We created Stop-Motion Animations inspired by Margaret Atwood's poem, 'Eating the Birds'. I think these ILP days have an amazing buzz about them, due to the experience building up in both the school staff and creative practitioners. The combination of such a challenging piece of writing, and the questionnaire about 'What an Artist Is' provoked some intense, philosophical debate, and seemed to spark off a genuine enthusiasm in both groups. So even before I started to introduce Stop-Motion Animation, the whole room was alert and ready to learn. I deliberately gave them no examples of animation, just showed the techniques involved, and the learners all approached it from different angles ( literally !). Having discussed problem solving and evolving technology early on meant that where technical problems arose, the learners just embraced the challenge, and together we arrived at solutions. Having emphasised this as a crucial skill it was seen as an opportunity rather than a challenge, and every group produced good results.I was impressed by the very different ways each group approached the text, the level of engagement, intelligent debate, team work and excellent behavior in both groups. Big Success !!!
