Digital Footprint

I recently wrote a lesson plan about Digital Footprints for school-wide use in Advisory, so it's nice to get to reflect on my own. This blogger website has not been shared out, but a couple of the posts helped me wake up my old blog OmRoom that I started during student teaching (you were there!).

Before these two posts in November, I haven't posted since February 2015 and that was haphazardly and grasping for concepts that felt exciting.

So this project not only restarted my calligraphy practice (dormant since December 2014 when John gave me a new set for Christmas) but also my blogging.

As part of my digital footprint, I've linked my blog to my Twitter, which is public. It also goes to my Facebook, but that is private. I haven't needed to apply for a job in years now and don't anticipate needing it soon, but I know that Twitter is often viewed as an online portfolio or resume. Although calligraphy is not directly related to teaching, I think my blog is a nice addition to my digital footprint since it is proof of lifelong learning. In previous iterations of my blog it also documented my life as a reader as well. (I'm hoping to get back there after grad school wraps up.)

My digital presence also led me to this focus - although I haven't practiced it for a while, following professional calligraphers on Instagram and elsewhere had helped me find inspiration to restart and continue this practice.

I would still like to continue my search for a 'learning community' around calligraphy online. I follow accounts I like on Instagram, but did not find any tutorials (blogs or videos) that really resonated with me. I'm sure they are out there, but I had to sort through a lot of subscription type tutorials that asked for payment to continue learning. That's not really up my street at the moment, so I'm going to keep looking for free quality resources.

Thanks for the opportunity for counting calligraphy/self-care as an assignment :) I'm going to try and hold myself to it even after the class ends.

Learning a new skill

For a very long time now I have enjoyed typography. Playing with fonts and lettering is the kind of art my extremely right-sided brain enjoys. I used to have a weekly routine of drawing out quotes and playing with words on chalkboards or whiteboards. I miss that routine and practice.

I have also signed up for countless modern calligraphy workshops, purchased many calligraphy pens, and have a pile of notebooks that would like to be filled with it. Calligraphy, though, has yet to become something I routinely practice. I think it is, if I'm being honest with myself, due to the stressful inability to erase mistakes. With chalkboards and whiteboards, I could take a cloth to one letter and try again without ruining hours worth of work. With calligraphy, you need it done right in one try. Maybe not the first try, but in a singular try. This is stressful for perfectionists like myself.

I do want to learn still. I miss the routine of playing with letters and quotes and think this is an opportune time to mix it up and challenge myself with a new format I have thrown such haphazard money and time at in the past. Consistency will be my new key.

I think progress will look like practicing letters over and over and finding a homogenous style for each. Success will look like getting some full phrases and quotes on paper without having to learn Photoshop to fix mistakes. If I get really good, I may use my new skill to make some things for my upcoming wedding, but we'll see how good I get first.

As I mentioned, I have well stocked myself with resources so far in my life, but not put them to good use. I have a box of nubs, ink, paper, and so forth that I will break out to start practicing. I also have in there instructions from previous workshops that I can use to refresh my memory. New resources I want to add  to my list this time around include YouTube and blogs.

For instance, through a blog called Dawn Nicole Designs, I found free practice sheets and one YouTube channel that looks helpful so far. As I start practicing with these links, I hope to figure out what kind of resources online are most helpful and find more of those.

Childhood and Adulthood Learning Experiences

When I was a kid, I had a lot of learning experiences even outside of school. I remember one summer camp in particular when I did probably 90% of the craft projects I have done in my whole life. We rotated to different art classes including soldering and weaving. The soldering class' goal was to create pictures out of fragments of stained glass, held together by soldered metal. After that, I would go to weaving where we would make flat patterns as well as small baskets.

I remember, at probably 9 or 10 years old, being amazed how much we were allowed to talk in class. I had never had hours of art at a time and on top of that it was a summer program. Since we could talk, I remember kids helping each other a lot: watching another kid do something before I had to and getting new ideas from their strategies or patterns. I honestly don't remember any of the adults from that program. I'm sure they were wonderful, but I remember learning from written instructions and peers.

I am still going to summer programs! This summer I did a short program with San Diego Area Writer's Project dealing with peer editing and using mentor texts with students. I really appreciated that that particular program allowed us to try on new ideas as students before doing it as the teacher. I saw the value more easily that way and teach it more effectively now that I have seen both sides. They also balanced that with a good amount of resources that they shared with us that we could dig through. I love learning that way. Getting to practice as a student is invaluable, but then I got to dig like a teacher and find the pieces that work for me and my classroom and make it mine.

In both programs, I got to take action. I got to practice skills after minimal direct instruction. I always appreciate having written instructions or diagrams, as needed, but I don't learn well from auditory instructions, so the more written instructions and time to tinker I have, the better. I also ended both experiences with a product I was proud of - a craft or a piece of writing.