(Response to prompt #4: Outline screen-free coding and why (or why not) you think it should exist in the classroom)
The idea of screen-free coding was completely new to me this week, so I did a bit of reading on it outside of class to better understand what it was all about. As you can see in the above picture, learning to code does not always involve a computer! I found the article linked below interesting, and it gave lots of fun and simple ideas of screen-free games for kids that teach coding skills.
Out of curiosity, I looked at some screen-free coding teaching tool/lesson plan bundles on Canadian Classroom. I really liked the look of the “Bee Bots” for younger primary students, I would love a set one day (linked below for my wish list, or yours). I think I liked the Bee Bots so much because they reminded me of more traditional children’s toys like the yellow bus pictured below- I tend to feel put-off by coding activities for kids that look to “grown up” and robotic because they don’t fit into my (perhaps outdated) idea of what is fun for kids.
Screen-free coding as I now understand it is any activity that relies upon and teaches fundamental coding skills without using a screen. Some screen-free coding activities use electricity, such as Bee Bots for example, and others use very basic technology without electricity, such as gears and cogs. But some of these activities are so simple that essentially no tools are needed- such as the chalk-and-water gun coding activity in the first linked website. There’s a huge range of potential ways to code screen free for all age and ability levels.
I had to sneak a little joke in here, so there’s a picture of hopscotch- which I think could be turned into a screen-free coding activity, but is also a coding language and app for kids (linked below).
https://www.gethopscotch.com/ Anyhow, now that I have a decent understanding of screen-free coding, it’s something I will definitely be bringing into my future classroom. I think it’s great for so many reasons, but here’s a few:
Students need to be technologically literate to make it in nearly any part of today’s job market, and knowing how to code is a huge asset
Screen-free coding is a fairly palatable, easy to grasp way to introduce a very large skill set that some people view as unimportant or out of reach
Coding without screens is often much more affordable and accessible than coding with them, especially when working in the public school system
Students today tend to spend a lot of time on screens, which is not the best for their development in many ways- having screen-free moments whenever possible, especially when they can incorporate the fun parts of screen time, is what we need
Tools and methods for screen-free coding often don’t have the limitations of wifi connection, water sensitivity, fragility, and battery life that coding with screens does
Coding without screens can bring kids outdoors more and teach them how foundational coding skills apply to real life scenarios such as games, cooking, driving, visual art, and more
So, I guess I am a coding convert thanks to screen-free coding! I’m really looking forward to learning more about this topic, and eventually finding my own ways to build activities centred around it.
(Response to prompt #1: Use Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle to discuss your in-situ at Gordon Terrace Elementary School this week.)
This week I used Canva to create a graphic for my post. I certainly learned a lot about Canva and feel much more comfortable using it now. I found this tutorial playlist particularly helpful:
(Response to prompt #1: Describe the SD#5 Design Lab. How does it fit in with ‘Innovation in Education’? What stood out to you? Which activities did you choose to do? How do you envision using this space with a class? What sort of project would you choose to do?)
Wow, my experience visiting the SD#5 design lab this week was so fun! I went into it as I usually do with technology (feeling a bit uncertain and not too optimistic), but I left with a changed outlook on technology- which is a recurring theme through tech class this semester. The stock photo above is pretty close to what I imagined when I heard we were visiting a technology-focused “design lab”, but now it’s another funny example of my misconceptions about technology. The design lab wasn’t a room full of computers glowing with eerie blue light, it was a welcoming and engaging learning space that I imagine most students would like to be in. There were all kinds of physical toys and tools for student exploration, and some of the set up tech stations did not involve screens at all. This to me is exactly what innovation in education should mean: teaching students about experimentation, scientific thinking, problem solving, all while encouraging them play and be creative. I found the lab really exciting, and I will go in depth on each of the stations I visited next. Below is a picture I snapped of our host’s smart board while explaining the design process, and it really represents what I want to teach students about technology in all of the following stations.
