Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Holiday time? No! What about creativity?






Holiday time for schools is here for all over the world for primary and secondary schools.

Last post, I wrote about a wonderful opportunity for cultural holidays: Festival das Artes: férias culturais?

During July and August, I will write about some subjects that could interest you for the next school season.

Well, we know that a teacher is never on holiday time, completely. After some days off on the beach or travelling a little, a teacher is always thinking about some new ideas, here and there, to surprise the students next school season.

Yesterday, I found on the web, an interesting video that we could share with our students in Secondary education or Further education. 

But, first let me ask you: Do your students know Neil Gaiman the English writer of comics, books and much more? Let's see.




Neil Gaiman

Let me introduce Neil Gaiman by himself! Bestselling author Neil Gaiman has long been one of the top writers in comics, and also writes books for readers of all ages. 

He is listed in the Dictionary of Literary Biography as one of the top ten living post-modern writers, and is a prolific creator of works of prose, poetry, film, journalism, comics, song lyrics, and drama. 

First time I talked about Gaiman to my students, it was about CoralineThe tale of the lonely girl who discovers an alternate world where her ‘other mother and father’ live has been turned into a graphic novel and a film

We went to the movies, and later, in the classroom, we read the book studying the Narrative text and analyzing both (the novel and the film) in English curriculum.

Students might listen an excerpt of the book on mp3 version.


Level: k12 ; high junior education.




Coraline's 10th Anniversary
Neil Gaiman
illustration: Chris Riddel

Now it's Coraline's Tenth Anniversary (here's the UK's 10th Anniversary edition).

“I don't want whatever I want. Nobody does. Not really. What kind of fun would it be if I just got everything I ever wanted just like that, and it didn't mean anything? What then?” 

Coraline

Celebrating ten years of Neil Gaiman’s first modern classic for young readers, this must-have anniversary edition is enriched with a brand-new foreword from the author, a reader’s guide, and more. 

Available e-book format. The Coraline 10th Anniversary edition can be read online here





Stardust
Neil Gaiman
https://www.neilgaiman.com/

Another book by Gaiman, Stardust (young people literature) that we studied in Languages curriculum. 

Students read the novel and I displayed the video in the classroom

"A twisting wondrous tale of full magic."

Chicago Tribune (2007)

Level: high junior school; secondary education.

Your students can listen chapter 1 of Stardust on mp3.





Chu's Day
Neil Gaiman
Illustration: Adam Rex

Now, Neil Gaiman is writing for little kids. Chu's DayChu's Daythe story of a little panda with a very big sneeze, illustrated by Adam Rex, is a book for very small children. It'll be published on January the 8th 2013. 

Level: Kindergarten



Neil Gaiman and his first book for children
Chu's Day
https://www.neilgaiman.com/works/

"Chu's Day is the first book I've ever written for really little kids. Ones who cannot read. Ones who can only just walk. Those ones. I hope that they like it, or at least, that they love Adam Rex's amazing illustrations."

Neil Gaiman

Finally, about the video I told you at the  begining of this post. At the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, author and comic book writer Neil Gaiman shared some "secret freelancer knowledge" that all kinds of writers, editors and freelance workers can use. And of course, young people beginning a career. Watch it below:



Wow! Such an inspirational speech!  If you have some creative students - and we all know that we have a lot of creative young people in our schools - you need to share this utterly inspirational and captivating speech.

Level: Secondary education; post-secondary education; vocational education; Arts.

"You can be as creative as you need to be to get your work seen: Youtube or the web and what comes up after Youtube and the web  can give you more people watching than television did.
(...)

Be wise because the world needs more wisdom and if you can not be wise pretend to be someone who is wise and just behave as they would.

And now go and make interesting mistakes, make amazing mistakes, make glorious and fantastic mistakes, break rules live the world more interesting because you're being here.

Make good art."

Neil Gaiman

G-Souto

17.07.2012
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Licença Creative Commons
Holiday time? No ! What about creativy ? bG-Souto is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

References:

Credits video The University of the Arts (Phl)

Neil Gaiman website

Coraline - the movie

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