Moving right along

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Third week of independent-learning project and I still feel the same as I did since the first week! This week I have finally finished my infinity scarf project, the one that is my very first crochet project and also a gift for my mom.

Photo CC-Xiyun

I took more time in the infinity scarf because I wanted to finish the project. If I didn’t have million other things on my to-do list then I think I could of gotten it done earlier. However, I think the progress is going well for me and I really enjoy learning how to crochet. This week I practiced more on the double crochet and changing yarn color, I made a pretty long scarf so that it can wrap around the neck twice and still is long enough. It is definitely a good practice for a beginner to crochet a scarf because you’re doing the same thing repeatedly and getting better at it by each stitch. I am happy I picked scarf as my first crochet project and I am excited to learn about different patterns and stitches I can do with crochet!

Other than finishing the infinity scarf and practicing double crochet all week, I also got to spend more time on watching Youtube videos and picking one to learn from for a headband/ ear warmer project. I’ve always loved those crochet headbands and wanted to make one for myself. Since the weather is starting to get chilly, a cute ear warmer is needed! With lots of holidays coming up soon(before you even know it), giving handmade headbands as gifts also isn’t a bad idea!

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I finally made my decision on which Youtube video to learn from and started my headband/ Ear warmer project this week. The ear warmer I am making is using the Moss stitch. Moss stitch is the new stitch I learned this week and it has a half double crochet and slip stitch in it. Which made me really glad that I know how to do a double crochet. The Moss stitch is a pretty easy stitch for me so far and making this ear warmer is pretty much the same procedure as the scarf. Doing it repeatedly until it reaches the desire length.

On the third week of learning how to crochet, I have officially learned how to chain yarn, double crochet, change the color of yarn, and crochet moss stitch. I will continue on practicing each skills I’ve learned so far and make more projects in the future. Like I said, I still feel the same as I did since the first week. I am happy I chose crochet as my independent learning project.

Personal Learning Network

Personal Learning Network, a place where educators make and build personal relationship with others around the world by sharing ideas and resources of our learning, ideas and expertise. Through my research on what PLN is and why we need it, I’ve found a couple of good websites and want to share it to others who are learning and building on their PLN. The article “Step 1: What Is A PLN?” is a great article on what PLN is and why we need it.

The article explains the personal, the learning, and the network part of PLN. PLN are used by educators all over the world, educators build relationship with others by sharing their learning, ideas, resources and knowledge on social networks. Educators learn from PLN because it is a collaboration learning through network. Educators get ideas, strategies and help from others around the world through network and it is available 24/7.

Another website I found is 5 Personal Learning Networks for Educators. It gives five PLN for educators to use and learn from others. This website will be another one I will keep to build my own PLN.

After learning and reading about PLN this week, it came to mind that I’ve been building my own since the first day of college. In all of my education classes, I’ve learn to research ideas and keep them in a folder or save them in the computer. Social network is a great way to build PLN because there are a lot of educators out in the world we can’t reach unless it’s through social network.

The article “How to cultivate a personal learning network: Tips from Howard Rheingold” gave a lot of good tips on how to build and feed your own PLN. I really like the first tip Rheingold gave, explore. To learn is to explore what is out there and take it all in. During this phase of learning how to write a lesson plan, my former educators have told me many times to google and look up other people’s lesson plans. They made sure we as learners knew that it is okay to take other educators ideas for our lesson plans. They told me to take other people’s ideas and mix my own ideas in it. That’s what I thought of when the word explore came up as a tip for how to cultivate a PLN. Search ideas from others around the world and make it yours! Another tip Rheingold gave was to engage. Engage with the people you follow and follows you. Share your ideas and opinions with other educators, show interest and respect towards what they do. I think one challenge for me in “feeding” my PLN is to take my time to organize it and engage with others effectively. I like taking other people’s ideas but struggle to share mine because I usually don’t feel like it is good enough. I know that mindset is wrong and I will challenge myself to not be selfish and share my ideas and opinions with other educators.

I want to share a couple great tweets my classmates tweeted this week about PLN and I couldn’t agree with them more!

