Well, I’m Hooked…!

Well, this semester has been a busy one, but I managed to get it all done in time. This is my final blog post for my #ECMP355 learning project, but my learning and adventures with crocheting will continue on because let’s face it… I’m hooked! I believe that this class helped me kick start a project that I will continue to teach myself for many years to come. I can say that I feel pretty accomplished overall and that I am proud of what I have been able to teach myself by using online sources and technology.

Now, I want to show you a re-cap of what I have learned over the last seven weeks and some of my resources that I used. If you want to click on the links beside each labeled week, that will bring you to each of my Learning Project Posts.

Week One – “Ready Set Crochet“

• This week, I decided to choose crocheting as my learning project.
• I hoped to be able to read and understand crochet labels/patterns, know the crochet abbreviations, and be able to create multiple projects such as: wash cloths, bookmarks, headbands, and a baby blanket for my sister by using the different crochet patterns (single, double, triple, etc.) by the end of the semester.
• I would say I came close to learning all of those! I just didn’t get the chance to make a bookmark or a headband. Maybe I will do that in the near future!

Week Two – “And The Learning Begins“

• This week, I focused on learning the basics of crochet labels, abbreviations, and symbols on balls of yarn.
• I found the following resources to be extremely helpful to me this week because they had charts that were easily legible and clear: The Whoot, a Crochet Symbols & Directions Chart, Frequently Used Abbreviations, and a Crochet Cheat Sheet.
• I even referred back to these charts and pictures throughout my learning project! That’s how useful they were!

Week Three – “Stitches, Stitches & More Stitches“

• This week, I focused on learning the three basic types of crochet stitches: single stitch, double stitch, & treble stitch.
• I was able to teach myself all of these by watching some videos done by Sewrella that were a part of her YouTube series called “Crochet Beginner Series”.
• I also learned to make a slip knot and chain stitch by watching Sewrella’s videos on her channel too.

Single Crochet

Double Crochet

Treble Crochet

Week Four – “Granny Squares & The Magic Circle“

• This week, I focused on learning how to crochet a Granny Square and a Magic Circle by using online videos.
• I used a video that was done by Bella Coco called “CROCHET: How to crochet a granny square for beginners” to learn how to crochet a Granny Square.
• I also used Sewrella’s video called “Crochet Beginner Series Part 8: Magic Ring or Magic Circle” to create the Magic Circle that ended up being a mini hat for a little rubber duck. 🙂

Week Five – “Decorative Accessories“

• This week, I focused on learning how to make bow ties and flowers that could be added to a hat, headband, clothing item, baby item or even a hair pin.
• This week, I learned that the bow ties I was trying to make needed a double treble crochet stitch, instead of a treble crochet stitch. Therefore, I needed to refer back to my Week Two blog post to brush up on the different types of stitches.
• I also found that Happy Berry Crochet had a slower paced video to create a flower and therefore, I thought it would be easier for a beginner crocheter.

Week Six – “Withstanding Roses“

• Since I loved making the flowers last week so much, I decided to focus on making 3D roses this week.
• I found this Crochet Rose Pattern randomly online, but I am glad that I found it.
• I ended up spending many hours making three crochet roses and my own Crochet Rose Pattern video on YouTube, so if you would like to watch it feel free to do so by clicking here.

Week Seven – “First Baby Blanket Creation“

• This week, I spent many hours making a crochet baby blanket for my sister’s new baby.
• I had a lot of patterns to pick from on my “Crocheting Ideas” Pinterest board, but I ended up using the pattern from Mrs. Brits blog.
• I learned this week that it is easier to just follow along with what the pattern says, rather than changing your crochet hook and then having to change how many chains or rows of crochet you have to do.

So there you have it! You can use technology and the internet to teach yourself pretty much anything! You can also challenge your students to do a similar task like this learning project to help them grow in their digital literacy and ability to teach themselves a new skill by using online resources. They will also learn new skills on how to showcase their learning by creating videos or blog posts online.

Thanks again for reading and supporting me along on this journey and learning experience. I hope you enjoyed my blog posts about my crocheting adventure! Feel free to come back and re-read or use the patterns I provided any time!

Till Next Time!

