In this mornings lecture we had four students from Norway speaking to us about their university experience which was very interesting. They gave us a talk on their university and talked about the degree that they were studying. In education in Norway there is a big push on sports at the moment and dance is an integral part of their curriculum.

In today’s music workshop we were looking at Garageband. This allows pupils to create music like piano, drums and guitar with the use of an app. You are able to add audio and can also insert movies and put sound over the top of these. You are able to use some of the loop sounds that the app already has but can also create your own which when used in the classroom will allow the pupils to be creative. We were focusing on autumn sounds today which was nice and also would be a good topic to do when discussing autumn and other seasons in the classroom as you could link music into this by using garageband to create autumnal sounds/songs. I liked using garageband as it gives you sounds that you are able to put together, as well as being able to create your own as you can use the keyboard as a piano and create and record the sounds this makes to create a song and then add to it with the already made sounds and short music clips. This is a positive way to integrate music into the classroom and the pupils could also use garageband to create winter songs/tunes that they would be able to use in their Christmas show performances. An experience and outcome that would link to this could be “I can use music technology to compose, record and produce music and to enhance performance.” EXA 4-17b. (Scottish Government, n.d). This would link in with using garageband as it is a way of using technology in order to create music and allows pupils to be able to make their own music through using technology.

In today’s art workshop we were looking at land art. I found some famous land artists. Andy Goldsworthy produces sight specific sculptures and land art which is situated in natural and urban settings.  We went a walk outside in the forest and came across a small pebble beach by the river. My group and I built small cairns using the pebbles that were around us. This could link to a maths lesson in the classroom as we could be discussing balance but also size and weight as the small pebbles would not be able to hold up the larger pebbles. . “Creative teachers seek to avoid limiting the nature of subject boundaries, and make frequent references to and integration with other subjects.”  (Wilson, 2015, P39). This shows that making links to other areas of the curriculum can be advantageous for the pupils learning experience.We also learned that in Norway during the winter they use the snow to create sculptures and this can be used as a way of learning when there is snow in their playgrounds which is very interesting. Using the outdoors to help pupils be creative is useful as there are many aspects of the environment that the pupils could look at and create art, for example using leaves to make rubbings or even the bark of a tree.

Both of today’s workshops in music and art linked together as we were looking at autumn and the environment around us at this time of year and how we can use this to create music and art.

References:

Scottish Government, n.d. Curriculum for excellence: expressive arts experiences and outcomes. Assessed online. Available at: https://education.gov.scot/Documents/expressive-arts-eo.pdf

Wilson, A. 2015. Creativity in Primary Education.  Third edition. London:Sage. P39