After reviewing the Golden record’s musical contents, I have curated the following ten pieces from the twenty-seven pieces:

1. Beethoven, String Quartet No. 13 in B flat, Opus 130, Cavatina, performed by Budapest String Quartet. 6:37
2. Mozart, The Magic Flute, Queen of the Night aria, no. 14. Edda Moser, soprano. Bavarian State Opera, Munich, Wolfgang Sawallisch, conductor. 2:55
3. Navajo Indians, Night Chant, recorded by Willard Rhodes. 0:57
4. China, ch’in, “Flowing Streams,” performed by Kuan P’ing-hu. 7:37
5. India, raga, “Jaat Kahan Ho,” sung by Surshri Kesar Bai Kerkar. 3:30
6. Mexico, “El Cascabel,” performed by Lorenzo Barcelata and the Mariachi México. 3:14
7. Holborne, Paueans, Galliards, Almains and Other Short Aeirs, “The Fairie Round,” performed by David Munrow and the Early Music Consort of London. 1:17
8. Japan, shakuhachi, “Tsuru No Sugomori” (“Crane’s Nest,”) performed by Goro Yamaguchi. 4:51
9. Peru, panpipes and drum, collected by Casa de la Cultura, Lima. 0:52
10. “Johnny B. Goode,” written and performed by Chuck Berry. 2:38

In selecting the ten pieces, I tried to remember the intention of this record, that is to include sounds that portray the diversity of life and culture on earth. I included a variety of music from different parts of the world. In narrowing down my choices further, I decided to select pieces that evoked strong emotions while listening as well. If I had to add something to this record, I’d say it’s missing laughter as well as a newborn baby crying. These two sounds are important aspects of human life.

This week, I enjoyed the process of crafting potato stamps! It took me roughly forty-five minutes to complete the entire task. Something that I found particularly challenging was cutting around each letter precisely using a knife. It took quite some time for me to complete this step.  I chose to form the word “plain”. I noticed that the “l” and “i” were easier to design than the “p”, “a”, and “n”. These more intricate shaped letters took longer to create. Thanks to my post-work brain, before stamping the letters down, I realized that I hadn’t reversed them on the stamp in order to make them appear in the correct orientation on the paper. Oops!  When painting the potato stamp, precision was important. However, as precise as I tried to be, in the end, the two stamped copies did not look identical. Though I became more precise with practice, I didn’t expect this stamping approach to be even close to the precision of a printer.

Since we use utensils to engage in the process, I understand that all writing requires mechanization and technical skill to some degree. Though the mechanization process has made text more accessible, I feel that it can take away from the beauty of the writing process. I find that I am able to be more creative and develop more thoughtful ideas when I am writing by hand, in comparison to typing on a laptop. I’d like to note that when beginning any kind of project, I always opt to brainstorm using a pen and paper. Another instance in which I would prefer to write by hand is when journaling. I’ve noticed that typing my thoughts and feelings out is very different than putting them onto paper. At the same time, I am thankful for Gutenberg and the advancement in mechanization of writing because it would be very time-consuming and tiring to write lengthy papers by hand. It sounds a bit silly, but once I had finished designing and using my potato stamps, I was very proud of my work. I wonder if this process would have felt less rewarding if I had used 3D printing technology instead.

