The lecture this week was really special because it was taken by a group of Norwegian students who were over visiting our university and they spoke to us about their county and their university. It was really interesting to listen to because I didn’t have a lot of previous knowledge on the country, like how they speak two different depending on which part of the country you live in. They also told us lots about their degree and I was surprised to hear how different it is to ours, such as their course is a Masters degree and in their 3rd year placement, they partake in a school take over where the staff leave and the school is ran by the student teachers.
Our visual arts inputs looked at creating art outdoors, for example, sculptures. To begin, we looked at some well known outdoor artists and one that I really liked in particular was Andy Goldsworthy. I really liked the way he uses a variety of outdoor materials. We also learned that outdoor learning is big thing in Norway so they spoke about how they try to incorporate outdoor learning into everything(literacy, maths, etc). Our task this week was to create a piece using the materials outside without harming the environment. Our group decided to take inspiration from our guests and created a copy of the Norwegian flag using a leaf, some twigs and red berries. I found the outdoor learning really interesting and captivating. However, you would have to carefully plan out your lesson. It could be very distracting for some pupils because theres lots of different noises, environments, sights, etc.
Our music input this week looked at using apps and online resources to create music. We focused on the app GarageBand and used it to create an autumnal piece. The app had a wide variety of instruments available and the app was actually really straight forward to use. It was a really engaging input because we were all allowed to use our own creativity and explore and investigate different sounds and how they all worked together. This links really well with the Scottish Governments Experiences and Outcomes for First level which says “I can use my voice, musical instruments and music technology to discover and enjoy playing with sound, rhythm, pitch and dynamics”. One important thing to consider before trying something like this with a class would be to use headphones as it can be very distracting with everyone playing over each other and it could be hard to control.
The link that I found between the two sessions would be creating art using unconventional materials.
References
Education Scotland (2017) Curriculum For Excellence: Experiences and Outcomes [Online] Available:https://education.gov.scot/Documents/All-experiencesoutcomes18.pdf [Accessed: 23rd of October 2019]