First, I visited the Bambu Labs 3D multicolour printers in the back of the room. While I was not able to use these printers today, our host let us know that students often operate these machines and use them to create toys or holiday ornaments to take home. I love that this technology is included in the lab to be used by all students, students who can’t afford memberships to maker spaces would likely never get to 3D print something to take home. I like how this is being put in everyone’s hands to learn about.
I went to the 3D printing pen station second, because I love making visual art. I had never used one of these neat gadgets, but I found them quite easy to operate and really enjoyable. I think this would be a perfect art class activity for any age, because it is a unique combination of “drawing” and sculpture, and is such a fun demonstration of how art and technology work together. I’d especially like to use the pens for a primary grade art class before introducing 3D printers, because I think it would be a nice starting point to introduce how 3D printers work in a way that would be easier to grasp. I also think it would be nice for students who do not feel as comfortable with art, because there are lots of templates and moulds to use and the outcome can be aesthetic, functional, or both. Some of the templates and moulds are pictured above, and the spider web I made for my halloween costume is pictured below. What really stood out to me about the 3D printing pens is how affordable and easy to use they are.
Next, I checked out the lego Spike and BricQ station pictured above. I did not have enough time to dive into this one, but the concept is that students use these kits to build lego creations that can swing, spin, drive, walk, etc. either with of without electricity. I love creating artistic things with lego at home, so I think if I gave this one another chance I’d be confident enough to use it in a technology and/or physics lesson with a future class. I really appreciate that the BricQ set is an “unplugged” activity that still fosters an understanding of physics and some aspects of technology. Over the span of a few weeks, I’d like to try both kits (likely with grade 6 or 7) and then compare the pros and cons of both kits. This could even lead into a social studies lesson about large-scale human use of electricity and its positive and negative consequences.
I also visited the lego “train station” and ran out of time to explore it, but I think this one looks like a blast for primary grades. I feel like this lego set could be great for a social studies lesson on city planning and transportation, or to introduce foundational math skills like spatial reasoning and problem solving. Our host explained that he often challenges students to build as many track loops as possible in the space of the table, and that activity would check those boxes while encouraging collaboration in teams.
Then, the VR goggles. These were quite interesting! I think I’d only used a VR headset once previously, so it was a bit disorienting for me- I almost walked into a pole. Oops! I played a game where I was in a witches’ castle making potions, and I found it quite confusing. It took me a good while to get a hang of the controls, but I’m sure it would be lots of fun for many students who are more familiar with VR, AR, and video games than I am. I have heard of teachers using VR headsets for virtual field trips with students. Although I usually prefer the idea of taking students outdoors, I think these headsets could be an accessibility and affordability game changer. Since we all have different needs and abilities, some students are left out of field trips because of things like mobility limitations, health issues, or social and emotional needs (anxiety, sensory overload, etc.). And since the sets are already owned by the school district, the cost is much lower that many field trips and can provide students with otherwise impossible experiences- perhaps a field trip to outer space? A journey to the bottom of the ocean? I would be thrilled at a chance to use these field trip ideas for science lessons. Below is a link to a website that offers these VR field trips, just for inspiration and an estimate of cost.
The Pixicade station shown above was completely new to me, I had never heard of anything like this and still can’t believe it works. I would absolutely use this for a cross-curricular art lesson. I think the video game aspect and focus on function over appearance would appeal to many of the students who don’t feel included or confident in art class. It would be a great chance to teach primary students about types of lines and one-dimensional design, while still allowing plenty of room for the artistically inclined students to be creative.
Lastly, I visited the Ozobot station. I ran out of time to investigate these tiny robots, but I did get an explanation of a neat activity students can do with these. Since Ozobots can be programmed to follow specific line colours, students can get them to move in different ways according to lines they draw in front of the bot. For PE class this semester I prepared a warm-up with a game called “line tag” where students run on specific lines on the gym floor. I don’t understand enough about Ozobots yet to have a clear idea of how this would work, but I can imagine a cross-curricular lesson involving these similarities. Below is a link to line tag instructions, it’s a very fun game that I strongly recommend bringing into gym class.
