Noelle Pepin was generous enough to come visit our class and teach us about Beaded Tweets – a framework of her master’s degree. The purpose of beaded tweets is to code through beading and uses contemporary messages and messaging systems, like twitter, and express them through beading. I liked the way Noelle explained the process of beading in code and why it is important to set good intentions before starting. Every letter or number was represented by an eight-bead pattern. We picked two colours and corresponded them to the code or letter we wanted to represent in our beading.
This is such an interesting way to teach coding and from what Noelle Pepin said, it keeps the kids very intrigued. I feel like hands on learning is so important and this is a great way to incorporate art into something like coding. Another thing I really liked about this is it allows students to learn code without a computer. This limits the use of technology while we are living in a world full of it. I like the idea of having something like this to be able to work on when students are finished their work in other subjects. It gives them something to do and something to focus on.
It was nice that Noelle explained how we can connect this activity to curriculum, especially the First Peoples Principles of Learning. She explained how coding with beads is heavily linked to Indigenous pedagogy, with the thread representing the journey of past, present, and future that is guiding us.
Some connections to Indigenous pedagogy include:
- Indigenous knowledge is held by people and transfer of knowledge through watching, listening, and doing.
- Indigenous pedagogy has teachers, methods, and goals. It strives to teach people how to be a part of their community.
I am very grateful that Noelle Pepin was generous enough to be a guest in our class. I would say it was one of my favourite activities we did as a class and will be very applicable to the classroom once we all start teaching.