Let The Journey Begin!

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Photo of myself!

Hello everyone, my name is Danica Finlay and I am from a small town called Vanguard which is situated on Treaty 4 land in the south west corner of Saskatchewan. Growing up I was raised by my loving parents along side my older brother and younger sister. From the time I was little I have always enjoyed the process of learning and experiencing the “aha” moments I feel when I acquire a new skill or begin to understand a new concept. If you would like to know more about myself, my education journey, and my beliefs, please feel free to explore my website and visit the About Me tab. 

I am very excited to have the opportunity to take part in this spring EDTC 300 course and learn alongside my fellow peers. One thing I have always wanted to do is begin an online blog, but I never knew how to get started. A blog that has inspired me is called  Teach Me Style by Holly Horvath. This lady is a grade 1 & 2 teacher from Regina Saskatchewan and blogs about lifestyle, fashion, family and more! The way she runs her blogs are very professional and engaging. If you are interested in checking her out, I would highly recommend!

 To be honest, I am very nervous beginning this blog as I do not feel confident with technology. Are you as a reader feeling the nerves of beginning a blog as well? 

When thinking about my own education technology experiences, I feel very limited. This being said, I was provided the opportunity to participate in an Early Childhood Education class where I learned how to create a Bitmoji classroom and learning invitations using google slides! This was a valuable learning experience that I know will be implemented within future teachings. 

My Virtual Science Classroom
A learning Invitation I have created!

As I have previously mentioned I really enjoy learning and I know that I have lots to do in this class, which is exciting! My hope is that I create a fun/engaging blog and twitter feed for readers to visit and take interest with as I embark on a path of learning the true values that the world of technology has to offer. Please follow my twitter account @danica_finlay as I will be sure to share different resources that I come across within the next couple months. I am also excited to see what everyone else in my EDTC class has to share 🙂

On that note, I am off to explore the tech world to discover what fun activity/skill I can develop and share with you throughout the remainder of this spring term!

Take care,

Danica

Bring on the Folding!

Okay everyone, after many hours spent looking into different activities (I truly mean hours, I am a very indecisive person), I have finally come to a decision to begin working on the skill of oragami

Some of you readers may ask, what is origami? The following definition is what I found when googling this question:

To be completely honest with you, I have always wanted to do this! When I was in grade 3, my teacher read us a story that I will never forget titled Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes. This book is about a young girl who was diagnosed with lukemia as a result of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Sadakos goal was to make 1000 paper cranes as a legend said that it would grant her one wish and she wanted to use this wish to help her survive. Sadly, Sadako lost her battle and passed away.

Because of my core memory of being read this story, I have purchased origami paper on two, yes you read that right, TWO different occasions. But did I ever get around to teaching myself this  beautiful way of creating art through paper? Unfortunately, I did not. I have always set it aside/put it off and eventually I gave away my paper to a friend who I knew would use it. FINALLY, because of this class, my day has come to focus in on this skill and take the time to truly learn the techniques. During my journey I will explore a different platform each week such as YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok, apps, websites and possibly podcasts. Am I missing any platform that would have tutorial videos or information? If you have any suggestions, please let me know! 

Through this experience I hope to document my improvements! Wouldn’t it be so cool if by the end of this I can create something SUPER intricate with lots of folds? I would also love to impress my mom and gift her one of my masterpieces (well… hopefully a masterpiece HAHA). I am going to create videos and take pictures throughout my journey that will show you how I created the pieces. I will also be sure to show you the ones that did not work out so well so you can giggle along side me! By making videos I will be able to document the time it takes me to create something, and then I can go back and remake the piece and see if my time improved. I will also try to increase the level of difficulty throughout by using different sizes of paper as well as different types (Newspaper, magazine paper, printer paper)! I think by changing the size and type it will become trickier, what do you think?

The following is a quick overview:

What am I doing?

  • Learning the art of Origami

What are my goals?

  • To learn how to create art using paper and folding techniques
  • To improve the time it takes to create pieces
  • To increase level of difficulty each week
  • To be able to notice improvements!

What Resources will I use? – each week I will be exploring a new resource/platform

  • YouTube
  • Instagram
  • TikTok
  • Pinterest
  • Podcasts
  • Websites
  • Other apps

What materials will I need?

  • Paper
  • Internet connection
  • Device to access the internet