Forth Workshop: Brit

Yesterday we continued making props for our installations with the adults as part of our final workshop before next week’s celebration day. It was exciting to see the adults memories start to transform into our life-size installations. Collaborating with Dawn throughout this project has been a pleasure; it's given me an insight into what an adult with learning disabilities is capable of achieving in such a short space of time. This has enabled me to explore new strategies of how to work successfully with her and help her to progress in terms of learning new artistic techniques. This week she was eager to tell me all about her holiday to Benidorm and get on with turning her recent holiday into an installation that she can show off to her friends and family. We embroidered cushions and lifejackets together for our aeroplane installation, and she was excitedly asking me questions about how it would look once it's finished. I've loved working with such an enthusiastic woman who’s been consistently eager to learn new skills and work collaboratively to achieve an outcome with me. From talking to the staff at Beulah it seems they are keen to help the adults develop the skills they’ve learnt whist working collaboratively with us. They’re hopefully going to buy sewing equipment so that Dawn and VJ can continue learning together after the project is over.

I can’t wait for next week’s celebration day and it seems the adults share our excitement, not only has this project been stimulating for us but the adults have truly got to know the students and seem to have enjoyed learning from us over these last few weeks. And that is what has made this collaborative project truly successful!

Workshop 3

Our third workshop was a success, soon as we got in we got straight into our pairs and was eager to begin making objects for our installtion.We were so excited about beginning our workshop task we didnt play the imaginery ball game, which was suppost to be at the start.

Once again Denise was great to work with. She co opeated with me and while making out objects we had a chat about what she was going to do in the weekend. She helped me make a hotdog out of modrock and soaked them in water. She was so excited to see the hotdog come alive from newspaper into the actual shape and kept telling everyone what we were making and the relevance of it .

At the end we were able to create our hotdog and all what is left is to paint it, which when i told her she couldnt waite to do. Her excitement made me more excited to work with her.

Mud rock and Papermache

On wednesday we were given the task to again lead the adults i'm making a couple of things for the installation. Since the previous workshop with the adult s i have altered my design for the installation, which meant i could think of lots of things for Nishi to make. One thing i thought would be brilliant to make, was mud rock and papermache snow balls. Nishi loved doing this as it was very hands on and messy, all lesson Nishi couldn't take her eyes of what she was making, which meant i was up and down like a 'yo-yo' grading bits and bobs for Nishi to use for her snow ball. She even at the end of the lesson decorated the snows balls with paint and glitter jells. It was a brilliant workshop and we made 9 snow balls, but it would of been better if we gave Nishi a bit more time to carry on as she really loved making them.

Third workshop

In this workshop, we started to make objects and props for our final installations, when I was planning the lesson for Shirley I decided to do something very hands on, but also simple and fun. My plan was to make all of the cannon balls for the installation, including the ones on the floor and the one that I want to hang up.

Before the lesson I did trials in order to show Shirley what to do, and to save time. I trialled out two different ways of making these and went with the one I thought was the easiest.

Once we had set up and everything was ready, I and Shirley both started making the cannon balls, by blowing up balloons and covering them with mod rock. Shirley took to it very easily and enjoyed the messy task. We then went on the paint them a dark blue, this activity was simple but time consuming, she seemed to finish the 3 I had planned to make with her, quicker than I had expected so we went on to make another one. She was very excited and seemed to love what we were doing; she helped a lot, with the cutting of the mod rock and did the rest herself, with a little aid from me.

She also could not wait from next week’s lesson where the adults are coming back to BRIT for the last time.

This workshop was very enjoyable and I found out that Shirley is a lot more able than I first thought; this workshop was one of the best because I feel Shirley and the rest of the adults are now comfortable with all of us. It is making me not want this project to finish, or to be able to see them again after this project ends.

Most of all I’m looking forward to the final pieces as we have chosen the space we will be putting them and the finishing date comes closer.

Workshop #3

This workshop was based on making the objects from our marquettes lifesize , I decided me and Farizah could wrap some presents and make a bunting for the birthday party installation.I made an example wrapped up present to bring to wednesdays workshop.

I was very disappointed on wednesday to find out the Farizah is away ib holiday and will be abroad for the remainder of the project.So I worked alone with some help from Zoe to wrap up some presents and start making my bunting.I also helped out Calum and Nikki and had a fun time working with them.

Hopefully i will have a new partner for the rest of the project and i will still be using some of Farizahs memories for the final animation and installation.

