NCTAN: The World of Origami

The World of Origami

Intersection of Japanese culture, history, people, religion, society, and beyond

Led by:

Dr. Yumiko Ono, Instructor of World Languages, Western Carolina University

Ms. Nanaka Okamura, Japan Outreach Initiative Coordinator, Western Carolina University

Probably, if you are one of those who have been curious about Japan, you have heard the word “origami,” and some of you have even experienced this intricate paper-folding to create animals, birds, insects, greeting cards, and ornaments for events such as Christmas, Valentines’ Day, birthdays, etc. Maybe some of you have watched YouTube videos of Origami artists from all over the world and have been awed because of their “origami arts” and their deep devotion for this magical world of origami.

If this workshop is the first opportunity for you to encounter the word, no worries. This workshop will provide you with opportunities to touch, feel, and contemplate what “origami” is through a real experience of origami folding on your end. You will deal with three sizes of relatively bigger origami papers (none of them are 3-inch square!) and fold them to experience transforming a piece of paper to something else as listed above but not limited to just these. 

There is something to remember here: Most importantly, your origami art represents yourself. Each of you will see yourself in whatever you created by folding Origami paper in the end. We hope you will enjoy experience of “listening” to each origami paper and “responding” to them to create one and only origami art in our workshop. 

In addition to the real experience of origami folding to create, for instance, something for Valentine’s Day, this workshop also provides you with the gist of Japanese culture, history, people, religion, society, and beyond through origami folding. We hope this workshop will be one of many ways for you to step into the Japanese world. For your convenience, we will share possible teaching plans for your students featuring origami folding, too. 

To facilitate your participation in this workshop, we will ship origami paper directly to you using the address that you provide when you register for the event. Free supplies will only be provided for k12 teachers, so please use your institutional email address when registering. To ensure timely receipt of supplies, please register at least one week before the event. In addition to the provided origami paper, the instructors also request that you provide one piece of newspaper or other large paper of your own.

North Carolina Teaching Asia Network (NCTAN) opens up the door to East Asia by providing free seminars for K-12 teacher in North Carolina and beyond. A variety of methods, including on-site face-to-face, on-line simulcast, or on-line courses, provides for teachers who are looking for a way to improve curriculum on Mongolia, China, Hong Kong, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan, and Vietnam. NCTAN is under the initiative of Columbia University’s Weatherhead East Asia Center, in collaboration with the National Consortium for Teaching about Asia (NCTA). NCTA, funded by the Freeman Foundation, is a multi-year initiative to encourage and facilitate teaching and learning about Asia in world history, geography, social studies, and literature courses. Participants will receive a certificate from North Carolina Teaching Asia Network confirming 2 hours of professional development for the completion of this workshop.

Please email Becky Butler with any questions.
 

This event will take place on Zoom.

You can register here: https://unc.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJUvcu-gpjwpHdBOCPCFIARt-OJ56NmZnbhi