Hello, it’s me…

 

I honestly cannot stand that song and yet I know every word. :(

Anyway, my name is Britnee Van Velden and I am currently in my last semester as an undergrad (it’s about dang time!). In addition to gaining a bachelor’s degree in English Education, I am also getting a minor in Linguistics and the TESOL certificate (like most of the class). I am probably the palest person from Huntington Beach and I moved up here to Chico because I liked the trees, but now I miss the ocean like crazy! I do not really have many hobbies but I do like adventuring whenever I get the chance and traveling whenever and wherever.

I hate questions like this because I really do not have a “life” story; I am a pretty average human being. The only thing that is mildly interesting is that I have absolutely the WORST luck ever. For instance, one time my family forgot me in a restaurant in Amsterdam (they really do love me though). Well long story short, little me, about twelve years old, wandered into the Red Light district, which was VERY interesting (and still burns my eyes thinking about it). That’s not even the funniest/worst story, y’all can ask me for the best ones in person, they are not meant for a blog. Well anyway, that was the first trip I took out of the United States and I fell in love with traveling, which also introduced me to the world of English (shocking). I studied abroad in Florence, took mostly English courses with some art history, and changed my engineering major to an English major, which is SO much more fun.

So the reason I took this class was 1) because it was required, 2) Kim is fun, and 3) because I wanted to gain the experience teaching in front of a classroom, even if it is just interning for now. In addition to this, I really hope to gain the comfortability (not a word, but I like it) I need to excel in the teaching community, which brings me to a quote from the reading:

“Most communities of practice do not have a name and do not issue membership cards. Yet, if we care to consider our own life from that perspective for a moment, we can all construct a fairly good picture of the communities of practice we belong to now, those we belonged to in the past, and those we would like to belong to in the future” (Wenger 7)

This idea of belonging to a community or multiple communities is somewhat comforting and somewhat overwhelming to me. Wenger, the confusing little genius, basically states that when one is given the opportunity to learn, they are entering a community, which is very comforting because I picture a bunch of creepily caring humans holding up their arms for you to join a big group hug.

But, what has the possibility to be overwhelming is the fact that there is always more to learn and there will always be another community to join. My mind is very visual and I do not possess the ability to speak/write right now, so just go with it: picture a never ending staircase (I am already panting just thinking about it). The way I understand communities is to be this staircase. Wenger explains the communities in the past, which are the steps we have already taken; the present, which is the step, however big, that we are currently on; and the future, the steps that travel up towards the sky without an end in sight. That is what overwhelms me, not knowing what communities I will belong to in the future, other than one that involves teaching.

To think more physically, Wenger introduces our legs to give us the ability to climb this staircase. The article states, “It is the vehicle for the evolution of practices and the inclusion of newcomers while also (and through the same process) the vehicle for the development and transformation of identities” (Wenger 13). If we are not able to discover new practices and accept new members of our communities, we will not move upward to discover those that are higher up and have the potential to teach us more.

I think this matters because we are consistently joining new communities without even recognizing our admission (until now at least). Right now, we are all in the same community that got us to Chico State and enrolled ourselves in this class. In the future, the majority of us will enter the teaching community, others will branch off into different fields and the communities that belong to them. It is surreal that every step we take towards completing our educational careers involves us gaining the ability to climb this magical staircase.