Art
We mainly focused on the art pieces that Room 13 have produced today. Room 13 began as an empty space in Fort William which was then used as an art space for children and young people. Looking at the pieces produced from that room where there is absolutely no dictated direction or expected outcome it is incredibly interesting and thought provoking to see what the children create. It really highlights Robinson’s (2007) statement that we are all born artists and we all have the capacity to create and express. A lot of the pieces featured serious themes and real life issues. It’s clear the children are asking questions and are critical thinkers of the world around them. It made me realise that children observe a lot more than what we think they do and we should not brush off a lot of their questions telling them that they are too young to understand.
Music
I really enjoyed today’s input. I feel like I understand and learn concepts better visually so learning about Figure Notes was pretty exciting for me. I found using Figure Notes is a much easier way to digest and translate standard music notation to play, it will set the perfect foundations for young people and musical beginners to begin to read music. Not only this, it will make playing music more accessible to those who require additional learning support such as dyslexia and autism which makes reading complex marks even more difficult. An example of this can be seen in the video here.
FigureNotes are definitely something which I will use in the classroom as it made playing the xylophone a lot easier for me and can make it easier for children who work better with visuals.
