Texts: 

As a teacher, almost everything in my bag is related to and/or has some text component. 

Digital Text Technologies: My phone, which was used to take the picture, was not included in the picture. However, it is almost always in my bag and is a part of the items that represent the latest text technology. There is my watch charger and cell phone charger, providing the power required for the watch and the phone to work. The ear buds facilitate listening to text. My wallet has multiple credit, debit and business cards critical for conducting any business I need to. These are common features of modern day society and are difficult to survive without based on their use for communication, entertainment and conducting business.

Print Technology: 

Hard copies - books and paper piles represent print technology facilitated through the use of computers, copiers/printers. The students’ forms, along with the notepads represent the potential for handwritten text.

Logos, directions and other information on the personal items are all important texts required for proper use.

What do the items in your bag say about the literacies you have?

My textbooks in my bag would provide some clues about my career and based on the titles, point directly to me being an English teacher. The digital technology pieces (seen and missing) speak to me being computer literate. Some of the personal items also show an awareness of the impact of some environmental elements, (for example, the sun) on my body and the need to protect it.

How does the narrative of the (private) contents of your bag compare with the narrative produced by the image you have of yourself or the image you outwardly project?

I am always seen as organized and always occupied with multiple tasks by my peers. By virtue of the fact that some of my bag contents remain in my bag unused for periods at a time, I may not be deemed very organized. Instead, it points to the fact that I don’t have a lot of time, thus I cannot afford to be repacking my bag regularly.

What would this same bag have looked like, say, 15 or 25 years ago?

I was living in Jamaica 15 to 25 years ago

• The digital technology tools that are in there now, would definitely not have been in it, since I did not have a personal laptop or digital watch or cell phone 25 years ago. 15 years ago, I did have a cell phone, however. I would definitely have less credit/debit cards too.

• There would have been no need for the medication in the bottle then.

• I would still have had books, students’ work and classroom materials in it. My teacher lesson planner would have been included, now been replaced by the laptop.

• An umbrella would have been in the bag, since we do get frequent rain showers throughout the year and the sun can be brutally hot in Jamaica. 

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

• The digital technologies I have now, will undoubtedly be obsolete and replaced by several versions of newer ones many years in the future. However, written texts have evolved in so many ways, but still remain a major form of communication. I still see written and printed texts being used, but more digital modes will be accessed. 

• As such, an archaeologist might view me as an individual who had some literacies indicative of the time I was living in. However, the markers, textbooks and papers are evidence that I was still embracing the age-old hardcopy as valuable texts, instead of completely working on digital technologies and I might be viewed as someone who found it difficult to let go of the past or adjust completely to the technology of the times.