School Subjects

We worked in the schools of São Teotónio and Odemira, becoming an active part in the study of the curriculum. Throughout 2021 and 2022, we developed artistic workshops with several classes in the context of the following subjects: PLNM (Portuguese as a Non-Maternal Language), Visual Education and Citizenship. The themes that guided the workshops were often based on certain aspects of the curriculum: in Visual Education, for example, we explored portraits, landscapes, and drawing techniques; in PLNM the activities were mostly related to Portuguese Language; with the 4th grade at São Teotónio Elementary School we focused on the solar system and natural catastrophes. In this way we offered new ways to observe the subjects studied at school through a practical mode and an artistic lens. What is the dance of the solar system? How can we learn Portuguese through music, through movement, through poetry? This approach to knowledge as a system of connections enabled a collaboration with the teachers, sharing subject matter and methods, but also offering students a new and sensory perspective on what they normally learn only intellectually. It adds rich layers to knowledge and study. The teachers didn’t feel we were taking time away from their class but that we were offering a human dimension to the subjects covered which, in the school system, are often disconnected from concrete reality.