Voice-to-Text Entry

Output

After teaching today’s lesson I’m feeling a little bit frustrated because some of the students are not completing their work in a timely manner I’m having to ask for assignment and activities to be turned in over and over again I should mention that I am teaching in Blended program which is a comedy face-to-face and online unfortunately only two of my student, classroom face to face the rest of the of the students do not come in because their parents are not comfortable sending them so it’s really hard for me to track their progress and to see where they are at especially in areas like language arts and math this is going to make it particularly difficult for me to report on their progress at the end of the year which is slowly approaching here as in a little bit worried about what their report cards are going to look like some of them are not getting their their work done when I ask for it I’d like to review the previous day’s material each day before we get started with new lesson I think if parents took their child learning a little bit more seriously it would be easier for me to teach online now I probably should mention that I teach kindergarten and grade 2 online so they’re very young and they require a lot of support from their parents even though I feel like I’m learning a lot teaching online I miss being in the classroom with my students I think that social interaction is really important and this is something that the program is blocking and I’m noticing it a lot as in teaching them online particularly for my kindergarten students who have nots come in all they don’t no classroom rules and expectations are even school rules and expectations I think that they are really going to struggle in grade one and I’m a little worried about them I understand that their parents syringe about our current pandemic and they’re feeling very unsafe sending their child to school but I think that it’s really going to impact their learning being at home now for a year Today I also noticed that when one of my students unmuted her microphone to speak had a lot of background noise music and conversation happening in the background and I just felt that this wasn’t a good environment for her to be n when engaging in her virtual class sessions I often remind students of the importance of working in a quiet space but there are a few that are not able to do so I think that not having face-to-face directions with the students is making me feel as though my job is less rewarding because I’m missing the lightbulb moments and those aha moments that as teachers we the Crave I know that I’ve signed up to be a blended learning teacher for the rest of the year but starting next year I think that I would prefer to return to the classroom. Part of this is because of the age group that I am teaching I find it challenging to engage. Children online I absolutely love using technology to support the learning process but it can be tricky ashley for kindergarten i’ve actually never taught kindergarten before so this is my first time learning a little bit about the curriculum and I’m not used to teaching such I mean basic concepts the alphabet normally I teach grade 2 and 3 in which we learning how to improve sentence writing learning how to write paragraphs I think I’m being a little bit too negative right now there are some perks to being a blended learning one thing that I do really like is being able to teach my students in small groups I think it really helps a separate students out based on their their strengths and their abilities so that part has been really great also there are some students and I should recognize them for completing all of their work and and really paying attention during our virtual class meeting the students asked questions they are prepared and ready to engage they also really enjoy sharing their work with one another because I don’t get to see each other so much so it kind of validates what they’ve done i’m really proud of all of them I know this is a really hard time for all of us so I don’t think I’m getting them enough credit they all attend virtual class meetings witches great because it’s better than them being absent when I first started this program I remember being very confused about what kinds of resources I was going to use to support the learning and I felt that the Met program it’s particularly helpful because I could go back and look at it something such i’ve used in different courses on for example pads I really came in handy at the beginning of this program because I have students upload work there and it was a nice way for them to have a look at each other’s work and and showcase it and this helped build classroom community so I did learn a lot and I am proud of myself for that I’m also proud of them because they’ve learned how to use so many different programs for using things like Raz-Kids epic we are using splash Math and storyjumper and fresh grades and these are just a few of the programs that were using so I know that some parents have also really struggled with the use of Technology but they really improved and I’m proud of them too because I know that they were a little bit afraid at the beginning of this program so I can say that we’ve all come on the way and I want to make sure that I am sharing some of these positives and not just focussing so much on the negative even though my lesson this morning didn’t go so well

Analysis

The voice-to-text application that I used generated multiple errors in grammar. At first glance, I noticed the lack of punctuation in the entire entry. Without punctuation, it can be challenging to pinpoint where one idea ends and the next begins. I found myself rereading parts of the entry in an effort to determine where ideas transitioned. Without punctuation, it would be difficult to capitalize appropriately throughout the text. This entry is also lacking capitalization. Upon closer examination, I found some plural nouns to be in their singular forms. For instance, the word “student” is used instead of “students”. Likewise, the word “assignment” is used instead of “assignments”. This entry also consists of many substitution (“ashley” instead of “especially) and omission mistakes. Some of the words that I remember saying are absent from the text. The words “no” and “know” are homophones. In this entry, one was substituted for the other. In this case, I’m sure the reader could figure out that I meant “know”. However, in certain contexts, this is a mistake that has the potential to change the meaning of the text.

I was surprised to find that the application spelled Raz-Kids (the name of a digital reading platform) correctly with capitalization. I was also surprised to find that many complex words were spelled accurately. I wonder if the speed at which I was speaking influenced the output. Though I said “umm” a lot, the application didn’t input any of them. Overall, I think that an individual reading this entry would be able to gain a general sense of what I am trying to say. However, the specific details have been butchered, making it difficult to understand some of the text. In this text entry, some of the meaning appears to be lost in translation. For example, I was speaking about Padlet, an application that helped build a sense of community in my classroom. The application inputted the word “pad” which may confuse readers.

