Design Museum in Ghent

Last Tuesday, instead of being in a classroom, we visitied the Design Museum in Ghent. I never was in a such museum and i didn't know what to expect. I would never expect what I acutally saw in the museum. Furniture, plates, vases, glasses, vacuum cleaners, hand dryers....Exhibition consisted of great number of different object, but what caught my attention was...chairs. In this post I would like to present pictures of different kind of chairs. It is really surprising that this piece of furniture can be designed in so many different ways!

Tony-b Machine

On one on the sessions we were introduced to some tools that we can use together with our pupils to expose them to art. In my country, Poland, we are exposed to some instruments and art, as well as music, However. the music that we listen to at school or try to 'produce' is usually some tratitional songs, such as christmas carols or some folk music that everyone knows. I am very interested in music, but a little more "modern" and up-to-date one, that's why I got interested in the tool Tony-b Machine.
I want to list the reasons why:

-it is online, ready to use (no need to download anything)
-it is easy to make music
-it has nice outlook
-it is totally different music that we are used to listen to at school
-this is the kind of music that teenagers usually like
-it is exciting to feel as a DJ
-everyone, not only talented students can produce a song
- it is not complicated

This is how the tool looks:

TASK FOR MY PUPILS:
Target group: 15-18 year olds
The aim of my lesson is to combine exposer to music, something that most people like, and English language.

How am I gonna conduct the task? (in English!)

1. I ask students which famous DJs they know.
2.I ask students what do they think about being a DJ, is it an easy job? Why?
3. I show the students an example of dance/electro/club/ dubstep music. For example: Naive (by The Kooks)- Jean Tonique Remix

4. I explain the meaning of the buttons and how they work so that everyone is sure how to use them.
5. I give example that I have made myself explaining which options I used.
6. I give the topic, for example "SUMMER" and ask my students (using headphones) to produce a song which could represent summer. I give them 10 minutes.
7. Together we listen to a fragment of everyone's song and the person explains which buttons and options were used. (in English)

I think that the task could be interesting because is different than normal schoolwork, gives a chance to produce something personal and something that pupils can see on TV every day.

I hope you like my task! :)

London trip

Not so long time ago I went together with my Polish and Spanish friends to London. I am sure that almost everyone knows the most important toursit attractions such as Big Ben, Buckingam Palace or Tower Bridge. That is why i want to show you some places which are not the best known but I found them charming and worth seeing. Being in those places brought me a lot of happiness!

1. TEA SHOP
As a big fan of tea I couldn't miss this shop. Inside I felt like in a fairy tale. The decorations inside were just amazing.

2. CHINA TOWN

China town is a district where you can feel really exotic. All the restaurants, pubs, places make this place special.

3. M&M's SHOP

It was so wonderful! Accidentally, we were passing the M&M's shop on our way back home. We had to step in! At the enterance the smell of chocolate make you come in. Inside you can find so many creative things combining m&m's and London together. 

4. KING'S CROSS STATION

We visited also the King's Cross Station, the station from which Harry Potter was leaving London. It was so great that we could take pictures at the platform number 9 3/4! 

COMICS TIME!

During one of our art class lessons we were indroduced to the magical world of comics. Belgium is an ideal place for the fans of this kind of art because it is home of many worldwide known comics makers. The most popular is Georges Remi, who gave birth to Tintin story. Here I include some of his works: 

This is the main character of the series and his dog!

source: http://runrun.es/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/TINTIN_SNOWY4067888_30d0672e.jpg

Tin Tin and his friends dancing Gangnam Style :))

source: http://us.tintin.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Tintin-Haddock-Snowy-dancing-Gangnam-Style1-300x248.jpg

another example....
source: http://www.linesandcolors.com/images/2006-07/herge_450.jpg


Another really famous comics created by a Belgian artist is Suske en Wiske. The name of the author is Willy Vandersteen. The comics is said to be the best sold comics in Belgium and has been adapted many times. It is a really charming story about a friendship between a boy and a girl. 

1. 

One of the covers of the book.

source: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_cIeQz6iHs8/TTTTqPmXBvI/AAAAAAAAAak/uFePrsAZSt4/s1600/144+%2528Medium%2529.jpg

Suske en Wiske

source: http://www.gva.be/ahimgpath/assets_img_gva/2011/06/24/1909290/suske-en-wiske-kindermuseum-krijgt-nieuw-jasje-id1841242-1000x800-n.jpg

In class we could take a look at real, authentic comics, and I have to admit that it was for me the first time to see a comics in this form. What is more, we could make our own comics! I liked a lot the idea of creating "random" stories and making them more personal later on. My story seems a little bit complicated, but I am going to explain it picture by picture....

So the story starts with a picture of a snowman who is a little worried becasue the next day he has an important exam the next day....

He falls asleep and dreams about being lost in a big maze. (he screams "Help!")

However, in the maze he meets a fish that says : "Don't worry, I'm a maze fish and I will give you all the answers!"

The next day the snowman passes the exam and celebrates with the maze fish. (He says: "I passed! Cheers!")

The whole comics looks like this:

Food can be art too.....EASTER!

In Poland, my country, Easter is a very special time. We decorate eggs, bake special cookies, make decorations... Together with my Polish friend we tried to bring Polish traditions to our dormitory. We tried to do a little 'art' decorating eggs and our Easter table. Here I include a picture of our breakfast:

I want to show you also pictures of food that my family sent me:

So, as you can see, sometimes it is good to put some art into food. Beautiful ,colourful things taste much better! I hope you had special time during Easter!

Puppets!

During one of the firs sessions we had a chance to shape our own puppets. The teacher first indroduced the topic and asked us to connect the puppet with the history of Ghent. I decided to create a witch since, according to some legends, in the past a lot of witches wer burnt here in Ghent. Unfortunatelly, my witch got lost :( I had to paint a dragon that my friend made, but anyway, it was fun. I added some details. Here you can see the final result:

Although the puppet was not entirely mine, I added some paint, clothes and details. As you can see, it is wearing a very elegant coat with a special (diamond) decoration and a white collar. Seems a bit like Dracula!

Here I would like to present some puppets that I found on the Internet: 

These ones I like because they are really simple and friendly, ideal for teaching small kids, look also safe since they don't contain any hard elements. Source: http://www.craftsy.com/user/187297/pattern-store

These puppets cought my attention because I like the usage of fingers as hands. It makes them more alive and give additional possibilities of playing. I like this idea! Source: http://kltworks.blogspot.be/2010/11/puppets-old-friends.html

Here we have some finger paper puppets. I guess they are not difficult to make and don't require anything but colourful paper and good ideas. 

Source: http://www.handmadecharlotte.com/printable-animal-finger-puppets/

During our last class we were talking a bit about the history of Ghent. Everyone had the chance to make the history more real and also to make it more individual thanks to the activity with clay. Although my works were not exactly as I wanted them to be, I enjoyed it a lot :)

My  clay version of Belfort is a little bit different....

But anyway, it was fun!

The topic of the lesson was 'Impressions'. I want to share with you some impressive things from my hometown, Warsaw, which is completely different than Ghent. In Warsaw, for historical reasons, everything is mixed, but it makes it really unique. You can find there modern skyscrapers standing next to old buildings. 

Warsaw is also a city that doesn't forget its history...