I learned so much from this field trip, and I still have lots of questions about some of the technology being used. But I’m so excited that students have the chance to learn about these amazing new things, and I am looking forward to learning with them.
Here is the link and a QR code to my drag character (Ella Minnow Pea)’s instagram profile. I have my first drag story time video posted, and will likely use it to post more in the future to build up my portfolio. I would love to do live drag story time at a local library one day, so I can use this account as a portfolio to show my work when potentially setting up an event with a librarian in the future. Again, the account is private for now, but if you are one of my teachers or fellow teacher candidates I will gladly let you follow and stay up to date with my story time drag adventures if you’d like to learn more.
Thank you for reading along and learning with me, I really hope this free inquiry project has helped you understand and appreciate just how special and important drag story time is and why we need to protect it.
As you may know if you’ve been reading my incredibly exciting blog, my end goal in this free inquiry project is to create a drag character- one specifically made for drag story time- and start a digital drag portfolio. In this week’s post, I’ll explain the process of creating my drag character and setting up their Instagram account (aka digital drag portfolio, because this is technology class and if I can’t convert to a PDF I can hopefully make up for it by saying things like “digital drag portfolio”). Because I am not ready to deal with all the horrors of the internet, my drag profile is private for now. Here is a link and QR code for anyone interested, I will approve you if we know each other and I can trust you with drag matters.
Now that I’ve got all that out of the way, I can introduce you to my alter ego, Mx. Ella Minnow Pea! Ella is a drag performer here to serve looks and read books, specifically to read high-quality books to children in an engaging and fun way. Ella’s look is cute, sparkly, and will probably incorporate more princess dresses in the future- and maybe some sparkly suits, if I can get my hands on them. I love traditional drag, but for Ella I decided to go with very soft and subtle drag makeup. Oh, and I just remembered that the honorific “Mx.” is new to some people, so if you haven’t seen it before, it’s just a way to refer to someone if they don’t want to disclose their gender or marital status. You say it like “mix”, and anybody can use it. I included this title in Ella’s instagram account because it represents that this character is not defined by gender, she’s just here to sparkle.
I love wordplay and language arts, so I had to incorporate that in my drag name. “Ella Minnow Pea” (Mark L. Dunn) is the title of one of my favourite novels, and the message behind the book fits perfectly with my drag mission. Here’s the description from the back of the book:
Ella Minnow Pea is a girl living happily on the fictional island of Nollop off the coast of South Carolina. Nollop was named after Nevin Nollop, author of the immortal phrase containing all the letters of the alphabet, “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog”. Now Ella finds herself acting to save her friends, family, and fellow citizens from the encroaching totalitarianism of the island’s council, which has banned the use of certain letters of the alphabet as they fall from a memorial statue of Nevin Nollop. As the letters progressively drop from the statue, they also disappear from the novel. The result is both a hilarious and moving story of one girl’s fight for freedom of expression and a linguistic tour de force sure to delight word lovers everywhere.
In addition to the parallels between Ella’s character and my drag character, the name “Ella Minnow Pea” is an alphabet joke, because it sounds just like “L M N O P”, hence why it was chosen for a story about letters. As a drag artist with the goal of promoting literacy and a love for reading, I think this funny name is perfect. I also think it’s perfect because some people like to make fun of LGBTQ+ people by calling us “the alphabet people”, and sometimes we reclaim this label with love. In fact, I once had an angry woman follow me out of a swimming pool to tell me some hurtful and factually incorrect things about myself as a Queer person. As her final jab, she shouted at me across the parking lot, “At least I’m not alphabetical!”, which gave me a good laugh, because it probably isn’t the most effective thing to say if you want to hurt someone’s feelings. So by being Ella Minnow Pea, I am having a laugh about and proudly owning my title as an “alphabetical” person.
