4/1/2015 Workshop Douglass-Truth Library Klarissa

Location: Douglass-Truth Library

Time: 5-7

Date: 4/1/2015

For the crafts with the kids we did a photography through literacy project, which Ivette lead, called My Favorite Place. We all thought of our favorite place and drew it with oil pastels. Then, we had our pictures taken from behind so we could glue ourselves, cut out, into our favorite place. But one thing, we forgot to have them write anything about their favorite place, so I’m not sure about the literacy goal there. A few kids drew libraries as their favorite place, which is exciting. After that, since some of the girls had wanted to do origami last week, we did a little bit of origami. Willa and I had prepped by practicing a few different shapes. However, they were not as interested in doing the origami now. Instead they were excited to be in the library this month, and so we spent an hour in the kids section. We asked the kids about what they liked to read, but for the most part they browsed through the books on their own. I noticed the younger girls picked up some princess books, and I wonder how much that is because gender stereotypes are marketed to children.

I did not look too much at the books in terms of content or messages, as I was surprised at how nostalgic I felt looking at all the books I had read in elementary and middle school. Thinking back, the books I read, such as the Anne of Green Gables and Little House on the Prairie series, privilege the story of white American settlers. But it seemed like there were some more books that showed other perspectives. One of the girls showed me her favorite book which seemed to deal with modern indigeneity. 

4/22/2015 Casa Latina Workshop Willa

Casa Latina
April 22nd, 2015
4:30 - 8:00 PM

The planned activity with the children today was centered around Earth Day. Klarissa had printed out a paired sheets of paper - the top paper was a drawing of the earth for coloring and another sheet underneath that you glue the earth to. On the the second sheet of paper, the kids are supposed to write down four things that they like about the earth or that they want to improve. The earth that is glue over this sheet of paper is cut so that you can reveal the words underneath.

It was a lot of fun. All the of kids started to color in their earth - mostly blue for the water and green for the land. The kids mentioned that they like trees and want to recycle more. One of the girls didn't want to cut their earth out and glue it because that would be too mean to the earth.

3/25/2015 Workshop Casa Latina Klarissa

2/25/2015 Workshop Federal Way Library Klarissa

Location: Federal Way Public Library

Time: 5-7

Date: 2/25/2015

We were all in the same room again, and the kids were mostly doing homework and reading. We couldn’t do a craft anyway. Brad and I played with the infant and her older sister since wifi was down. Other kids left to play in the children’s area.

At storytime the boys from last week were there and  ready to listen, but the girl was not. Instead, she was quietly reading out loud to herself from a book. When we moved to a different area to read, I asked if she just didn’t like the story. She said she didn’t want to listen, because she didn’t understand Spanish. And yet, she replied to the librarian,“sí, comprendo español.” I’ve also seen her interact with her mother almost exclusively in Spanish. Questioning her on this, she said that she didn’t fully understand it and it was dumb. I only said Spanish isn’t dumb, and dropped it.

This is an interesting moment for me, because I didn’t know how to respond. How do I create a space where I only speak English, but support and emphasize the children’s Spanish and Latino identities, as a wonderful part of them, not anything to be ashamed of? 

A Letter to my Feet

Dear Feet,
I do not tell you enough how much I appreciate you. You are my main mode of transportation, getting me from one place to another everyday.
I know I don't take very good care of you. I subject you to hard, flat and or tight shoes, or run barefoot down gravel paths and you've always stuck with me. I've strapped you to a board and you've carried me down mountains, and I've squeezed you into tight climbing shoes and you've balanced me on the tiniest projections as I climb up fake mountains. You've balanced me in tree pose, half moon pose and warrior III. You've marched with me for social change.
You do so much for me. I don't want to say that I can't live without you- that would erase the experiences of those who don't have feet and live just fine. I will say that without you, my world would be different; our built environment is definitely built for the able-bodied.
I wish I could say that I promise to take better care of you in full honesty, but I will try. Especially you, lefty- I know the tattoo hurt, and you deserve for it to stay beautiful.
Thank you for all you do, I appreciate you.
Love

2/18/2015 Federal Way Library Workshop Klarissa

Location: Federal Way Public Library

Time 5-7

Date: 2/18/2015

We were all in one room today, kids and adults. The planned theme was “Using Technology with Kids” as a family workshop, but the women had specific things they wanted to work on.

