Monday, November 13th

Noelle Pepin came to our class to show us  Beaded Tweets, where she took tweets and beaded them using 8-bit code and two colors of beads to represent 1s and 0s.

We had to pick a word that was important to us and that was 5-8 digits long. I chose the word family because my family is very important to me and a driving force on why I am where I am right now.

Image of beads on a string on top of paper that shows code pattern, and plate partially in image with rest of beads to be used
Image of my bead 8-bit code word in progress on my paper that I used to write out the code, with a paper plate and some beads on it.
Image of beads on a string on top of paper that shows code pattern, and plate partially in image with rest of beads to be used
Image of my bead 8-bit code word in progress on my paper that I used to write out the code, with a paper plate and some beads on it.
Image of beads on a string on top of paper that shows code pattern, and plate partially in image with rest of beads to be used
Image of my bead 8-bit code word in progress on my paper that I used to write out the code, with a paper plate and some beads on it.

I had a few moments of confusion and near frustration, such as when I realized 8-bit code differs for capital and lower case letters, or when the end of my string frayed. However, it was said that we needed to put positive feelings into the beading. I knew I needed to let frustration go and find a way to do it. Every time I felt frustration coming, I reminded myself I needed to put good emotions into my beading.

I burned my frayed ends of string for the first time ever, something I was quite nervous about. I have been pretty trained to be worried about fire unless using it to cook or for warming or cultural purposes, so I was not sure about the burning frayed ends. I watched a couple other people use the candle for their ends then tried mine. It worked out well for me, and I did not have any issues with frayed ends after that.

Every aspect of the experience was something I felt a bit unsure about. I had never seen what 8-bit code looked like, I had never beaded before, but have seen different kinds of beading being done, and felt quite unsure going in. It was a very reflective, interesting and fun experience for me.

Image Beads on a string with key chain over top of the 8-bit code paper
Image of my completed 8-bit code word (Family) on top of the Alphabet Binary Table we were given to translate our words to code.
Image Beads on a string with key chain over top of the 8-bit code paper
Image of my completed 8-bit code word (Family) on top of the Alphabet Binary Table we were given to translate our words to code.
Image Beads on a string with key chain over top of the 8-bit code paper
Image of my completed 8-bit code word (Family) on top of the Alphabet Binary Table we were given to translate our words to code.

I enjoyed doing something with my hands, seeing how others were doing their beading and asking each other questions. This reminded me that sometimes the thought is that students are only focused if they are silently working, often students talking can show focus just as well when the discussions being had are about the subject/project/assignment. Talking can also point to excitement. I know when I get excited I can get quite talkative, especially when learning something.

I really enjoyed seeing how coding can be used for a hands-on project that brings in an Indigenous aspect. Beading takes a lot of focus and consideration, so until this experience it was not something I thought could be easily accessed in elementary education, beading my word made me think of how concepts, ideas and traditions that can seem very complicated and out of reach can have simple ways of doing them to introduce them to children and help them build the ideas and concepts up in complicity to understand something fully in a hands-on way. I am only really used to thinking about how something conceptual can be built up, where things that are hands-on can feel very all of nothing, not something that can be built up. I am very grateful that Noelle came into our class and that we got to participate in beading.