My Summary of Learning For ECMP 355

Wow! Has time flown by! It seems like just yesterday that I started this #ECMP355 class, but two months have passed and it has definitely been worth my time. At the beginning of this class, I was asked my my professor Katia Hildebrandt to produce a visual “Summary of Learning” at the end of this class to show and tell a story about what I have learned and how far I have come. For this assignment, I used Window’s Movie Maker to put all of the pictures, video, and audio together. I also used Audacity to record my voice and Screencastify to create screencasts that were added to the video on Window’s Movie Maker. I hope you enjoy hearing and seeing a bit about my learning in my ECMP 355 class.

Till Next Time!

First Baby Blanket Creation

This last week I have been looking up a lot of different patterns for baby blankets, so that I can make one for my sister’s new baby that was born on June 14th, 2017. I have found  many cute ideas that have different detailed patterns, but I had already bought my yarn, at the beginning of the semester, before looking up patters to see what colors or weights (Medium, Bulky, Super Bulky, etc.) I needed. Therefore, I decided to look up patterns on Pinterest that were specifically for “Chunky Yarn” Baby Blankets. You can see in the picture above that I have pinned quite a few baby blanket patterns to my “Crocheting Ideas” board. If you want to look at my “Crocheting Ideas” board a little bit closer, feel free to do so.

I think that if I had held off on buying my yarn a little longer I would have made the baby blanket on the left, which was done by Sewrella, but maybe I will make that baby blanket as a gift for someone else, once they have a baby. Since I did not know what my sister’s baby’s gender was before picking the yarn, I decided to go with a yarn that had lots of colors in it (White, Yellow, Pink, and Blue). This way, no matter the gender, it would have a nice colorful blanket (But not that colors really matter anyways, when giving it to a boy or girl).

So, in the end I decided to pick a baby blanket pattern from Mrs. Brits blog. I chose this pattern because it was a pattern that consisted of more than just single crochet stitches, only used one color of yarn, and had a boarder. It also turned out that I had bought the exact same yarn to work with as Mrs. Brits used in her sample pictures. I also want to provide you all with the pattern, so that you can create your own crochet baby blanket for yourself or a friend one day.

To start off, I used Bernat “Pitter Patter” Baby Blanket yarn and since this yarn is a level 6 super bulky yarn, I decided to use a 8mm crochet hook, instead of a 9mm hook, like the pattern suggested because the 8mm was all that I had. So, since I was using a different sized hook, I had to change the number of stitches across to make the width of the blanket closer to 30″.

My Bernat Baby Blanket Pattern:

To begin – chain 69

Row 1 – sc in 2nd chain from hook and in each chain across, you will have 68 sc.  Ch 1 and turn.

Row 2-6 – repeat row 1. At the end of row 6, you will chain 2 and turn.

Row 7 – dc in first sc from row 6 and in each sc across. Chain 1 and turn. Be sure you still have 60 st, because this wool is thick, it can be tricky on the last st of the row.

Repeat rows 1-7, 10 more times for a total of 77 rows.  You will have 11 sections of 6 rows of sc and 1 row of dc.

 

Rows 78 – 84 repeat row 1. At the end of row 84 do not chain 1, do an additional 2 sc in the last st to create a corner. You will now begin edging the afghan.  Do a sc in each sc row, with 2 sc in the post of the dc rows, in each corner you will do 3 sc. Once you finish the 3 remaining sides, tie off and weave in your tails.

Tips

• When starting the new ball, don’t tie off the old and then start the new. Just tie the end of the new ball to the end of the old and keep going, crocheting in the knot. When you’re finished, weave in the ends.
• To make this blanket bigger/longer, you can do your beginning chain row as long as you like in an odd number. For length, just repeat rows 1-7 as you like, ending on a section of rows 1-6 + 1 row of sc (this is the edging for the top of the afghan).

What I learned from doing this baby blanket was that it is easier to just follow along with what the pattern says, rather than changing your crochet hook and then having to change how many chains or rows of crochet you have to do. To be honest, this baby blanket is taking me longer than expected because I am using a different sized hook. I have already spent more than 8 hours on it this week and I plan to work on it for another 4-6 hours on it to get it done. I also plan to make the boarder with white yarn because I am running out of the multicolored yarn and the store in Tisdale is out of the color I need. So far, I’ve enjoyed making this baby blanket and I hope my sister and her baby will like it. I also hope you enjoyed seeing my progress this week and the baby blanket pattern. I hope to get the final project up by next week. 🙂

Till Next Time!

My #ECMP355 Contributions

“How have I contributed to the learning of others in #ecmp355?”

