The REAL first lesson! :) (Class date - 11th Feb 2014)

Although I missed our first class, I thought it would be wise to go back and have a look at some of my classmates blog’s to catch up on what I missed in the introductory lesson. A lot of people began their blog’s expressing their views on what that initially thought that the class would be like – that we would have been sitting at desks and drawing – similar to a typical art class at home. I have had some art classes at my university at home – St. Marys University College Belfast so I knew that this form of class was not to be expected. Learning to teach art to primary children, in my opinion, should be activity done, and this is why I was happy to hear that my class mates spent their first art lesson outside of the classroom setting, in the heart of the beautiful Belgian city, Gent.

(My first impression of Gent, which is also my favourite part of the city.)

The class looked at photography and were expected to bring a camera with them to take pictures. Two types of photographing methods were discussed - The Slinkachu; Macro Photography Method (enlarging an object in an image) and the second was aiming to make Gent look like a ‘Duck Tape City’. I looked at some of my classmates examples for this and I found these photographs very interesting. Although funding in schools wouldn’t be able to provide a camera for each child in a class, it would still be a good idea to take some photographs as a teacher and talk to the class about them, depending on what your theme was for that given lesson.

                              (Slinkachu image I admired online whilst doing research for the blog)

My classmates were asked to photograph things they came across that were typically Belgian. This made me think of the main theme for our blog which is ‘A Search for Happiness’  - as things that are typically Belgian should make native Belgians happy when they see them, as they would be proud to be reminded that they are from such a beautiful country. I then began to think on my homeland, Ireland, and all of the ‘typical impressions’ that you would find there to represent the country. Although I am from the city of Belfast, I wasn’t thinking of the city when thinking about these impressions because when anyone from anywhere in the world thinks of green grass and the landscapes we have there.

Some typical Belgian impressions:                           Some typical Irish impressions:

Cliffs of Moher, County Clare.

Mount Errigal, Country Donegal

 

 

These impressions link to the theme of the blog as I seek to find happiness in my new home of Gent, yet if feeling homesick, happiness is already found in the impressions of my home country. This exercise has been really beneficial – I’m glad I looked back over the lesson! I look forward to updating my blog for the next lesson!