Songs From Stones INSET day at Oriel Mon

We held an INSET day for the Songs From Stones animation project. The learning outcomes of the day were to inform and inspire teachers about Anglesey's prehistory, and to ensure that everybody had the skills necessary to use the animation and sound software in the classroom.

The day was attended by the six primary school teachers - Eleri, Meirion, Osian, Tegwen, Ruth and Kirsty - whose classes are involved in the project, along with Dylan, a Secondary PGCE art student. Ceri Jones, the education officer from Oriel Mon, and Bethan James (Cynnal's Humanties advisor) also attended.

The day was facilitated by Sean Harris (animation artist), Dylan Adams (music workshop leader), and Ken Brassil (Amgueddfa Cymru National Museum of Wales Archaeology education officer).

We began the day with an overview of the Songs From Stones project and original animation, Sean's introduction to the art of animation and the prehistoric sites of Anglesey, and some thought provoking materials provided by Ken Brassil.

Dylan brought lots of energy into the room, along with a wide choice of musical instruments, and we made and recorded some group music.

Dylan started us off by making us play 'follow the leader' with sound - all that syncopated clapping took some keeping up with!

Here are the amazing instruments Dylan brought for us to play with, some of them made very interesting sounds:

We divided into 2 groups and started having fun playing the instruments, before creating a short piece of atmospheric music:

Dylan recorded the music so that we'd have something to edit and add effects to when learning about how to use the 'Audacity' sound software.

After lunch, we moved on to working with the sound and animation software. Dylan worked with individuals and pairs to help everybody get to grips with recording and editing.

Once the tutorials were done, people experimented with the equipment, instruments, and software at their own pace.




Dylan was on hand to help out when needed.

Ken took the opportunity to play with sound, too.

Dylan (the student) got very engrossed, I think he recorded a concerto!



Sean preparing the artwork for the afternoon tutorials:


Explaining how to work with the 'I can animate' software, hardware and artwork to create stop frame animation:

Giving everybody the chance to explore it for themselves:

Overall, a good day was had by all, everybody enjoyed themselves and learnt a great deal. There are things we would change if we did it again, but that is always the case if you care about what you deliver.

Evaluation of the success of the day was done by using 4 'graffiti walls', this is what people felt about their experience, under 4 headings:

Most inspiring

Realising how easy it was to compose effective music as a group (as well as the animation!)

‘I can animate’ software because it was new to me.

Animation

Community sound making

Creating the music as a group

Ancestral links – working in the locality

The two group compositions – they were beautiful!!

Creating music as a group and on the software

All practical, hands on activities

Creating music

The whole afternoon. Brill!

Least inspiring

Audacity software – simply due to the fact that I had used it before – although I did learn some new tricks

More time on the practical aspect, less time talking

Needed more thinking time on group task in the talk period

Too much talk in one chunk

Nothing, sorry! Had a wonderful day!

Too much to absorb too quickly (not the coffee)

N/A x 3

Talks too long

The coffee!

Light Bulb moment?

A new Barclodiad connection with a pupil at school

That I could actually do it – WOW!

To know that the light penetrated the back wall of bryn Celli Ddu on the summer solstice

Ken’s DNA links

The music activities

The wealth of knowledge in morning talks, very good

Using the animation software

Working with teachers on Audacity

Making the musical effects

Group sound making

Working in a group – realising I can do music!

What should we do differently next time?

More hands on activities x 2

More animation x 2

Longer with the software

More hands on with the animation software

Possibly ensure that large group, tutor-led IT sessions are demonstrated to everybody at once using a mnain demo computer and a big screen?

More time to absorb the technology

Less introduction

Less sitting and listening this morning, although some of this of course was necessary