3rd workshop

Today was a really enjoyable and productive day. Marie interacted with me more than usual and seem to like getting involved and participating with the group as a whole, she seemed to like contributing on making the clouds which showed how she was concentrating more on the whole project then she was in the previous workshops. She really liked ripping off the tissue paper and sticking it down on to the cardboard clouds.

third workshop

I was working with Nikki to produce some objects for my installation these include a sun, seagull and three coconuts, i thought it was a productive lesson as Nikki spoke to me alot, interacted with more people in the room like Sam and Rianna and was very engaged in the whole workshop.

Third workshop: Beulah.

I was really pleased with how our group came together this week in order to help each other and prepare for our individual workshops. I worked with VJ as Dawn was away on her holiday, I taught him how to hand stich and within minutes he’d got the hang of it. He was eager to continue sewing for the duration of the workshop and he was excited to show off his new skills to the group. We managed to make a cushion for our aeroplane installation and begin making a life jacket as well. I can’t wait to continue next week and show Dawn what we’ve been up to, and I’m sure VJ’s looking forward to it too!

Second workshop

On Wednesday the 15th we had our second workshop with the clients, everyone in the group including myself thought it went very well, i personally thought it went much better than planned having all of the clients speak more then the last meetings with them. I was working with Nikki and with him made some very nice plasticine models of a football; Nikki himself; a friend and two burgers, the whole day was a very productive one getting lots out from the clients. I enjoyed it thoroughly.

Second Workshop

Our second workshop was fantastic, I couldnt stop smiling. The atmosphere was great and was filled with laughter and fun. At the beginning I was slightly nervous, I was anxious to see what would happen and how the clients would co-opearte with us.

At the end they where better than what i expected, their energy and enthusiasim towards us made me feel comfortable. They wanted to talk to us more, play games, and were eager to show us their work without hesitating.

Denise was a joy to work with, she was comfortable and i found out a lot about her. She was more confident to open up to me than before. She was excited about making models out of plastercine with me and went into her own world when she was making the burgers and hotdogs. I loved the fact that she was herself with me, it shows me that all my hardwork has not been in vain but has progressed during the weeks we have been working the our clients, and also how commited Denise is to work with me.

Our visitors

The adults came into Brit and they seemed really happy and excited to start working. We had prepared our mini marquettes ready for when they came in, i showed the storyboard to Marie and this helped jog her memory about what we were doing before. We started to make really nice plastercine models to go into our maquettes. Marie made models of herself, her Nan and her carer Sweety to go into the maquette of her memory. Marie also made a really nice green cake to go into the installation. I think the clients got alot from this experience and i found it very nice and moving. I cant wait to be at Beulah church next time i should be even better.

Workshop # 2

I had such a fun time with Farizah today, as soon as we came to sit down she notices the photo of her in the frame that i had put in the marquette and she was so happy and excited. I then showed her my flash storyboard and she identified the different things like the cake and the CD's and i was so happy to see her dancign along to the photo i drew of her dancing :). The cue cards helped so much i asked her which object she wanted to make first and the confidently chose pointing at the cards, then her second and third choice etc. We worked together rolling and squashing the colourful plasticine and made amazing objects; Cake , stereo , curry and herself! I really look forward on starting to make them lifesize next week and im sure Farizah will enjoy it aswell.

2nd workshop

Today i had so much fun with Nishi. We planned today to make some plastersine sculptures to add to our newly made maquette. When i started making the maquette i thought it didnt look so good, in fact i thought it looked like it was dying or someone had stamped on it, but once had stepped in the room it was completely transformed into something a lot better. When Nishi entered the workshop you could see she was looking forward to todays lesson, as our maquettes were on the table for them to see as well as the different coloured plasticine, Nishi especially was looking forward to using the plasticine. We began the lesson with a circle time, where we played a quick game of imaginary ball, to challenge both the adults and our selves to remeber each other's names. I for one, have a lot of trouble at doing this task because im terrible at remembering names. We then went straight onto making our models, Nishi once again dived straight in and asked for a piece of each colour to work with. We started with making a deer, Nishi had no trouble at all with this which made me stuck with things to do. Once we did that we went onto making a santa and what we planned to do this time was use the wire so he could stand inside the maquette. She gave me a job this time to make the eyes whilst she mixed the red and white to make a pink. We then stuck the eyes on the pink face, when we then carried on by making the rest of santa. she was so brilliant at this, that it looked like the santa in the picture, as it held the same pose and how it also held a bell. I think the hardest part of the lesson was getting Nishi to stop making sculpture and pay attention to what everyone else had made. But in the end, after a quick circle time and showing what we had made, she had a good look at what everyone else had made. We gave Nishi some plasticine to take home so she could make some more wonderful sculpture and i'm really looking forward to seeing the talented Nishi next week.
xxx