I usually struggle with technology, but I found it fairly easy to set up Ella’s instagram account. When I started typing out this post I expected to have lots to say about the process, but it only took me about five minutes which I’m quite happy about. I uploaded a simple background for the profile pic, added some pronouns, and included this bio:
☆A drag performer promoting literacy and inclusivity☆ ★Busy serving looks and reading books in Ktunaxa ɁamakɁis★
I chose to note that I am in Ktunaxa ɁamakɁis, because I need to remember that this land is full of Ktunaxa history going back thousands of years before I showed up and put on some eyeshadow, and it’s still Ktunaxa land today. This is my responsibility as a person, but I think it’s even more important for me to acknowledge as a performer who wants to bring people together and make sure every child and family feels seen, respected, and celebrated. Saying the land’s name is a small step in a lifelong journey of promoting truth about Indigenous Peoples’ experiences and reconciliation of the trauma white teachers like myself caused through the Indian Residential School system.
Stay tuned for next week’s free inquiry post, by that time I will have my first story time video uploaded and will share a reflection of my whole free inquiry project.
Welcome to the library, are you ready to get read? Just kidding- the fun and silly drag culture practice of “reading” someone is not at all literacy related, but I felt it was right to start with a joke after last week’s heavier post. In drag culture, “reading” someone means throwing a sassy, witty, personal comment their way with the intention of getting a similar sassy response back. It’s a bit like a roast battle, the intention is usually to make a smart and funny jab without being truly hurtful. It’s an art, really. Anyhow, onto the most important type of reading: books for children.
One of my main goals as a future teacher is to promote literacy. I always knew this was one of the pillars of teaching, but I didn’t realize how important (and sometimes difficult) of a task it was until reading From Striving to Thriving (Stephanie Harvey and Annie Ward, Scholastic) in my Literacy and Language course this semester. This wonderful book taught me that positive, fun experiences with reading in elementary school make all the difference in creating lifelong readers and strong students. It also taught me that so much of literacy is not just about reading the words, but meaning-making and drawing connections. I had already pondered creating a drag story time project, but this made me certain that it was something I wanted to do.
My end goal with this project is to create a drag character (specifically tailored to drag story time) and an accompanying social media profile. I’d like to use this profile to post a video of myself in character reading a children’s book with a matching drag look to really bring the story to life, and to keep this as a private portfolio of my work. But first, I want to learn more about what typical book choices look like for drag story hours. After all, the goal of DSH is to include and celebrate everyone, and I want to go into this with an idea of what types of books children and families like to see to feel included and celebrated.
Here are a few book recommendations I found that were put forward by San Francisco’s DSH chapter:
-My Princess Boy (Cheryl Kilodavis)
-Jacob’s New Dress (Sarah Hoffman)
-Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress (Christine Baldaccio)
-And Tango Makes Three (Justin Richardson)
-This Day in June (Gayle E. Pitman)
-I am Jazz! (Jessica Herthel)
-Heather Has Two Mommies (Lesléa Newman)
All of these books are excellent, but for my first drag story time, I want to choose a book that really stood out for me as a kid. Don’t get me wrong, 5 year old Graham thought Heather Has Two Mommies was fairly interesting, but I have always been more interested in picture books that lean into the surreal. I am also pretty interested in reading banned books. At the beginning of this project when I was still brainstorming, my teacher suggested reading or including banned books in my project, which made me go “Darn, why didn’t I think of that?”. I looked into banned books this week because nearly every book about LGBTQ+ people (or penguins) has been banned somewhere at some point, such as the books listed above.
