Cooking with TPACK

This was such a fun and innovative activity! Before calling my best friend (the person I was on Facetime with), I was thinking about what she would choose for me and what choice I would get to select. All my anxiety went away went I realized that I was going to be making a sandwich, instead of trying to slice fruit with the spatula she chose for me! 😂 Once I got into the activity, I started to use the spatula to get mayo from the jar, it made me think about how students are given limited resources and it's essential to not get stuck when they cause more frustration than aid. I mean, who's going to really pick a spatula when making a sandwich, but why can't we either? In Winner’s (1980) article Do artifacts have politics?, he mentioned, "Consciously or not, deliberately or inadvertently, societies choose structures for technologies that influence...people..." If the top Tik Tok star made a trend to make sandwiches only using a spatula, EVERYONE would do it. Although it was unconventional, the spatula turned out to be an interesting tool in mixing my condiments up! LOL! 

Unfortunately, life gives us spatulas when we really need a knife. As an adult, you've had experiences to help you navigate through those times. Students have some experiences, but don't have enough agency over their lives to control the what if's. They can't control whether their parents by food instead of school supplies. They can't control their parents income, bills or responsibilities. They can't control the learning diversities they distinguish them from the bunch. It's kind of getting depressing talking about what students can't do, but it's the truth. This won't change until teachers expand their students tool boxes and creativity is the key. 

Whether students don't have a pencil, no electronic devices at home, lost homework, students must use their creativity to make it happen. I've had students return homework written in eyeliner, crayon and even rewritten from scratch because the original paper was lost. Once students realize that they can accommodate themselves and modify how the interact with problems, it's going to be divine!

References

Winner, L. (1980). Do artifacts have politics? Daedalus, 109(1), 121-136.