PLN'S provide a place to share & exchange knowledge & ideas with those who share a common interest. #diglitclass

— Amanda Curtis (@curtisaleigh) September 20, 2016

https://twitter.com/jaylinn_lohr/status/778738546970464256

Just keep on learning and practicing

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As week two of Independent learning project goes by, I think it’s safe to say that I have gotten the double crochet and changing yarn colors down. I had set a last minute goal to finish an infinity scarf for my mom in a week and came to the conclusion that I needed more time to finish this project than I thought I did. My goal was to finish in a week for my mom’s birthday, but because of extra stuff going on in life that I could only spent so much time on the scarf. I’ve made a lot of progress since last week and every little free time I had this week, I tried to crochet my life away! I find crocheting very enjoyable and relaxing. Even when I was in such a hurry to finish this project, I was enjoying making something for my mom. As the stress was kicking in along with all the things I needed to do this week, I decided to take my time and finish this project instead of hurrying. I spent more than two hours on it this week just because I wanted it done so bad but it was still not enough time for me to finish it.

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This week of independent learning project, I’ve learned to be patient. I find crocheting really helps with patience because you’re just doing it alone and taking your time on making sure you don’t mess up a stitch. I am starting to get faster at crocheting and getting better at changing the yarn colors. I still have a ways to go to make this infinity scarf but I’m hoping to have it done by next week and get started on the next crochet project.

Since the

Screenshot CC-Xiyun

weather it’s starting to cool down, I want to learn how to crochet a headband. I spent some of my ILP time this week on Pinterest and YouTube searching for patterns and watching tutorials on how to make headbands/ear warmers. I will most likely be making a lot of those to give as presents as well. The pattern and stitch I learned by watching the tutorials on crocheting a headband is a Moss stitch. It looks like a fun stitch and I am excited to be making a headband and keeping my ears warm during fall and winter.

I personally think this project is going great and I am really enjoying learning it and practicing on my crochet skills. I am excited to keep learning more different patterns and stitches, I think this is something I won’t stop doing even after this class is over.

Passion is the key to life.

Think of something you’re passionate about…

How hard are you willing to work for that certain thing?

Photo CC-Shon’s photography

To me, when I am passionate about something, I am willing to give it all. So passion is the key to my life. My passions are God, family, my education to become a good teacher/role model someday, and kids. I am happy to do things I am passionate about and that ties into the readings I read this week. From Ainissa Ramirez‘s post Passionate-Based Learning I’ve learned so much and enjoyed the reading a lot! In her post, she had two ways to get a child passionate about something.

The first way is to find out what each child is passionate about and the second way is to be an instructor that exudes passion for the topic. The first way is always mentioned by a lot of my professors who are in the education program. It is definitely the key to teaching because we want to know our students and have a relationship with them in and outside of classrooms. We want to show our passion and support for them. The second way is also very important but not mentioned as much as they should. Students often think a class is boring or not interesting, most of the time it’s because the instructors teach in a “boring” way. Yes, it is very hard to teach to interest every student in the classroom but showing your passion about what you’re teaching will draw a lot of students’ attention. Ainissa Ramirez also mentioned in her post that we must have a beginner’s mind while we teach. I couldn’t agree with that one more, I am majoring in secondary education in Mathematics. A lot of classes I am taking are in the higher end of math and sometimes I am just super confused in classes because the professors teaches like we are at their level. Thankfully, I don’t mind bothering professors for help and instructors usually does a good job at helping students out outside of classroom.

The other reading I did was from Saga Briggs, her post 25 Ways to institute Passion-Based Learning in the Classroom had a lot of great ideas and I know I will definitely be printing it out and saving it for future references as to being a passionate teacher! I love every single one of those ways but I have to say that the first one is very effective and seen a lot in the classroom. Most teachers I’ve had use the first day of class to get to know students better. They usually share what they love and exchange with the students. Throughout the semester/year, instructors usually use the things they’re passionate about as examples in their lessons. Which I love about that because it really does help students learn better when the instructors show their passion about something instead of faking it to get through the lessons. These 25 ways are all great and hard to pick favorites to talk about but another one I really like is number 19, weave standards into passion-based learning. That one seems really hard and especially hearing from other educators now talking about curriculum and standards. Sometimes it’s hard for educators to teach what they’re passionate about if they’re being throw into a class a week before school starts or a dramatic change in curriculum and standards. Number 19 can be hard to manage but if you’re passionate about it, you have the key to the door!