Marc_Smith Flickr via Compfight cc

I think that I have contributed to the learning of my classmates and even others outside of this #ecmp355 class in more than one way. For example, I have contributed to others’ learning by interacting with my classmates blogs, Tweeting/Re-Tweeting on Twitter, and commenting/posting in the Google Plus Community. I have also broadened my PLN and made myself feel more connected to others online. Now, let me go into more detail for you.

Classmates Blogs:

As far as commenting on our #ECMP355 blog hub goes, I have been posting on my classmates posts several times a week. And not only am I commenting on their learning project posts, but I am also commenting on their weekly assigned posts as well. Below are some examples.

 

 

Twitter:

Since I have only started using Twitter recently, it took me a while to get used to tweeting and re-tweeting, but once I got the hang of it in the first week of classes, I started interacting with others more and more frequently. Not only did I gain classmates as followers, but I also gained other teachers, tech supporters, and crocheters as followers to total around 125 followers! Wow! And this has only been after being on Twitter for 2 months! During these last few months, I have managed to make over 300 tweets and follow 345 people on Twitter and hopefully these people will be able to help me on my journey to becoming a teacher and help strengthen my PLN. Below are some examples of my Tweets, re-tweets, likes, replies, etc. with hashtags such as #ecmp355, #learningproject, and #saskedchat.

 

 

Google+ Community:

In the Google Community I have not only asked questions, but I have also answered questions, commented on other classmate’s resources, and posted some of my own resources that I thought would be helpful to others. If you click here you can see all of the comments/posts that I have done on the Google Plus Community. Below are a few examples of what I have commented or posted to help others to help them on their learning journeys.

 

 

Thanks for reading about my contributions in #ecmp355.

Till Next Time!

Standing Up For Equity & Social Justice

Can online social activism be meaningful and worthwhile? Is is possible to have productive conversations about social justice online?

These are tricky questions asked by my #ECMP355 professor Katia, but I am willing to give it my best shot at answering them. First off, we need to think about what social activism really is before we can think about it being online. Social activism is the promotion and guidance used to cultivate changes in business practices, business policies or the government to influence social change. The duties of a social activist include communicating with policy makers, researching for the cause, and organizing responses for the media. Therefore, online social activism is actively promoting change to happen for a certain cause by using online technology. Another way of saying it is: Internet activism, which is the use of electronic communication technologies such as social media, e-mail, and podcasts for various forms of activism to enable faster and more effective communication by citizen movements, the delivery of particular information to large and specific audiences as well as coordination. 

Second off, we need to reflect upon previous online social activist campaigns such as: Kony 2012, the Ice Bucket Challenge, #BringBackOurGirls, #ParisAttacks, #MarriageEquality, the ones below in the screenshot from my #ECMP355 class, and many others. All of these campaigns listed have in some way been shown on social media and have made themselves known to many people online.

As I look at these campaigns, I can see that I have heard of quite a few of them, but I have personally failed at doing anything valuable about them. In class we talked about something called Slacktivism, which is a term that combines the words “slacker” and “activism” to refer to simple measures used to support an issue or social cause involving little to no effort on the part of participants. People who fit into the #slacktivism category lack engagement and commitment and fail to produce any tangible effect, in terms of promoting a cause. I will have to admit to you, that I did change my profile picture to raise awareness about the Paris Attacks a while back, but as far as doing anything else valuable for that cause… I did nothing. Therefore, I see myself in that sense as a slacktivist, but not that I know better, I will try harder to actually put more time and effort into helping a few of these social activist causes out.

The thing about there being so many causes to support, is actually deciding what you want to support because I know that I cannot help all of these. Therefore, in this case I like think to myself, “you cannot change the world, but you can change the world for one person.” All it takes is a few steps towards helping one cause to make a difference in someone’s life by supporting and promoting, equity & social justice in our world.

Now, back to those questions above. I believe that online social activism can be meaningful and worthwhile if each person takes responsibility for their own actions online and uses their words wisely and in a way that is respectful and empathetic, rather than in a disrespectful way or choosing to say nothing. I agree with Katia’s blog when she says “we need to be personally responsible citizens” online because we need to “begin deconstructing the justice and equity issues that continue to negatively affect those in online spaces”. As for having possible productive conversations about social justice online… I believe it is, and again, we need to step up to the challenge as teachers and use our “privilege to speak out and use [our] network for more than just [our] own benefit or self-promotion“. Because sometimes, others are not heard or able to speak up, so we need to participate in meaningful ways to promote equity in our networked spaces even though we may receive some backlash. I believe that it is worth it to give up some of my privilege, so that others might gain some more respect and proper recognition and treatment than what they have already been receiving. I too am passionate about equity and social justice and I feel more strongly now, that it is my duty as a digital citizen to promote equity in my online spaces. What do you think your duty is as a digital citizen?