June 15th second workshop

Today we had our second workshop with the adults from Beulah, in which they came to BRIT. This for them was a new experience and they all seemed to enjoy it thoroughly. We prepared for this lesson by making a mini model of our set/installation, for the final pieces. In today’s lesson we worked with our partner’s to make plastericine characters and objects. This helped our partners to understand what the final outcome was going to be. Shirley took to this very well and enjoyed every part of it. I felt her having an equal 'hands-on' role in today’s lesson and it worked very well and kept her attentive and working hard. Me and Shirley finished rather early but she then added to ourmodel with other objects that she remembers from her experience. I don’t feel today’s lesson could have gone any better. As the final piece comes closer and closer the ideas seem to be getting more developed and unique, I’m looking forward to next week’s lesson where we will be back at BRB, making our final installations.

Second Workshop: Brit

I was looking forward to seeing the adults and showing them what we'd been up to this week. Dawn was excited to see the storyboard I'd made about her holiday and couldn't wait to start making plasticine models for our marquette. I also worked with VJ this week, who was eager to help us out, I felt we worked well as a group and managed to bring our marquette to life. The workshop today has developed my ideas for our installation and got me thinking about things to include inside it. When we spoke to the adults about making life size installations of our marquettes they were overwhelmed with excitement and couldn't wait to begin making next week. There was a real buzz after the workshop was over, we all felt we got to know the adults better and we now have more of an insight into their individual learning difficulties. I'm looking forward to next week’s workshop as it now feels that our plans are truly being brought to life.

My cheeks hurts from smiling so much!

When our new friends came to visit us...

Making models for our installations

Students have been using the stories from our new friends at BRB to set the scenes in the form of model boxes. These will be the basis for their large scale sensory installtions that they will be working on soon. Our friends from BRB will be helping us complete these models adding thier own touch to the scene and story.

Workshop 1

This visit was the second time we went to the beulah resource base. I felt that this time went relly well, the people were really welcoming and the atmosphere was nice. We seemed to get stories out of the clients, there were some really nice drawings and everybody enjoyed the lesson time, people got along and learnt something new. Our methods of getting them to talk about their memories were effective. The picture and word cards we made were very usful and made this easier. The storyboarding seemed most effective when getting ideas down. There were 3 differant ways of drawing out the stories. The blank piece of paper was usful to get ideas down and then doing a storyboard after made it clearer what to say in the story. There was also a picture of a man with a big brain and we would get the people to draw memories inside that aswell. Marie liked to plan out the story on the storyboard template and she talked about a holiday and eating cake!

My first lesson with the brilliant Nishi

In this project we had to teach our first lesson to the adults. Before the lesson, we began with making a whole plan of the lesson from the beginning to the end, it was quite difficult to plan the lesson as we were aware that the adults may not be able to focus and that there might be several reason why we may have to finish early, as they have disabilities that we have to work around with. We planned to use a lot of images in the lesson to help those you may not be able to read or for those you have hearing difficulties.

At the beginning of our first lesson we started of with circle time to help the adults and our selves to remember each others names. This wasn't so difficult as it wasn't hard to explain to the adults how to play, as well as the adults are very able to move and communicate. We then went onto the lesson plan, then straight on to finding who we may work with. This wasn't so difficult because all the adult had to do was pick the face and match it to the real thing, before the lesson we were worried that some of us may not be picked and would be left to work with no one, but luckily this didn't happen. After we had found our partner we sat down to draw our memories and the senses that were involved. We used que cards, some pictures of the senses and different frames for them to draw on. I was working with a lovely women called Nishi, who loved to draw, but she was very shy. It was difficult to communicate with her, but in the end she was talking a bit which helped. What we did was we started of using the frame because she liked coloring in the frame and drawing a still image, with all the the senses together. She then went on to draw on the comic strip which was a little bit more difficult because it meant you had to draw different parts of the story, but she was really good at working it out and at this point we worked together, with our skills, to bring it together. I wrote what was happening in each part of the story whilst she drew it. At the end of the lesson we put up all the work to talk about it, at first i thought Nishi would find this quite difficult because seemed really shy, but in the end she was really excited to explain what was happening in her memory. I loved this lesson and I'm really excited to find out what else Nishi wants to add to the story, or what she thinks about the model that i made of her memory, for her to then work with. Why i liked working with Nishi so much is because she has a brilliant imagination to making up a brilliant story or memory. No wonder she loves to draw, we have something in common.

Workshop #1

The first workshop at BRB was a really fun experience, we got comfortable with each other and had a laugh playing the name and action game and the adults were happy to choose their partners using the picture cards. Using the resources we had made the day before created a good hands on activity with the cue cards and they chose their card and I really developed the story from the card my partner, Farizah choose. It was quite a challenge getting the information and story out of Farizah but I had great fun drawing with her and I look forward to our next workshop.

First Workshop

Our first workshop ay Beulah was interesting and fun. Thinking i wouldn't be able to cope and be too nervous to talk, the friendliness of the staff and clients made me feel comfortable to cooperate with them. Their smiley faces and enthusiasm towards me made me feel comfortable.

My partner was a lovely lady called Denise. When it came for the time for me to be working one on one with her, i gladly got information out of her about a memory she had which was a bbq at Beulah. She willingly described the senses to me, and was able to describe most of the atmosphere around her during this experience. Even though she didn't want to draw, i decided to draw out what she described while she colored it in. Her energy while saying her memory, i could tell she really enjoyed it. Her eyes lit up every time i asked her about the food she had, and why she enjoyed it.

When i showed her my animation, i felt she understood what i was talking about even more, and i could see she was excited for me to create her animation, and bringing it back to life, knowing she could relate to it as it was something she had experienced before, and main character in the animation, made her interested to work with me.

I am excited to continue working with her. I feel more comfortable with her now as she was open to talk to me. I cant wait to see what the other workshops have in store for me.

First Workshop

This trip to Beulah was great because of all the hands on actives and the atmosphere in BRB, I learned a lot and had a lot of fun in such a short amount of time. In my eyes I don’t think this work shop could have gone any better. Our whole group is fantastic, and we all get on well. I am working with Shirley who seems as excited as I am about this project, working with us, coming to BRIT and the final pieces. I love the fact she chose me to work with as she is very happy, bubbly and hard working. I feel we will be a good partnership, as she can teach me a lot and I hope I can too. I cannot wait for them to come to The BRIT School, for our next workshop, or to see the final pieces.

Second visit

My second visit to the Beulah resource base was brilliannt, i felt that i interacted well with the clients as well making the most of our time there. This visit was a good way to get more involved with certain clients thatwere a bit more reluctant the first time round. I had a wonderful time getting to know my partner Nikki, he taught my signs for all the parts of his story and i also learnt the sign for 'Friend'. In the end, the workshop gave me an overwhelming feeling and i think we made the clients happy.

First workshop 8/6/11

I was nervous about carrying out our first workshop as I was uncertain of how it would pan out. However I was pleasantly surprized at how taken the adults were with the tasks we had given them. The warm up game worked well as it enabled us to familiarise us with each other but also encouraged everyone to get talking about the project. I found it useful having a variety of resources to choose from; as I could adjust them accordingly to the conversations I was having with my partner, Dawn. Even though the project is highly ambitious, I came out buzzing about the project, certain that our aims were achievable, if we are prepared to put in the effort.

First Workshop

I was extremely apprehensive about the first workshop, as I have never worked one on one with an adult with learning difficulties. However I was also excited as my previous visit to Beulah was amazing and I enjoyed being with the adults.

Furthermore I didn’t really know if the workshop that we had planned would work out, as working with these adults you have to be extremely flexible and work around them. I really enjoyed preparing the activities and all the resources for the workshop.

The face cards were successful as the adults loved being able to chose their partner, also because they were practical and the adults had to find their partner, which they enjoyed.

Sally (my partner) rushed to my card, which made me happy to be working with her as she was very enthusiastic and couldn’t wait to work with me. I was greeted with a warm “hello” and a shake of the hand. This calmed my nerves, as Sally was so lovely and awfully excited to do the activity.

We then sat around a table facing our partner. I gave Sally the option of the 3 templates, she chose the pretty frame, I suppose because it was the most aesthetically pleasing. The frame was filled with tales of her holiday to Wales with her Mum and Dad. This story was quite hard to get from Sally, as she is so interested in what others are doing and easily distracted. However, the story was packed with humor and interesting events from Wales.

When the time came to share our collaborative work Sally was so excited to share her story with others. I was really pleased that Sally was so proud of her work and that she enjoyed working with me. The workshop finished with circle time and Sally hugging me and saying, “I love you”. Working with Sally has given me so much satisfaction and a greater understanding of working with adults with learning difficulties. I can’t wait for the second workshop as this one was so successful and I think everyone benefited from it in different ways.

Holly.