Ms. Snow's Social Studies

Learning how to tackle a new skill can be challenging, but imagine having to learn by only using digital resources. That adds a new dimension to the challenge and uniqueness of learning this new skill. For me, it was the art of crocheting, and now I am "hooked," literally. As I began this journey, I was nervous. I wanted to live up to the expectations of my late grandmother. She was an inspiration for this project, but I knew the digital aspect would be where I would struggle. I found it difficult not to talk to my family members that learned her top secrets and shortcuts. Away from the nerves, I got down to business stitch by stitch until I created some things that resemble crochet. But, I kept asking myself, how do I do this? The first few stitches I started with just learning the basics and allowing myself to be creative. Berger's (2014),  A More Beautiful Question reinforced this push to explore my "how." The book shares the ideas of bringing back creativit...

As I learned how to crochet, I realized that I am “knot” too bad for a beginner! I have mastered the skill of creating a basic crochet stitch!  Before  After Well, it was a lot of trial and error, ripping out stitches and pulling my hair out to get here. The slip knot was the most challenging for me. It was complicated because it felt foreign to be doing the action, and I kept doing movements in the opposite direction.  So, I looked at my resources , and they helped tremendously. I returned to the beginner YouTube video and rewatched it frame by frame to understand how to wrap my head around the hook, just like I had to correctly wrap my yarn around the hook. After finally connecting this piece to the puzzle, I began to plug away at it, and I did it! Here's an update on my crocheting ability! Like the design thinking process, I could evaluate my thinking, improve my work, and imagine a new goal for my skill ( Institute of Design at Stanford, n.d. ). After I understood the...

Crocheting 101 Here is my picture of the materials I plan to use for this project!  Crocheting… an artistic piece of work created by hand and with love. For my Networked Learning Project, I decided to learn the art of crocheting by researching digital resources to help me along. My grandmother made it look easy as I was going up, but I never had the patience to learn. Here I am several years later, ready to see where this journey takes me. When starting this project, I knew that this would challenge me as I have no idea what I am doing. So why not use technology and figure out how to create something? For the last couple of days, I have started the process of looking at different resources to see where to begin. As of right now, YouTube videos are the greatest help to me versus the help forums due to the step-by-step visuals that are allowing me to start from scratch. They explain the basics of how to get started and form a single stitch. I have also found guidance from the help ...