There were four boys around 6-8 years old present, which was a bit of a pickle as we had only three iPad minis. We tried to encourage them to share, to play games together, such as the word guessing game on the Osmo. The played the word game for a little bit, but then one broke off to play the chef game with the Tiggly, then another wanted to play that game and soon everyone wanted to play that game on their own tablet. It was not as easy to make that a work together game, and so one boy was left out, upset. Although Brad tried for a while, for some reason he was unable to get the other tablets to download games. So I let the other boy use my Surface tablet, though the only game I have is Jetpack Joyride. That started a commotion over everyone now wanting to play that game. It’s never fair with children, is it? I could probably say the same with adults though, we want what they have, not what we have.

Anyway, that didn’t last long as it was then storytime. I sat and listened, amazed with the librarian’s ability to keep the attention of the boys, who were not wanting to stay still. I talked to the storytime librarian for a bit afterwards about children’s programs, the ones she runs and the research she’s done with education. Meanwhile, Brad was playing with the boys in the children’s section, running around on all fours, which was funny to see.

2/11/2015 Federal Way Library Workshop Klarissa

Location: Federal Way Public Library

Time: 5-7

Date: 2/11/2015

Today, there were only two children, one older kid and an infant. Another kid, middle-school age, was doing homework in the back of the adult room. We had planned to make Valentine’s cards, and started to make a few after some negotiation with our one attendee, who wanted to read.

Again we had to move into the adult room at 6, time for storytime. There were a few kids in the children’s section of the library who gathered for storytime, which is good because I had felt bad that the librarian had shown up and there were no kids with us who would sit through storytime. The infant was not feeling well and fussy, the other was reading on her own. Since there was not much for Willa and I to do, we made cards in the back of the adult room. 

3/4/2015 Workshop Casa Latina Klarissa

Location: Casa Latina

Time: 5-630

Date: 3/4/2015

Casa Latina was very quiet today.  Two older girls and two infants. Stephanie helped me with the kids. Since we had to leave early we didn’t bring any crafts, only the ipads which were almost dead. I have been a little hectic this quarter, and did not plan very well ahead. Again, planning. How many times do I need to learn this?  Since I have very little experience with children, it’s important, because I don’t have a “bag of tricks” to fall back on yet. Still, kids are very good at entertaining themselves and they found amusement in the bag of jelly beans that Ivette brought- doing blind tastings, trying to trick each other into not being able to guess the flavors in various combinations.

Ivette, Stephanie and I left early to be able to attend a lecture by Anne Balsamo on campus, one of the founders of FemTechNet. FemTechNet’s manifesto is at the core of our mission as Ivette laid it out(rewrite this sentence). The lecture was quite interesting, but not what I had thought it would be. The title of her newest book, “Designing Culture” to me, as an anthropology student seemed as if this would be theoretical and broader- a discussion on social construction through the ways we design informational technology perhaps. And I haven’t read the book, so maybe it is about that. But the lecture was about a project to digitally archive the AIDS memorial quilt- which is interesting in itself.

There is the idea of resisting the silencing of historical narratives, queer history and the still active creation of the quilt.

She talked about technological obsolence and the quickly shifting paradigms- how long will our informational technologies be useful as holders of history, artifacts, words, ideas and knowledge? 

