Keena Portfolio

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Title (Dublin Core)

Keena Portfolio

Description (Dublin Core)

I joined the Journal of the Plague Year Covid-19 archive before the internship experience began. I contacted Dr. Tebeau and asked how I could contribute to the archive to develop a K-12 teaching experience. I quite literally hit the ground running. I had imagined slowly starting the work; however, I quickly realized it was like drinking from a firehose, and I loved it. Before this experience, I hadn't had much interaction with rapid response archives. They were a new concept to me, and the internship is where I learned what they were and how they functioned. As a student sitting in a history class, I think it's easy to see history as systematic and well planned because, by the time we are reviewing it, there has been some organization. Being part of the rapid response archive shows the exceptional amount of work it takes to archive history.

While there is never a good time for a global pandemic to strike, this pandemic started during a beautiful place in my graduate studies. I had taken two of my core courses and a methods class. So, I felt prepared when discussing silences in the archive, biases, and other responsibilities held by the archive. This internship was a great way to use what I had learned over the last nine months and apply it rather than waiting until I had graduated to apply these skills. This application of expertise is something that doesn't usually occur during courses of study. I have also found that the internship has helped me shape my virtual class schedule as we head into the fall. While my district presented me with a virtual bell schedule to follow, it seemed like a lot to wrap my mind around, but I applied Dr. Kole's model for the internship to my class, sent it off to my instructional coach, and she loves it! While it's not directly related to the archive, the online pedagogy has been helpful.

My favorite thing about working with the archive was curating. I just loved seeing all of the items come through and reading the stories attached to them. Beyond that, I feel like I have a great base of people I can now lean on through the rest of my time at ASU. I now have teacher friends in California with whom I am now sharing distance learning ideas. I hope these are the things that stand out when people think back to the Covid-19 pandemic. While it seems to be tearing through our country and pulling us apart, there's been a lot of good to come. I'm eternally grateful to have been presented with this opportunity, and I cannot wait to see how large this archive grows.