Passion is the key to my life, it opens up a lot of doors in my life and even the door to motivation which that’s really hard to open up.

What’s your passion? Are you willing to work hard for it?

Mission trip in Peru

Photo CC- People from the team

 

Hands-on learner

With the amount of time I got to spend on focusing on my Independent-learning project, I would say that I took a great advantage of it. I am very happy I chose to learn how to crochet because after spending 30 minutes watching tutorials I was hooked. I couldn’t stop watching more and finding more patterns and projects on crocheting. I started out as searching information on my phone to watching Youtube videos on how to crochet. I am a visual and hands-on learner so reading articles and looking at pattern charts didn’t help me learn. I spent about two hours just watching Youtube videos on how to crochet different things then realized that I need the materials. I went to Walmart the next day and got all the materials.Crochet materials are pretty simple, yarn, J hooks and a few extra pieces that could be used for different things.

Photo CC- Xiyun

Photo CC-Xiyun

I learn from doing and watching at the same time, so I couldn’t wait to follow the tutorial and make a scarf for my mom. After watching many “Crochet for beginners”, I’ve learned how to tie a slip knot, chain, single crochet and double crochet. The scarf I am making for my mom is an infinity double crochet scarf. It is her birthday this coming Thursday so I’ve made the decision to work hard on this scarf and have it finish for her birthday. I got the colors black and red, and it made me want to do two colored scarf instead of one. I couldn’t make the decision at first because I figured since it’s my first scarf I should keep it simple. I never keep things simple so I decided to watch tutorials on how to change colors and have got that down.

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It might not be the best looking scarf there is but I think it isn’t bad for the first one. It actually took me a lot of redo to get it looking right and with the picture of the progress above, it took me a couple of hours to just to get that down. I am still pretty slow at crocheting but I look forward to practicing it every day and getting faster at it like the ladies on the tutorials. I think this learning project is great and I am very happy I chose this project to focus on. It is also great that I am not only learning, I am also making presents for people! I hope to have a finished project soon and I am very excited to learn new things about crocheting!

Reward isn’t the real deal.

Did you know that traditional rewards aren’t as effective as we think? In Dan Pink’s Ted talk “The puzzle of motivation”, he had mentioned how experiments were done to prove that. There was a scientist name Same Glucksberg using the candle problem to gather information on how traditional rewards aren’t effective as we think it is. He gathered the first group and said to them, I am going to time you and see how quickly you can solve this problem, he told them he’s just going to gather the averages and time to see how long it takes for someone to solve this problem and compare to others. To the second group, he offered rewards. He offered them money depending on how fast they can solve the problem. Turns out the second group actually took longer to solve the problem. The experiment had me thinking… I am sure I am not the only one who thought the traditional rewards are great motivators!

Let me share a little personal experience I had with rewards triggering my motivation. I played tennis in high school and I double faulted a lot earlier in my tennis career. Faults are in serving where the ball doesn’t land in the correct serving box when you serve. In tennis, you get two chances to serve, if you miss both chances then it’s a double fault. In one of my tournament, I had lost my first game and one of the reasons was double faulting. After that game, my dad said he would reward me if I don’t double fault once in the next game. I wanted the reward because it was money and who doesn’t want money? I took it serious and won the next game with zero double fault and won my reward. With that experience in mind while watching Dan Pink’s TED talk really got me thinking.

In Dan Pink’s TED talk, he had mentioned how traditional rewards are the worst motivators. I agree with that because after that game I would secretly hope my dad would try to motivate me by giving me more rewards. Now that I am older and after watching the TED talk I realize even more how rewards isn’t the greatest motivator. Yes, it was great winning the reward but for the person who gives can eventually run out of rewards. Dan also mentioned that studies shown, people are more than likely to get things done when they’re given tasks and a week to do those tasks whenever they want as long as it’s done in a week or a certain time. That couldn’t of hit the spot even more than it did. I like when professors give me a time to do my homework and deadlines that aren’t the next day. Yes, most likely I won’t get my assignments done the day it is assigned but knowing that deadline motivates me to get things done.