I was shocked to find out that The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch, one of my favourite books ever, appeared on many lists of commonly banned books! Apparently this is due to its portrayal of reversed gender roles, because if you haven’t read it, the Paper Bag Princess is a smart and strong girl who rescues a prince and then realizes she doesn’t need him anyways. Now I was certain this was the perfect book for my first drag story time. It’s perfect because it’s a story that plays by nearly all the rules of “acceptable” kids books in the eyes of many socially conservative people, yet it still has been banned for depicting the slightest whiff of deviation from social norms. Since I am creating my Instagram profile for the purpose of sharing it with my peers and potential librarians (I’d love to do an in-person story time one day!) I want to tell a story in a way that sends a bigger message to adults.
The message I want to send is that among many wonderful things, drag story time is a tool for pushing back against the censorship of children’s literature. And just because you aren’t LGBTQ+, or just because you’re a friendly white Canadian who loves (sort of) traditional fairy tales, it doesn’t mean “your books” are safe from being banned. So let’s stick together, everyone, and ensure that our kids get access to all the books that represent who they are.
(Response to prompt #1: Discuss graphic creation – how do you envision using this in the classroom?)
This week our class learned about creating graphics and using them in the classroom, and I found it quite fun. Pictured above is the graphic I created for class. I originally set out to create a blog banner for this project, but after making the graphic I actually decided to design a logo for my blog instead and use a simpler background. I am a maximalist at heart as you may have picked up from the graphic, but I want to go with a cleaner and more minimalist look for my education blog since I think it better demonstrates professionalism and is less visually confusing to readers. Pictured below is the logo I created for my blog this week- I created it by drawing in my sketchbook, photographing it, then playing with the contrast and highlights to clean up the background. I am not the most tech-savvy, so I’m happy that I could use simple, free tech in my phone to add my art to my blog.
I created my blog banner graphic using Canva, and it was actually my first time on the website. I was excited to learn the ropes because several of my peers use Canva for other school projects and have recommended it to me. I found Canva a bit confusing to navigate at first because of the sheer amount of options for design elements, and I’ll admit I was a wee bit overwhelmed. Luckily, it didn’t take me too long to find the template I needed, and in about 15 minutes I was confidently selecting and editing stickers to spice up my banner. This boosted my tech confidence, and although I certainly have lots to learn before I can efficiently use Canva, I do see myself using it and similar applications in the classroom one day and for school projects.
I think graphics could be helpful for all sorts of things in the classroom, and I’m looking forward to exploring their uses more as I learn. During today’s class, I though about how I could create an “about me” graphic to quickly introduce myself to new classes in a fun way. I’m especially thinking about using this when I meet my year 2 practicum class in the spring, because I’ll only be there for 3 weeks so I won’t have much time to get to know the class before jumping into lessons and observation. I would add details like my “teacher name” (Just Graham? Mx. Graham? perhaps Teacher Graham?), my pronouns, my role in the classroom, and my hobbies.
I would also like to create graphics for classroom posters on key ideas, fun exit slips and worksheets, and powerpoint slides for lessons. I noticed in my recent in-situ experiences that many teachers now have a specific design used in all their classroom decorations, and I think I could use graphic creation sites to make some personalized decorations for my class one day with a nice theme.
Yes, being this fabulous IS exhausting sometimes. Because although there are always allies and co-conspirators here to stand up for and celebrate people like myself, there are always homophobic and transphobic people too. Along with the increased visibility of LGBTQ+ people over the past few years, there has been an increase in police-reported hate crimes against us (I will focus on Canada, but this effect has been observed in several other countries).
The RCMP reports that hate crimes targeting LGBTQ+ people increased by 150% between 2015 and 2020- keep in mind, this is only the police reported data. Some LGBTQ+ people don’t report for fear of being further mistreated or discriminated against based on other factors, such as being a Person of Colour or having past adverse experiences with police. When I searched for the full data set on Statistics Canada, I realized new data had been released, showing yet another large increase- from 2020 to 2023 the number of crimes against us jumped from 258 to 860 with a steady climb all the way through. That’s pretty scary to me.
