DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.
DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

The Personal Artifact Assignment asked students to think of themselves as historians and consider the artifacts that shed light onto their personal histories.  A lot of the time we conceptualize diversity only in terms of race and ethnicity, but culture penetrates more deeply into the experiences, norms and practices that individuals hold in their everyday contexts.  I wanted to unpack some of these and push students to think some of the things that were inextricably linked to their personhood.  Students were tasked with coming up with three distinct artifacts. They also had the option of creating collages giving students space to be creative or simply write the standard essay on the artifact. The first artifact had to be a person, place or thing that was significant to them.  The second artifact had to be a group of words (lyric, poem or quote) that represented them.  The third artifact had to be a memory or moment that was pretty important to them.  I got to learn about students on a deeply intimate level as did I read through their artifacts.  Likewise, the both classes got to learn from their peers as they shared an artifact of their choice with the class.   One thing I regret about the project is that I didn't share artifacts of my own with them when the class shared theirs since it was taking up a lot of time. Though I was able to weave pieces of myself into my interactions with students and lessons throughout my semester, I think its important as an educator to practice both vulnerability and reciprocity with my students. 

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.