Coding Is For Everyone! Even Kids!

For my ECMP355 class, I was assigned to look up the Hour of Code, which to be honest, I did not know a lot about. So, I asked myself: what is the Hour of Code and why is coding important? It turns out that the Hour of Code is a global initiative that promotes people (especially kids) to code all around the world. But I think that before you promote the Hour of Code, teachers need to be explaining what coding is, what it is used for, and why it is important.

So I looked it up on Code Conquest and found that coding is what makes it possible for us to create computer software, apps and websites. Your browser, your OS, the apps on your phone, Facebook, and this blog are all made with code. Code Conquest makes some good points in saying that learning to code has some benefits because it empowers you to do many things you wouldn’t otherwise be able to do. These things include hand-crafting your own websites, becoming a career coder, starting a technology business, and most importantly, being able to understand the technology shaping our world. While Doug Belshaw suggests a few other reasons specifically why Kids Need to Learn to Code. Belshaw suggests that coding helps kids with their problem solving, digital confidence, and understanding of the world. I agree with both of these sources and believe it is important for both young and old to learn more about coding. As a future educator, I can also see how coding can be linked to Mathematics because kids need to use their problem solving skills to code. I also think what better way to practice these problem solving skills than to learn them as they learn and practice their digital literacy skills.

So back to the Hour of Code. This website has many different learning opportunities for kids because there are many coding games that kids can learn from by playing them. There are coding options for students that range from “Pre-readers” to students in grade 9 and up. You can try them out yourself and learn something new about coding by clicking the link at the beginning of this paragraph.

I even got a chance to try a few of the coding games and I learned a lot of new things because, well, I did not know a lot about coding until this week. Below are some screencasts of my experiences with the Hour of Code. Another great coding website that you also might want to look up is Scratch. That is a cite where you can create your own stories, games, and animations by using code.

Hour of Code: Coding Moana

Hour of Code: Moana Lesson 16 of 19

Here is my certificate of completion: Hour of Code Certificate.

Hour of Code: Kodable – Great for Pre-Readers

Till Next Time!

Withstanding Roses

Well this week started off by me trying to tackle the Crochet Rose Pattern that I found online. When I saw this pattern a few weeks back, I fell in love with it, because I loved how cute it looked and would look if I ended up making a few different colored roses and then ended up putting them in a vase.

 

So to start off with this pattern I decided to make a pink rose first, then a purple one, and finally a white one. After making the first two roses, I decided that I would make an instructional video of me creating the white rose, since I have not posted any videos of me showing myself crocheting yet. Originally, I was going to be only doing one rose and then look up baby blanket patterns this week, but then I decided against that because I wanted to make more than one rose and then share the pattern with others by creating a video.

Below is the Crochet Rose Pattern for those of you who want the written pattern too. Or just look up the the pattern on the website that I found here. I made my stem a bit differently in my video than the pattern I found, but it still works, so now you can choose whatever one you would like to use.

Crochet Instructions

Ch 46.
Row 1: sc in 2nd chain from hook and in each chain across. (45 st). Ch 1, turn.
Row 2: sc in first st, [skip next st, (dc, ch 1, dc, ch 1, dc, ch 1, dc) in next st, skip next st, sc in next st] 11 times.
Fasten off and cut yarn, leaving a long end for stitching the rose together.

Optional: Stem

Terminology: The green outer parts of the flower that sit at the flower’s base are called the calyx.

Calyx
Ch 5.
Rnd 1: sc in 5th chain from hook, to form a circle. Sc in each st around the circle. (5 st)
Rnd 2: (sc in next st, ch 4, sc in 2nd chain from hook and in next 2 chains) five times. Fasten off and weave in ends.

I’ll be honest with the fact that it took me a while to create this video on Windows Movie Maker, but I think it still turned out okay considering it was my first crocheting video. I hope you all enjoy it and can use it one day. 🙂

Till Next Time!