I wanted to look into these statistics again as part of my free inquiry because I need be knowledgeable as a visibly queer person, especially since I would like to start my own drag story time project one day. Having a finger to the pulse of these cultural trends helps inform me about the risks of taking on such a project, and further reminds me that I need to prepare myself for the possibility of being targeted. The CBC video embedded below talks about Fay and Fluffy (from free inquiry post #2) and shows footage and interviews surrounding an instance of targeting that they experienced in 2023 while hosting a public drag story time event. I found it far from surprising that the video also mentioned white supremacist ideology being connected to anti-drag story time protests. I think this is important for me to be aware of, because although I am not at the receiving end of racism, many drag performers and families in their audiences are. Being reminded of this encourages me to do more personal learning about creating events that are especially safe for People of Colour.
So, because there are some scary possibilities out there for me, I decided to create a brainstorm list of ways I can take care of myself currently (and in the future) when things like this happen.
Join Cranbrook Pride to have a supportive community to fall back on
Connect with local drag performers and queer educators to create a support network and get advice
Find co-conspirators and accomplices in my teacher community who can help me create safety plans if (hopefully, when) I am ready to host a public drag story time event
Move slowly in this process, and only increase my visibility as a queer person when I feel ready to handle the potential risks that will come with more visibility
But despite the sad and frightening things happening in the world, I am still determined to fill it with rainbows and give kids the inclusive childhood experiences I wish I had. For more on creating beautiful and joyful queer experiences, read my next post!
The Gibbs Reflective Cycle is a new idea to me, but I found it really helpful when looking back on my in-situ lesson this week. Honestly, I think I’ll print out a copy of the graphic above to reflect on in the future! I could see this method of reflection working well for social emotional situations as well as academic ones.
For this week’s lesson we created stop-motion videos with two grade 3 classes, and I’m going to outline each point in the Gibbs Reflective Cycle as it fits with my in-situ experience.
Description: What happened?
-My year two cohort visited a K-3 Elementary school in the area for an in-situ technology lesson. We introduced ourselves to the two grade 3 classes we were partnered with, then split into teaching pairs and each worked with a group of about 5 students. The students had already learned about using the Zing! Studios app, so when it came to creating the stop motion films they were very confident. The students used their “desk pets” (tiny stuffed animals) as the actors, and created props, backdrops, and a storyline in collaboration with the teaching pairs. When the filming was complete, the students edited, added sound effects, and then shared their creations with the class in a “movie premiere”.
Feelings: What were you thinking and feeling?
I felt so happy to be working in a classroom for this lesson, and I was thrilled that the students were just as excited to create stop motion videos as I was. At first I was nervous to be in a classroom while sick because I was starting to lose my voice, but for this lesson it wasn’t an issue and the students could understand me well. I felt very curious about how K-3 schools work, because before the lesson I actually did not know they existed (embarrassing, right?).
Evaluation: What was good and bad about the experience?
I’ll get the bad out of the way first because it’s pretty quick. In fact, it’s more like “slight room for improvement” than bad. The students enjoyed the lesson so much, I wish they had more time to work on their videos. My group of students had so many ideas about story elements, backgrounds, sound effects, and prop designs that I think it would be great to see them have two classes to fully realize these ideas. In a way that is also the good part- that students were so creative, collaborative, and joyful in this lesson, it really reminded me how amazing kids are and why I want to teach them.
Analysis: What sense can you make of the situation?
I think this wonderful lesson represents many classrooms, but I also have to remember that sometimes things don’t work so smoothly and that’s ok. I think many factors contributed to the success of the lesson, and those factors are not a given in elementary schools. For example, the two classes were grade 3 within a K-3 school, so their way of being probably reflects the responsibility they feel as the oldest students in their school. The two classes were also quite used to the team teaching approach, as were there respective teachers. I think this made collaboration extra smooth, and perhaps even prepared students for staying regulated in large groups of people. I also know from experience that students may act very differently in front of new guests, based on the time of day, and based on all the complex factors in their personal lives that allow them to regulate and learn more easily.