2/11/2015 Federal Way Branch Library Workshop Klarissa

Location: Federal Way Public Library

Time: 5-7

Date: 2/11/2015

Today, there were only two children, one older kid and an infant. Another kid, middle-school age, was doing homework in the back of the adult room. We had planned to make Valentine’s cards, and started to make a few after some negotiation with our one attendee, who wanted to read.

Again we had to move into the adult room at 6, time for storytime. There were a few kids in the children’s section of the library who gathered for storytime, which is good because I had felt bad that the librarian had shown up and there were no kids with us who would sit through storytime. The infant was not feeling well and fussy, the other was reading on her own. Since there was not much for Willa and I to do, we made cards in the back of the adult room. 

At the end there was an interesting scenario, as we were packing to leave. A gentleman walked into the room, towards the back without saying anything, grabbed coffee, then asked what the event was as he left the room. I heightened my awareness when he walked in, but thought little of it until Ivette engaged a conversation in the car on this with all of us and asked me what my thoughts were. Mostly since he hadn't said anything when he entered, I was watching him, trying to figure out what he wanted. But I was on guard, as this was a man entering into a space filled with women and children. 

We want this to be a space welcoming to everyone, so this is an interesting thing to think about, how we judge those who enter as belonging or not. 

2/4/2015 Federal Way Library Workshop Klarissa

Location: Federal Way Public Library

Time: 5-7

Date: 2/4/2015

Today was the first day at our partner libraries instead of at Casa Latina. It was a bit longer drive to Federal Way than we thought but we got there only a few minutes late. There were a couple older children, and three under-ones, though one would not tolerate being away from mom. Is there a way to be less scary to kids? I’m starting to feel like I must be scary.

I thought the kids might make masks today out of paper plates, and they seemed excited about the idea, but did not get very far, though they did color up some pretty plates. They got distracted and wanted to run around, I guess they do sit all day at school. Although we were not the best planned at getting snacks, and then getting everything moved out of the room, which was otherwise reserved at 6, it did go okay. The story time was wonderful, I sat through it with one of the little ones. The older kids did not want to sit still, and ran off but I was happy to see that they had found another corner of the library to read on their own.

I am always in awe of how kids can make friends so easily, or at least find a way to have fun with people they’ve never met. 

DATE Casa Latina Workshop Klarissa

I wasn't able to be at the first workshop, so I was excited to be a part of the second one, last night. Since it was the end of the quarter, I was rushing to get my final projects done and did not prepare too much before last night. So at least I didn't have too much time to think about being nervous. Thankfully Xochitl and Jen had some wonderful plans set up for the children, and I was helping them out. I did feel nervous for a minute once we got to Casa Latina, especially before Xochitl and Jen arrived, as it's been a while since I've watched children that can walk or talk! There was not too many kids, and as Jen mentioned, a few of them were much more interested in crafts and free-play. Structured time is good, but so is the chance to be creative, so thanks to Jen and Xochitl for being adaptable to the children's needs. I can tell they're going to be great children's librarians :) 

DATE Thanksgiving technology Klarissa

In the spirit of the past weekend, I'll start by saying I'm thankful to be a part of this great project!

I didn't get to attend the last workshop, but it sounds like it went wonderfully and I'm excited to be a part of the next one. Over the weekend, as my husband and I were spending time with family, I had an aha! moment that I'd like to share, which was mostly seeing familiar situations in a different light. 

After hellos, hugs and how are you?s with the family when we arrived at the Thanksgiving dinner, it was time, as usual for one of my husband's aunts or uncles to approach him with an IT issue. This time, his aunt was trying to save photos on her new tablet so she could share them with her grandson who is stationed in another country. I observed, and interjected a bit, as they discussed what she wanted and decided she didn't need to mess with an SD card, she could use Facebook and he showed her how to download the app, take selfies and send photos from her camera app to Facebook. Like I said, this isn't an unusual situation, as a computer programmer, the family usually will have something they've "been waiting to ask him about." But after this class, I saw this situation slightly differently, maybe more analytically. I think this interaction was a good example of some of the discussions we've had of about technology and different ways it could be used. He could have just showed her how to use the SD card, but it turns out that would not really what she wanted to do. Maybe she just thought that she needed to use it because it was there, or because that's how things used to work, but since she was asking about storing things in the cloud and sharing photos with her grandson- and she had already started to learn Facebook to communicate with him, we showed her how to post photos to Facebook instead. She was happy, and trying to get the right light for a selfie for a little bit after, too. 

