged with the ability to have bag sized laptops to carry with us. Other items that may have no been in the bag are the hand sanitizers and face masks. 1996 did not have an active pandemic so there would be no necessary need to carry it around. Items that would have made the same debut are the agenda, notebook, glasses, soap, ruler, and bag of medicine. All these items would have had the same use as they do today.

How do you imagine an archeologist aiming to understand this temporal period might view the contents of your bag many years in the future?

An archaeologist would primarily look at the items in my bag that represent the pandemic. In a “normal” time, people would not be carrying around masks or vaccine proof, nor would the bag contain different types of hand sanitizer. Past the pandemic, archaeologists would see this bag as someone who worked a job that required digital access, organization, and communication. The agenda’s text would give clear information of the type of activities the person encountered and or the timeframe of their daily routine. It would give a clear indication of what I was involved in and the people that I associate with. The laptop would provide insight to the current digital age. The other items would represent health (glasses & inhaler) and organization.