This week during integrated Arts we looked at artistic photography that evoked emotion. We were given a card and were to talk about the feelings within the picture and how they made us feel. Our photograph made us feel as though the artist was trying to get across his need for a safe place and that everyone has somewhere where they feel safe. Our picture seemed particularly normal and was a picture of a woman sitting on a chair and gazing out a window. Then we realised the second pair of feet poking out from under her dress. This gave the lady a maternal form and as though the artist went to his mother for comfort and when he needed somewhere to feel safe . We then went into pairs and spoke about the various components the picture was made up from and the overall effect it gave to us as the audience. I think this would be a particularly useful way of showing children the meaning behind art and seeing through the eyes of an artist. This could be used to teach children about emotion within art or even various topics such as bullying. We could also use this to progress onto story-writing surrounding the topics each particular photograph covers. I felt this workshop in particular gave us an opinion on the art we were looking at and evoked emotion and therefore would be interesting to use in a classroom. Children would be able to talk about their own thoughts a feelings towards the photographs and would be an opportunity for discussion within pairs, groups or even as a classroom.
The second workshop we attended was music. We looked at various websites and tools we could use to assist our teaching of music within a classroom. My favourite was charanga due to the unlimited options of musical teaching it held. We were taken through the website and shown how to utilise it to the best of its ability. I think children would really engage with this type of learning due to the fact we are able to pitch it to the correct level, the type of music we are learning (such as world or country) and also what musical concepts we are teaching. Overall I felt this was really useful due to the fact it gave us guidance on what we could use and various materials we could use in a classroom environment to assist our teaching and assist the children’s learning. For example we could pick a song suited to the learning and charanga would break it up for the children into different components such as rhythm and beat to then be out together to create the piece of music as a whole. This would give children a better understanding of the piece they were learning. Children were also able to play games suited to their own ability and have a bit of freedom on what they choose to do on the website.
Overall I felt these inputs were both very useful as both of them stripped the art/pieces of music into their smaller components to give the overall effect of the art/music and to encourage a better understanding of them.