Genius Hour Week 1 - Kick-off

 

I heard about Genius Hour for the first time about 4 months back when I took EEND 679. At that time I had no idea what it was about. I was like “ What have I signed up for?” But as we went through the course, I got to know more about it and started enjoying the concept. So this time around, I wasn’t as scared as before. The first thought that came to my mind was, “I think I got this.” Now came the most difficult part - What do I blog about? What is going to be my project? Do I want to start something new of do I want to complete something that I have already started? With these questions in mind I narrowed down my choices to 3 topics.

I have been interested in Google Certification for sometime now. When it was suggested as a possible Genius Hour project, it did pique my interest. It was like “Killing two birds with one stone” - I get to complete an assignment and at the same time achieve my certification that I have been wanting to for some time. But knowing me, I was worried that I might start feeling the pressure of getting certified and may start to not enjoy working towards it. That got me thinking what else can I do.

I have been considering documenting the festivals that we celebrate in my culture for some time now. While I remember the stories that I have heard from my parents and grandparents from when I was growing up, my kids missed out on that. While pretty much everything is now available in Google, each family has their own unique way of celebrating. I wanted my kids to have a go to document where they can read about how we as a family celebrate our festivals and enrich our culture. This was going to be an interesting time consuming project. As the thought started making roots in my head, it also got me thinking - “ I am sure my kids will love to have this document, this is personal. Why would anyone else want to read about it?” So while it still is on the top of my to do list, it is not something that I should be using for my Genius Hour Project. So now what do I do?

I am a passionate crafter and enjoy trying my hand in a lot of things. I am always curious to learn and have been self teaching myself lots of different crafts and giving them a unique touch of my own. I remember watching my mom working on different things as a young girl. I would start learning from her and then give up because I got too bored. In the past few years as I got more interested in crafts, I started regretting that I didn't learn more from my mom and unfortunately she is no longer around to guide me. Having a daughter of my own who at present has very basic interest in the craft I make, I thought maybe I should document the procedures if at all she gets interested in them later on in her life. So I think that is what I am going to do for my Genius Hour Project - start documenting the procedures. Now the big question is - Do I start a brand new craft and blog about it or Do I blog about the crafts I have done before and try to recollect and document its procedures.