Page 31 - The story of the Art of Learning

Art of Learning as seen from an artist’s perspective
Making magic for the kids
week by week
By Kriszti Vladár, artist and artist coordinator of AoL Hungary.
Before this programme, I had never before worked with the same group of kids for two years, I’d never worked with pre- made exercises, and the development of executive function was a new field. Doing something like this sounded great, and it made me curious.
About working with a teacher, finding your role together
It was an interesting process to find a way to cooperate, me and the teacher: how do we deal with roles in the classroom? Where do I have to jump in? Where do I have to stop and pass the word to the teacher? At the end of the project, this was all integrated in the both of us, and one moment of eye contact between us was enough to know what to do.
About working with pre-made content
In the beginning, it was frightening to do exercises that weren’t mine, nor the teacher’s.
As my teacher partner and I went through the themes and got to know each other and the pupils better, we learned how to deliver the exercises, and how to modify them to work well, and the programme became very diverse and colourful.
Tried new things I never dared to do before
The Art of Learning work was so fun for me, making magic for the kids week by week, and bringing them new interesting topics. It makes my role more exciting, acting like a researcher, or a pizza chef, making sound recordings as a lonely dragon, making shelter in the basement of the school, asking my neighbor to give photos from her childhood and then come to the school and speak with the kids, so we did lots and lots of extraordinary things. Also, in the programme I had to work with other branches of art - for example, drama, music, sculpture making, and role play, and this helped me to get out of my comfort zone! I tried new things I never dared to do before.
Learned a hundred new exercises
Going through this programme I learned a hundred new exercises. I like the way that the exercises and the themes were so complex and built on each other block by block. This complexity and pre- planning taught me a lot and gave me several ideas for my professional repertoire. Now, when I need to plan training or a class event for this age group I just pull it out of my pocket when I need it, make some small changes, and it works! I can see its positive benefits in other projects I do already, and I know I can thank the AoL practice for this.
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