Today we had guest speaker Noelle Pepin come and share her master’s project “Beaded Tweets”. It was awesome to hear from a master’s student about her work on this project. It is a wonderful activity steeped in Indigenous pedagogy and suitable for any classroom.

Beaded tweets as an activity is a perfect example of UDL (Universal Design for Learning). It can be adjusted to meet the skill level of any student: simple initial coding and big beads for lower levels, small beads/loom/longer “beaded tweets” for higher level learners. We did a nice intermediate-level activity, developing a 5-8 letter word and beading with small beads that were still large enough to string by hand.

This activity also has cross-curricular applications. The binary code utilizes math skills and it could easily be added into a humanities class as well. It also challenges the creativity of students and could be a perfect art activity.

The FPPL that this activity meets include:

  • Learning is holistic, reflexive, reflective, experiential, and relational (focused on connectedness, on reciprocal relationships, and a sense of place).
  • Learning recognizes the role of Indigenous knowledge.
  • Learning is embedded in memory, history, and story.
  • Learning involves patience and time.

I like that this activity is a challenge, but doesn’t always feel like one (but sometimes it really did!). This was meticulous work that required organization. I lost track of my beading and after double/triple/quadruple checking I realized and had to restart. Then I had to restart again, and again. I did become frustrated at one point but that was temporary and did not impact my overall experience. At the end, I reflected and felt that the action of stringing beads together, and following a pattern was relaxing. It is something I would try again.

Towards the end of the class, we watched a video, showing an Indigenous artist who crafts gorgeous pieces of beading. I really enjoyed watching this. It was cool to see the stunning work of a master in her craft and to hear the personal stories behind her work.