Session 3 • Pre-production: animation techniques, storyboarding & equipment

Rotator Reflection Video of session 3

Session 2 • Introduction to Animation

Introducing the animation software iStop Motion on the iPad.

“What did you learn today in session 2?”

Session 1 • Context

The teachers of School 661 introduced the class to the project and its objectives, gave an overview of Britten’s life and music, talked about listening skills and introduce audio sections of The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra. The group will began to think about the relationship between music and moving images through some simple listening and drawing activities.
More photos to find here.

In the Rotator Reflection Video the young people of School 661 tell us their words they associate with the piece of music they’re going to animate to:

Session 1 • Context

School 1862 is the first school started with the project! Very exciting! Here’re some photos of the young people taking part and their first creative activities and outputs. More to find here.

The Rotator Reflection Video tells us why the young people of School 1862 decided to take part in this project:

In this session the teachers introduced the class to the project and its objectives, gave an overview of Britten’s life and music, talked about listening skills and introduce audio sections of The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra. The group will begin to think about the relationship between music and moving images through some simple listening and drawing activities.

Session • 2 • 10th April 2013

We had a wonderful time with amazing teachers in Moscow!

Here’s another nice post about the teacher training written in the ‘blog group’ on the second day of our workshop:

“We come from Moscow, Russia. We teach students different subjects at school 1315 which is a State Secondary school specialized in learning English. Yesterday our team took part in a seminar, devoted to music of Benjamin Britten. We learnt about history of animation, Iovely music of Britten. The very special thing was that we tried to realise how to make animated cartoons using technology. It was really amazing to communicate with teachers from Moscow schools and to meet skillful facilitators. We are excited to participate in the International project and gain experience and share our ideas with the International community. We are going to cascade our experience among our students and develop their creative skills. Our group of students aged from 12 to 16 will promote the value of the project, that is to learn more about British music and British culture in general, to materialize Britten’s piece of music into images, using children’s imagination.

Мы – команда учителей московской школы # 1315 с углубленным изучением английского языка. Мы рады, что нас пригласили принять участие в международном анимационном проекте, приуроченном к празднованию столетия со дня рождения великого английского композитора Б. Бриттена. Приобретенный опыт очень важен для нас, мы сможем передать полученные знания нашим ученикам и развивать их творческие навыки. Первое занятие вызвало много позитивных эмоций. Мы с удовольствием слушали музыку Б. Бриттена, которая вызывает глубокий эмоциональный отклик и создает в воображении много прекрасных образов. Во время занятия, мы смогли перенести эти образы на бумагу, творчески переосмыслить музыкальную композицию. Мы познакомились с историей развития искусства анимации, увидели различные анимационные решения. И попробовали своими руками создать рисунки для будущего анимационного фильма. Очень понравилось работать в команде с учителями других школ, обмениваться опытом и впечатлениями.” School 1315

At the end it was Rotator Refection Video time! We asked three questions.
First Question: “What is your favourite part of the animation?”

The second questions was:
“What do you think your class will most enjoy?”

And the answer to our third and last question you can watch here:
“What are you most proud of?”

Session • 1 • 9th April 2013

In four small group the teachers took part in different activities later also the young people will do during their workshop.
This was the blogging groups post:

“В этом году Британским советом объявлен новый проект посвященный 100-летию со дня рождения Бенджамина Бриттена. Всего пять московских школ получили возможность принять участие в данном проекте, большая честь и, конечно, большая ответственность.
Прежде чем рассказать о проекте учащимся московских школ Британским советом организованы мастер-классы для преподавателей школ. Учителя музыки, изобразительного искусства английского языка и информатики увлеченно работают над постижением основ создания анимации и возможности “увидеть” музыку выдающегося композитора 20 века Бенджамина Бриттена.
Мы надеемся, что участие в проекте даст возможность нашим ученикам открыть для себя новые технологии, найти новых друзей по интересам и почувствовать себя частью мирового сообщества школ

This year the British Council announced a new project celebrating 100th anniversary of Benjamin Britten. Only 5 Moscow schools had an opportunity to take part in this project. Of course, it was a great honour and a big responsibility.
First of all, The British Council organized workshops for school teachers, so that they could work with their students later. Music teachers, art, english and IT teachers enjoyed working with animation and appreciated a chance to visualize music of Benjamin Britten, a great composer of the 20th century. We hope that this project will enable our students to learn new technologies, find new friends and become part of international school community.” School 1862

The Storyboard:

Rotator Reflection Video after the first day of the training: