In the search of happiness

These four months have been such an insipration for me. In the beggining of the erasmus programme, I was looking for insipiration (as the name of my blog reflects), and now I am sure I get it.

I have tried to reflect all the experiences that I lived here trough the following collage which is in my room:

This is my inspiration now: all the experiences, memories, people, culture, knowledge ... I knew here.

"This moment, now, here." 

Finally, I would like to recomend you a film about the search of happiness from which we can learn a lot. The name of the film is "The peaceful warrior", and every of us should take one evening to see it and think about it.

The dot

During this time attending to the art classes, I have been thinking for long about the art in the school: how it is taught, if the children like it, how could be improved ...

This is the most important though I get during this time in here:

I don´t need too much knowledege to transmit the the essence of the arts, as long as I believe in each children´s capacities and I foster those capacities as much as I can. 


This tought is perfectly reflected in the following story I would like to show you: "The dot" by Peter H Reynolds. Take just 2 minutes to see it!

Working in a museum

My treasure chest is open again. How to work in a museum with children?? That a question which could be made by lots of teachers. While some teacher prefer not to obbly the children to work with a paper shit, some others think it is the best way to learn something in a museum.

I agree with those ones who think the children shouln´t have a paper shit and should discover themselves all the things a museum could offer them. It sounds really well, but in the reality the children aren´t use to it and some structured activities aren´t at odd.

For that reason, I feel that we can give them structured activities that could be funny and interesting for them age. Being structured doe not implies being boring or too formal, in my opinion to carry out those kind of activities implies organization and significant learning.

In this case the questions proposed by the teacher, boost the creativity and imagination of the children.

Once inside the museum, I took some items to carry out. I will explqin one of them:

1. Pick out an object and describe it to your partner without revealing what it is. We have done with some objetcs and it has been quite difficult to guess what some of them were. In this museum we have find not common elements, so this means that we have had some difficulties while guessing. However, I think it has been a goo activity to explore the museum through a play.

It is just an example of what I have mentioned before, how to make children work in a museum. I think it is a good example to take into account.

Practical knowledge

In the begining I talked about my treasure chest, and during today´s trip I have found something that could be in it. While we were in the cathedral we took a card with a picture in it, in that moment we had to relate the picture with something we found in there.

Not only to work the elements the cathedral has, but also to develop the imagination, creativity and the way the children make connections. This way, I fhave found something useful in such trips.

Talking about cathedrals

The visit to St. -Baafskathedraal reminds me to a basilica in Bilbao: "Basilica de Begoña". Even if the building is quite different, when I entered it I though they have something similar.

That´s why I started thinking about the "Basilica de Begoña". It is in my city and near my house but I have never looked for information about it before. I think that sometimes we look for interesting facts about buildings in the countries we visit, and we forgot about the ones we have near us.  So that´s the reason whyy today I would like to know more about this basilica, and also to show you some interesting facts about it. 

The Basilica of Begoña is a basilica in Bilbao, in Spain, dedicated to the patron saint of Biscay, the Virgin Begoña. It is a really important basilica for the city of Bilbao and due to that fact we celebrate some special acts in there. 

• The 13th of August every believer should go to the cathedral walking from where they live. A lot of people walk for hours till they get there. Some of them because they have made a promise to God, some others because they want to ask something in exchange ... we can find several reasons. A lot of people from Bilbao and it´s outskirts ususally made the walk to the basilica

• Due to some important football matches, the priest of the basilica gives mass to the players of the local team. Everyone can attend this mass, as long as it is any place lefts. It is also a special occasion for the people in the city, as our team is really loved in there and the team follows this tradition for years. It is a team composed just by local players, so that´s way it is at some point a conventional team by following these traditions.   

Comic´s day.

My treasure chest couldn´t be open this day, as I couldn´t attend to the fifth arte lesson. That´s what I tought in the begining, however I started looking about the topic you worked in class and I realised I could figure something out.

"Nello and Patrasche, a dog of flanders" was one of the elements to work with it. As long as I have found, it is a novel written by an English author Marie Louise de la Ramée in 1872.

After, they made different giant comic books following these steps:

1. A big paper in each table and place the figure chosen by each student on the paper.
2. Draw around the figure in the paper.
3. Go to the next table and do the same way.
4. Add some words from a newspaper or write them down.
5. Complete the comics making things with the material given.

As Nerea, my classmate and I haven´t been in class this day, we have made our own comic: 

How to work with the "Guernica" in class?

Bearing in mind the importance of working with such painting in class, I decided to look for a way of carrying out an activity with the "Guernica". This painitng gives us the possibility of learning in a interdisciplinary way, as long as we can  work both history and arts among others. 

This time, we will focus on the symbolism of it. For that, each child will have an element of the painting: the woman who is running away, the man with the sword and the mother and the son. This way each child should answer to the following questions:

• What does he or she feels?, What does it happened to him or her? Make up an story about what could happened and put a tittle.

They should carry out this activity by using the screencast program. This way they will explain the story they made up through a video recording, while they show the picture. Here you can find the screencast program by clicking this link.   

Guernica, by Pablo Picasso

"Guernica" is the painting I have chosen to work in class.

Some interesting information about the painting:

Guernica is a painting by Pablo Picasso. It was created in response to the bombing of Guernica, a Basque Country village in northern Spain, by German and Italian warplanes at the behest of the Spanish Nationalist forces on 26 April 1937 during the Spanish Civil War.

Guernica shows the tragedies of war and the suffering it inflicts upon individuals, particularly innocent civilians. This work has gained a monumental status, becoming a perpetual reminder of the tragedies of war, an anti-war symbol, and an embodiment of peace. Upon completion, Guernica was displayed around the world in a brief tour, becoming famous and widely acclaimed. This tour helped bring the Spanish Civil War to the world's attention.

You can get more information by following this link. 

Carrying out in reality.

My puppet is finished! It is an orange cow, as long as I haven´t the colors needed to paint it in a traditional way (black and white). What is more, the cows which insipired me to do this puppet weren´t like common cows, as they were painted in such different ways. For that reason I can say my cow is nearly one of them!

In this point I would like to add something. During my teaching practice they have asked me to prepare some lessons, one of them about the creativity or something related to art. I have been thinking a lot on it, as I 

didn´t know what to do. After some time thinking I though about carry out an activity learnt in our art class here in Ghent. I always say that in these classes we received some practical knoledge, so why not use it? This way, each child in my class made their own puppets following the same steps we followed in class. 

1. Each child will take a piece of paper and he/she will roll it. That piece of paper will be the part of the puppet in which the children will introduce their fingers to move the puppet, so the longer they have the fingers, the longer piece of paper should take. 
2. Then, each child will take a little plastic ball and they will stick the rolled piece of paper to the ball. For that, they will use adhesive tape. It is important that the rolled paper and the ball are well stacked, as long as they both are the structure of the puppet. 
3. After, I will make a mixture of papier mache and water (I will do the mixture before the class starts) and I will put the mixture in front of the class. Bearing in mind that they are 20 children, I will separate the mixture into two different bowls, for them to be easier to take it. I will show them in a little demonstration how they can use that mixture and they will start using it. They can do the shape they want in order to make their animal puppet. 
4. Finally, when they finish with the shape we will leave the puppets drying till the next lesson, so that we can continue next week.

In this moment they all have finished their puppets and for the next lesson they will start painting and decorating them. It was a really succesful class for me, my teacher and the children, so I think as long as I have the opportunity I will repeat it in the future.