"You're so meeeeeaaaaaaan..."

Our music class on Wednesday started with lecture by Flemming Rasmussen about the influence of art and aesthetics on learning processes. It was a bit difficult for me to really get the point of the lecture. At the beginning I thought that he was of the opinion that aesthetics and pupils freedom to act, perform and produce art are more important than the actual learning (mathematics, vocabulary,...). It took some time and some more explanations for me to understand that aesthetics should only work as transport media for the content. Well, now I have an idea about that and I must say that it could possibly be a good way of teaching. On the other hand we already include games, role plays, presentations in our lessons which can - in my opinion - be seen as aesthetic learning. But maybe we should strengthen this part even more. I will have to think about it a bit more, but it's another idea/impression I will probably check out when I do my next practice in Germany.

In the second part of our lesson we presented the performances and posters we had made in connection with a piece of pipe music Else Marie had given us at the end of our meeting. We came up with three different stories and three different interpretations of the music. What they had in common was some kind of argument. Kate and Sylvie performed the argument of a wife and a husband. The husband had forgotten their ten year's anniversary and she was upset and crestfallen. Tim, Manu and Charlotte presented a princess (good job, Tim!) asking her father for permission to marry the prince of her heart, but he wanted her to marry the one he had chosen. Last but not least Iva and me performed our shopping scene of a couple. You can watch the movie if you like. In case that the dialogue is too fast or you don't understand everything look at Iva's blog, she has the text in written form.

After our presentations we repeated the songs we learned three weeks ago. Maybe we can teach some of them to the international students coming to Haderslev in week 11. Sing with me: "Hand and shoulders, knees and toes..."