It appears that a variety of factors affect the output of a voice-to-text application including volume, clarity, and pronunciation. As a little experiment, I asked my mom, an English language learner, to speak into the voice-to-text app for a couple of minutes. I noticed that the output was even more difficult to piece together than mine. I think that pronunciation plays an important role in the output that is produced using this kind of technology. I’d also like to note a key difference between an unscripted and scripted story. When telling an unscripted story, it can be easy to lose your train of thought. I think that if I had scripted the story, some of the repetition in this entry would have been absent. It would have been more clear and concise which may have helped readers with the comprehension piece.

There are some notable differences between oral storytelling and written storytelling. Oral storytelling involves a tone of voice and the use of expression which written storytelling may lack or show in a different way (i.e. through punctuation). In the classroom, during oral storytelling we often sit together closely and close our eyes to visualize. My students find great joy in engaging in these lessons. Through experience, I’ve found that young students are more attentive during oral storytelling in comparison to the times when they are sitting and reading a story. I think that the most notable difference between the two is that oral storytelling doesn’t require an individual to be literate, whereas written storytelling does. A thought that resonates with me our weekly reading The Writing Revolution by Gnanadesikan (2011) is that “writing represents language, but it outlasts the spoken word (p.3)”. It is suggested that the oldest examples of writing have lasted over five thousand years (Gnanadesikan, 2011). Unlike oral storytelling, a written story is like a record that may be preserved with more certainty.

Gnanadesikan, A. E. (2011).“The First IT Revolution.” In The writing revolution: Cuneiform to the internet (Vol. 25). John Wiley & Sons (pp. 1-10).

Hello! I’m Ravneet Sandhu a second-grade teacher residing in Vancouver BC. I am currently taking my seventh and eighth courses of the MET program. For this exercise, I chose to share the bag that accompanies me to work each day.

My bag consists of the following items: Laptop, planner, writing utensils, post-it notes, Adrienne Gear’s Reading and Writing Power, a water bottle, extra masks, hand sanitizer, Band-Aids, a Starbucks gift card, and an ornament.

This bag carries the items that I use on a daily basis. Work and school comprise a large part of my life. The writing utensils, planner and post-it notes serve as reminders to help me stay organized throughout the week. My laptop is currently my most prized possession. As a teacher facilitating the blended program (a combination of face-to-face and online learning), I use my laptop to engage students virtually. Not to mention that I use it to access my courses on Canvas and work through assignments. My water bottle reminds me to stay hydrated and to take breaks during my work day as my screen time can become quite excessive. In my bag, I also keep some safety items; band-aids for paper cuts, hand sanitizer and extra masks, which are more recent additions that have helped me stay safe during our COVID-19 pandemic. Lately, I have been pulling lessons from Adrienne Gear texts to support my students with literacy. Lastly, I have a Christmas ornament in my bag. This ornament was the first gift that I ever received from a student. The quote on this ornament resonates with me and on rough days it reminds me why I began teaching in the first place. Lastly, I carry a Starbucks gift card which gets me through my busy tiresome mornings.

My bag has changed quite a bit in the past 10 years. It used to be a backpack full of heavy textbooks, notebooks, a bus pass, and some snacks. My school bag has now transformed into a work bag. The few items that have remained constant include my laptop, water bottle, planner, and writing utensils.

My bag shows that I engage with language and communication using both digital and print literacies. My laptop indicates the presence of digital literacy. My planner, post-it-notes, writing utensils, and Adrienne Gear resources suggest the use of print literacy. To me a text is a symbol that conveys a particular meaning to a reader or viewer. If you look inside my planner, you would see an asterisk (a symbol) beside certain items indicating that they are of high importance, compared to other items. My Starbucks gift card signifies a payment system. Overall, I think that the items in my bag point to an individual living in a fairly busy, technology-oriented world.

An archeologist may take time to identify the relationship between objects in my bag. Even just a few years ago, I wouldn’t be able to connect the dots between the masks and sanitizer that are in the bag. These items have become an important part of our daily lives and culture. Thus, an archeologist would need to dive deeper to discover the purpose of some of these items.

A stranger living in the present-day world would easily be able to sift through the contents of my bag and decode what I do for work. I think these contents indicate that I am a responsible individual who works hard. Further, they point to some of my habits. These items serve as evidence that I am a neat, organized individual who pays close attention to detail. Something that this bag fails to reveal is my passion for travel. So, I’ve included a photograph of myself during a trip to Europe. I enjoy meeting new people, experiencing different cultures and lifestyles and engaging in new activities.