What’s in your bag?

What is in my bag? This is a really great question! These days I hardly ever use my purse as leaving the house is a very rare occasion. When I do leave the house I often leave my bag in the car as the only thing I truly need is my cell phone to which I use to pay for items and my car keys to physically get from point A to point B. Since my last day of teaching at school, March 20^th, I have only left the house to get groceries or purchase items for small house projects that I do to help pass the time. Picking up my purse to examine the items inside was an exciting event and some items were a true mystery until I got started.

Items

Number	Description
1	Kate Spade purse
2	Keys for my classroom
3	Car and house key
4	Apple iPhone with pink case
5	Ray Ban sunglasses in case
6	Kate Spade pink wallet
7	Sway water bottle
8	Container of Lysol wipes
9	She has her mother’s laugh by Carl Zimmer
10	Writing utensils – pen, marker, highlighter
11	Buxom Lip Gloss
12	Hair scrunchie
13	Protein bar
14	Hand lotion
15	Sage Peppermint headache roller
16	Lipstick – pink
17	Hair clip
18	Bath and Body Works hand sanitizer
19	Kleenex tissues

Discussion

During the current pandemic to do not have a daily need for most of these items. The only item in my purse that I use daily is my cell phone, however its home isn’t in my purse as it is used throughout the day. For a moment I am going to pretend that I leave the house on a daily basis and go to work. The essentials items I would require throughout a regular day would be my purse, to carry my items, my car keys to get myself from point A to point B, my classroom keys, and my wallet encase I needed to make a purchase. Listing my essential items in my purse really puts into perspective how much “stuff” I have that isn’t used daily. There are items in my purse that are “just in case” items such as hand lotion, peppermint oil, protein bar, hair scrunchie, hand sanitizer, tissue, sunglasses and a water bottle. These items have a purpose when I require them but are not used daily through out a regular day. However, right now is not a regular day, therefore I have added an item that is now essential when I leave the house, a container of Lysol wipes. When I do leave the house, especially in the early days of Covid I would wipe does items that were purchased at the store and brought into house, just in case.

The items in my purse begin to tell the story of who I am based on what I carry with me. These objects provide meaning to the “reader” about the places I live, culture and activities I like to do. My car keys would say I live in a place that requires a vehicle to get around. Living on the outskirts of Winnipeg makes travelling without a car very difficult and many of my family members live outside of the city. Items that provide insight into my personal values include the book, a content heavy book about DNA by Carl Zimmer, and name brand items I purchase including the Kate Spade purse and Apple cell phone case. She has her mother’s laugh tells the reader of this images that I enjoy reading and biology. Those who know me, know that I am a biology teacher and I love to read content related books. This book was actual referred to me by my general practitioner at my last visit. It is a great recommendation!

The “text technologies” I keep in my bag when I leave the house is my cell phone. My cell phone is a communication tool that I use daily. My cell phone says that I, like millions of people in this world that own a cell phone. The fact that there are more cell phones in this World than people on this planet is mind blowing! (Turner, 2020) I use my cell phone for both professional and pleasure. I engage with professional language when using my cell phone for work such as sending emails, using apps to communicate with students and communicate with a professional learning network on social media. While working at home I find I use my personal device for work more often that I used to. I am able to engage professionally with colleagues and students at any time. This is both a pro and a con. It is great that I can support student whenever they need help, however I spend more time on my personal device and working later into the evenings that pre-pandemic. Not only do I use my cell phone to communicate professional but also socially. Communicating socially with others includes informal language that changes overtime. My students keep me up to date with the cool lingo that is popular in our community and online. Thanks kiddos!

The items in my purse gives the reader insight into my ability to read and write. Literacies are more than just reading and writing, as demonstrated with my book selecting. I have foundational literacy as I read text in my book that I carry around with me and writing utensils that I use. A memorable quote from this book is from Carl Zimmer, he says “Poverty may be powerful enough to swamp the influence of variants in our DNA.” My bag tells people that I have digital literacy as I engage with people online using my cell phone. I could argue that the container of Lysol wipes would illustrate a news literacy to recognize the current pandemic that has shaken our world with an ability to evaluate the information provided by the news in order to make decisions on how to move forward with my personal decisions.

“Poverty may be powerful enough to swamp the influence of variants in our DNA.”
― Carl Zimmer

When I decided to share the contents of my purse online, I was initially very excited. There hasn’t been a lot going on these past few weeks and an excuse to do anything brought me joy. However, as I write this post, I find the vulnerability of sharing this image of my bag. The items in my bag may give some people the impression that I am “high maintenance” with my designer purse, ray-ban sunglasses, name brand products. Despite the vulnerability I felt it was important for me to share a personal insight into my life with my classmates in the hopes that it may built personal connections with my peers. Looking at an image of myself that I outwardly project I would not consider myself to be “high maintenance.” Although I enjoy buying “nice things” that are more expensive than a non-name brand version I prefer to share myself in a more natural light. I wonder, what do people think I look like when they see my purse compared to my actual self. In my mind, I like to think the image of myself that I outwardly project is my pure happiness of being among the trees, but I don’t think my personal bag matches this image.

This task has allowed me to dive deep into the contents of my pursue and explore how it connects to who I am and the text technologies within it. I am looking forward to sharing more in ETEC 540 and developing my story as a writer in Text Technologies.

Until next time!