Digital Awakening

Betshy Paola Sanchez Marrugo Flickr via Compfight cc

Over the last week, I have been learning more about digital citizenship, my very own digital identity/presence, and my eyes have been opened to some horror stories of people who have been exploited online. I feel like there is so much to say about this, but I do not even know where to start. But I guess I will start by saying that I am starting to realize that the online world is larger than I thought and that it gives people access to things that can have a very negative impact on your life because once it is put online and shared you are not able to undo it. It is there permanently.

An example of this is the story of Amanda Todd. This week, I was made aware of her story by watching a video called the “Sextortion of Amanda Todd”. In this story I was made aware that once something is posted online, people can then use that against you by cyber bullying you or causing you to be cyber bullied by others who see what has been posted. This story makes me sad that this incident came down to Amanda taking her own life, but this just shows how people need to be educated about being more cautious about what they do online because someone else can take that and put it online where others can see it, even though you did not give permission for them to do so. I can see from this story that Amanda was seeking attention and “Viral Fame” for her music, but then she went too far and that didn’t end the way she wanted it to.

Though viral fame can launch a lot of people’s careers like celebrities such as Justin Bieber, Rebeca Black, Psy, Susan Boyle, and many others mentioned in this article, it can also do a lot of damage in the sense that it can create a lot of “Viral Shame” if things go wrong. For example, there is a price of public shaming on the internet that Todd Leopold talks about in his article here. He shares about many different people being shamed online for their online mistakes and shares that people are not as forgiving online as they are in person. Monica Lewinsky is an example of someone who experienced this viral shame, but she was brave enough to get through that shame by sharing her story here in this TED Talk. What I took away from her talk was that shame cannot survive empathy. Even though she experienced viral shame, she was able to move forward when people showed her empathy. I also think that it is important for everyone to know the difference between speaking up with intention and speaking up for attention. We need to all be aware of our intentions when we post or reply to others online. Justine Sacco also experienced great viral shame and it is explained in Jon Ronson’s video that one tweet can really ruin your life. This makes me think that I need to make sure that I am cautious about what I tweet about or put online. Also, as a future educator, I need teach my students to be aware of the consequences of posting inappropriate content online.

Decorative Accessories

This week I wanted to tackle a few different decorative accessories for my learning project. I started off by trying to make a bow tie that I found on a blog from Feedly. I found this blog to be interesting because it did not have a video or written instructions on how to make the bow tie, but it included a diagram, which can be seen on the left.

 

This pattern challenged me a bit because I did not remember what the symbols meant, so I guessed. I remembered that I had to make a magic circle to start the bow tie and then I chained 6 loops. Then I thought that I had to make 6 treble crochet stitches in the magic circle, but once I was almost done the bow tie, I looked at it and it looked a bit disfigured. So it ended up looking like the picture on the right.

To figure out how I did it wrong I had to look back at my previous blog posts about the abbreviations and symbols used in crochet patterns. By looking back at the “Crochet

Cheat Sheet” and refreshing my memory of the crochet symbols, I learned that what I really needed to do was do 6 double treble crochet stitches, instead of just 6 treble stitches. By doing double treble stitches, it made a longer stitch, which then made the bow look more well rounded on each end. These bow ties could be used as accessories for hats, headbands, clothing, baby items and even hair pins. My end results are on the left.

Next, I chose to do a flower as an accessory that can also be used for hats, headbands, clothing, baby items, and hair pins. I found my resources from a cite called “All Free Crochet”. On this cite it has ideas for different types of hats and it includes a video on how to make a flower to add to your hat. Making this flower was similar to the bow tie because it uses a magic circle to start.

I was glad that there was an instructional video with this resource, but as I was watching the video, I found it hard to keep up, so I had to keep pausing the video, going back a few steps, and then try to keep up once I started it again. I made the purple flower first and the blue flower second, so I think that the blue flower looks a little bit better than the purple one, but this just shows that no one is perfect when they are first learning a new skill. Practice does make perfect. 🙂

Another video that I found online shows how to make a simple flower, but it goes a lot slower than the first video I found. The flower also ends up being a little bit bigger than the one in the first video. If you want an instructional video that is at a slower pace, then this “How To – Crochet a Simple Flower version 2 – Absolute Beginners” video is the right one for you. I hope you enjoyed reading about me getting through the bumps along the way in my learning project.

Next week I will try a 3D rose and start finding patterns for a baby blanket that I will be making for my sister who is expecting in July.

Stay tuned for more