I thought this was a touching moment, as well, seeing how technology could bring us together, even social media which can create more distance in some ways. It was not only bringing his aunt and her grandson closer but it brought my husband and his aunt closer together, too. It was a more meaningful interaction than the usual small talk. 

I'm excited to be at the next workshop to share in learning and conversation!

DATE Reflection #2 Klarissa

This next week is scary to me, it's the week we have to get ready, and then the week after it's time for our first workshop. On the other hand, the model we have, collaborative and conversational, means that we don't have to have a perfect presentation, we just need to be able to listen. At the Mujeres sin Fronteras meeting we went to a month ago, we did an exercise in active listening which I feel is a large part of what we're doing. 

Right now I'm also struggling a little bit with the cold, gloomy weather and the darkness. So, I know everyone has been putting a lot of work into planning this and getting ready, and we're going to be fine. I'm actually excited as our group and our plan have taken shape. 

Reflection Klarissa

I did not post a reflection last week- I’m sorry! Punishment will be severe and forthcoming, suggestions being taken.

The quarter goes by so fast, but I am excited by how much progress we have done on this endeavor! I really enjoyed discussion yesterday around the definition of “digital literacy” and the meanings behind different definitions. One of the classes I am taking this quarter is “Indigenous Worldviews” and I am realizing how much is behind such a simple seeming concept of defining a term. There is a host of assumptions about what is important, what is normal, how the world is and how we should be in it. I was particularly struck by Lisa’s comment about “knowing quality sources of information.” [This is not a personal critique, Lisa, you are wonderful!] The idea of quality sources is kind of hammered into us, at least I feel in my experience. Scholarly articles, reputable websites, no Wikipedia. As I mentioned in class, though, scholarly articles are not without bias. It might be blasphemy to say, but even natural science, quantitative, empirical studies are not neutral. I think “quality sources” are more in line with, sources which are based on and will uphold the Western worldview. Why is traditional or community knowledge, or something written by somebody without a degree less legitimate? Why are feelings less legitimate than statistics? Why are we encouraged to cite everything, using official/ published data? (at least I often feel the need to include citations for every fact)

In anthropology, we have the term “authoritative knowledge,” a concept maybe not created by, but developed and explained by one of my sheroes, Brigitte Jordan. It basically comes down to the “knowledge that counts,” facts that matter. She describes it in one article as “considered legitimate, consequential, official, worthy of discussion, and appropriate for justifying particular actions by people engaged in accomplishing the tasks at hand.” (Jordan, 1997). In defining digital literacy, we are deciding what kind of knowledge “counts.”  I’m not sure there’s a way around this, it may be inescapable. We are definitely deciding what is “legitimate, consequential, official, and worthy of discussion” when we define digital literacy, discuss it and create our lesson plans, though we are including the women we are serving in this discussion. Out of theory and in reality, it does matter what is consequential and worthy of discussion tothem. And most certainly, we are using our definitions of digital literacy to “justify particular actions” – this whole project is based on convincing the city of Seattle that they should fund workshops for Latinas on digital literacy. In doing so, we must rely on what is considered legitimate- in our grant application and evaluations which are statistics, data, studies, surveys and definitions.

Jordan, Brigitte. 1997. “Authoritative Knowledge and Its Construction.” In Childbirth and Authoritative Knowledge: Cross-Cultural Perspectives. Davis-Floyd, Robbie and Carolyn Sargent, Eds., University of California, Berkley.