The TED talk really opened up my mind and taught me what not to do when I am motivating my students in the future. The best point from this TED talk was definitely how rewards isn’t the best motivator but everyone has some kind of experience with that in our lives. It will be a challenge to try not to use traditional rewards as a motivator in the future but it will be for the best for the children when they’re not bribe to get things done.

Photo CC- Sophie

Independent-Learning project

This project is a great idea to get students to choose something they want to learn about and be creative. It took a lot of thinking and debate with myself on what I want to learn! I finally made my decision and am setting my focus on learning how to crochet/knitting for my Independent-Learning project.

My mom has always love knitting as a child and she is still knitting now. She loves making scarves, hats, and sweaters for people during winter season. Let me correct that, she knits all year long but gives them away as presents during winter season! I’ve always tried to learn how to knit but never has the patience and time to figure it out. I want to use this Independent-learning time to learn how to crochet/knit and make cool things for other people this winter!

I think I would really enjoy this because it’s something my mother loves. I want to actually experience her joy when she’s making things for other people. She always has ideas and things she wants to make for my friends or other kids she knows. It will be awesome if I get either the crocheting or knitting down so I could make something for other people.

My mom has a lot of scarves, hats and sweaters, but if I get the crocheting/knitting down I would make her something first. She’s always made a ton of stuff for me so I think she would be happy if I can make something for her! I know I would feel accomplished because whenever I sat down and tried to learn how to knit with my mom I always ended up struggling. I’ve always started a knitting project about 50 times but never finish because of how hard I think it is. I really want to use this learning time effectively and make this my goal for the semester along with other ones.

To learn crocheting/knitting, I will be calling my mom, searching a lot of ideas, watching tutorials, and googling how to crochet a lot to make sure I make a good use out of this independent-learning time. I am excited that I chose to learn how to crochet/knit because I love crafting and making things for other people. I usually paint or draw people something but hopefully soon I can add another craft in my “know how to do” list. People can wear the stuff I make this winter and be warm!

Photo CC- Christophe Brutel

Photo CC- Stitchy Stitcherson

Let’s talk about hack!

When the word “hack” pops up in the screen, I am sure your reaction would be “oh no, this is bad” because that’s how my reaction was. Hack has always been a popular word on Facebook. A lot of online accounts gets “hacked” and so usually we automatically assumes that it is no good when something is hacked. A lot of websites usually warn you about certain things being hacked to get your attention then you click on the page to read more and turns out those are the pages that people use to hack your accounts! Hacking in school is different, from Logan’s TED talk and Bud Hunt’s blog. Hacking is a good thing in education.

The hacking Logan and Bud talked about is different than what we are used to. That also leads to the best idea in the reading and the speech. Logan’s speech was a great one, the main idea is that hacking is a great way to learn. I often asks other people what their techniques of studying or reading are because I struggle with those two the most. People usually share their ideas with me, then I try to use it effectively with the way I learn. Now, I would call that a good hacking. We all learn from other ideas, even if it’s other people’s idea but if it’s shared then why not use it and make it fit you? Sharing your idea can also help you learn because people will give inputs on what they think of it and ways you can improve. The three important points in Bud’s blog was also a great idea to hack and use in the future as a teacher. Making, Hacking, and Playing; those three are so important in learning. I agree with Bud on how he believes that making things is essential to the craft of teaching and learning. I enjoy crafts and know I always will learn something when I make something from what I’ve learned. (Tricky sentence!) Making something also brings the creativity out of someone! I believe people always learn from teaching others or demonstrating their learning. The way Bud described hacking was that learning happens when we hack things, because we must understand what it is and how to fiddle with it in order to improve it. Which makes hacking great, because we have to understand what we are hacking in order to hack it effectively. Lastly, playing is so important. Playing comes in so many different ways. It helps students to enjoy class and school more when they get to have fun at school.

The TED talk and the blog will be my goals as a teacher in the future. Making, hacking, and playing will be seen in my classroom because I think they are so important in an effective classroom. I enjoyed the TED talk and the reading because the TED talk was from a teenage boy point of view which helped me a lot to know what kids think of education nowadays. The reading was a great way to follow and to do in my future classroom, I agree with the way Bud thinks what teaching should be like!

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