Hi, My name is Thomas Watchorn. I was born and raised in Vancouver, and I am currently residing in Richmond, B.C., where I live with my incredibly supportive wife and wonderful son. I am a practicing high school teacher, and have been in my current position at Churchill Secondary in Vancouver for the last 5 years. I received my BFA from Emily Carr University in ’09 and my BEd. from UBC in ’10. Returning to post-secondary after a 10 year plus hiatus has been a challenge, particularly while trying to balance the responsibilities of a full-time job and a young family. I am excited to be in the MET program and looking forward to learning about and participating in the curriculum covered in ETEC 540.

For Task #1, I’ve chosen to examine the contents of my work bag. Prior to looking inside the bag, I firstly considered an appropriate background for the bag’s contents. I chose to include my 4 year old son’s alphabet play mat, to symbolize the most important thing in my life, my son, Anders. He’s my best friend and we spend lots of time together exploring and engaging with the beautiful surroundings of the lower mainland. The mat is also one of many tools we have utilized in his learning to speak, write and read the written language. Teaching my son these skills has changed my perspective of how I view text. For example, when focusing on phonics and sounding out words, I had never thoroughly considered the different ways we manipulate our mouths to create the many sounds of the alphabet. Another example of his engagement with text, is his learning to write letters using lines, shapes and symbols. Skills that many of us take for granted, but are quite complex when broken down into parts.

Moving forward, I will begin by describing the significance of my briefcase in the center of the image and move in a clockwise direction, addressing each of the item’s importance to my daily routine and relevance to text. My vintage style Adidas bag, which was a gift from my wife, holds great sentimental value in itself. For the majority of my teaching career, it has served as a vessel for transporting my teaching materials. I am now celebrating my twelfth year as a high school teacher in the Vancouver School District. The word “Adidas” signifies an informal, sporty connotation, but when juxtaposed on a vintage brown briefcase, it creates the dynamic of a more contemporary, post-modern professional. It is also quite stylish, which is an area I lack in. 

In the bottom left corner, Amazon’s 2021-2022 best selling teacher planner. As someone who teaches computer based courses and prides themselves on being tech savvy, I have not yet found a digital replacement for a paper copy planner/calendar. When compared to its digital counterparts, the ability to scribble down notes, add doodles, highlight words, and scrapbook important information within seconds is seamless and direct. The cover design also gets a lot of compliments. 

Moving clockwise, is my school-issued laptop. I mostly use this device for writing emails, online research, word processing, and other various “text technologies”. During the pandemic, and the shift to remote/hybrid learning environments, communication and collaboration through text technologies shifted from being optional to being a necessity. Although there were many challenges and shortfalls when first moving to an online platform, many of the digital components I integrated during Covid, are now staples in my in-person classes. For example, learning management systems provide a digital space where students can create, share, and collaborate using text technologies.

Next are notebooks that I use for both school and work. Having a background in visual art and design, I try to utilize these materials for creating mind maps, thumbnail sketches, and diagrams to help plan and strategize for upcoming activities and projects. I often find if my notes are too text heavy and lacking in graphic elements, then I likely won’t revisit them. 

Student Agenda. Yes, another planner. I’m currently teaching 4 different courses without a prep block, so utilizing planners has helped me keep my head above water. The planner also includes all important school related dates and its small size makes it convenient for making quick notes during meetings or in transit.

My pens. From a young age, I’ve always been interested in different types of pens and writing tools. As a teenager, I was fascinated with graffiti, and preoccupied with becoming an accomplished graffiti writer. I still dabble with lettering in my artwork and appreciate the culture surrounding street art. The paintbrush is for a canvas I have been working on at work for a faculty exhibit.

A Peppa-Pig pin that one of my students made for son. Prior to finding it in the bottom of my bag during this assignment, I thought I had lost it. Recently in my Media Design course, we have focused on students’ giving tangible form to their designs. The students really seem to appreciate the process of transferring their designs from computer screens to printed objects. In addition to a button press, we’ve added some new machines to our classroom, including a sublimation printer for making mugs and phone cases and a vinyl cutter for creating stickers and clothing.

The object labeled “Neat Nut” is a biodegradable dish sponge. This was a gift from my dept. head, after we had a conversation about sustainability in household items. I plan to use it for a marketing unit, as an example of how the elements and principles of design can be used to portray different ideas. In this case, the colours, font, packaging  are reflective of the organic/sustainable products market. 

Advil and sweets. 🙂

Lastly, is a stack of documents that were floating around in my bag. Included is an Earthquake drill flowchart on yellow paper and my parent/teacher interview schedule chart. Both are great examples of how monotonous text can be presented in a more dynamic, easy to follow manner. Incorporating graphic elements, like grids, arrows and shapes help to organize and deliver the information.