Conclusion: What else could you have done?
I think that I could’ve been more direct in helping the student group with time management. Even though the video came together in the end and the group was proud of their work, the storyboard portion of the lesson took up a bit more time than the budget allowed for. Shortening the group’s storyboard session would’ve allowed them for more time to create props, which they were very excited about but didn’t get much time to do. I also think I could’ve had a quick huddle with my teaching partner before starting the lesson to make sure we were on the same page about divvying up the talking portions, because I worry that I may have used up too much of the air time.
Action plan: If it arose again, what could you do?
If (or more accurately, when) a similar teaching scenario arises, I want to ensure I budget well for time and am not dominating the teaching/learning conversation. I have a personal time-budgeting method I use for essay writing, where I will write down on a paper the amounts of time each portion will take and then move to the next portion as each time stamp passes on the clock, crossing them off as I go. I think something similar to this would be worth a try in the classroom. As I said in the previous paragraph, I would also like to have a 30 second chat with my teaching partner before starting to make a game plan for delivering the lesson as a team.
The gorgeous garage above features a version of the progress pride flag, designed in 2018 by Daniel Quasar. The progress pride flag is a redesign of the 1978 pride flag by Gilbert Baker, but with a few key differences. The progress flag features a large triangle pointing to the right, symbolizing the need to keep “moving forward” and progressing towards true inclusivity. The black and brown stripes represent People of Colour who are LGBTQ+, and the pastel stripes represent trans people. This flag features a raised fist, a powerful symbol for the Black Lives Matter Movement that also represents solidarity between many marginalized groups of people. There are other versions of the progress flag to represent specific cultures- for example, a circled double-feather emblem and occasionally medicine wheel are added to represent Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer identities, and the unique experiences of Indigenous people in the LBGTQ+ community. The image below shows another beautiful use of pride flags, incorporated in a sign welcoming refugees to Canada.
Pride flags come in so many unique designs like the people who carry them, because culture, gender identity, and sexual orientation have always been intertwined. Just like the word “hygge” (Danish) has no English equivalent, identities like Kinner (Hindi), Niizh manidoowag (Anishinabeemowin), Yinyang Ren (Mandarin), Boi (African American Vernacular English) or Fa’afafine (Samoan), are so culturally specific and rich in history that other languages usually can’t describe them in one term. In fact, nearly all cultural identities can only be held by a person belonging to that culture because of these rich and complex histories.
But why does this matter for drag story hour? Because children, parents, families (absolutely everyone) deserves to be seen and celebrated, and children- the typical crowd of drag story hour- are at crucial points of developing self-image and worldview. When children see themselves (in terms of cultural or LGBTQ+ identities, or both) represented in positive and accurate ways, it allows them to feel proud of who they are and choose strong role models. There are also important benefits for children who see people different than themselves represented well- it shapes the way they view people, and therefore how they treat them.
This is why drag representation is important not just for uplifting the diverse gender expressions of people, but also for celebrating the diverse cultures people belong to. While I researched for this blog post, I saw came across some amazing artists bringing cultural representation to kids through the DSH organization. Here they are, I strongly recommend giving them a follow or watching their content if you’d like to learn more:
– Papi Churro and La Dede Camacho celebrate Latine Heritage Month with Drag Story Hour https://www.instagram.com/p/DARcthkRPLI/ https://www.instagram.com/p/DAOARwaRG2F/
– Stormie Daie teaches children about Juneteenth and celebrates African American Scientist and Inventor Day with STEM stories https://www.instagram.com/p/C8ZcYnlxnW4/ https://www.instagram.com/p/C3yr1jNRvH4/
-Harmonica Sunbeam celebrates National Freedom Day with the story “Black is a Rainbow Colour”https://www.instagram.com/p/C2xDuNJuzGH/
