Modelling Clay and Lego Bricks as Means of Communication

Michael Fromm, who has been teaching middle school and music classes for the past 17 years, as well as audio-visual media for the past five years at Schule im Fort in Landau, Germany, takes advantage of the shallow learning curve and the mere fun in dealing with the matter for his work with students in grades 7 through 10. Particularly here, where German as a first language is rather a rarity and students from more than 50 countries take integrative German language classes together, using audio-visual media as a means of communications lends itself to the purpose at hand - and stands the test:

With stop motion work in class, I see a stronger focus and increased patience than usual, particularly in agitative students. I think this is due to a greater sense of achievement in using the Macintosh in general and iStopMotion in particular.

Quick results aren't exactly standard outside AV media classes, hence Michael Fromm is being realistic about the goals he sets for himself. His guiding themes have become motivating and preparing on the job.

Having said this, a basic sense of reading comprehension, communication and interpersonal skills are considered indispensable in modern day societies which are all about knowledge acquisition and quick distribution of information. According to Michael Fromm's experience, creative work is exactly tailored to cultivating these fundamental abilities:

"The considerate arrangement of an animation set or mimicking popular movie scenes and music videos often lead to immediate results. This literally works like a stress management program," Fromm explains.

Making Movies, Shaping Personality

Hence Michael Fromm is proud to declare: "Arguments just don't happen around here." And in the rare case they do, mediators rush to his aid to curb the excess energy of his young aspiring movie directors and channel them along more creative paths.

This aspect is particularly important with twelve and thirteen-year-old adolescents, who are in the midst of shaping their identities, creating positive self-images and accepting responsibility as individuals and members of society. Some remnants of a natural play instinct at this age are certainly supportive of this process:

Typically, students at ages 12 or 13 put away their lego bricks. However, with stop motion animation you don't need to consider yourself 'not cool' when still using them, as these activities can be justified to themselves as a kind of 'work'.

Employing a natural play instinct for productive collaboration, enhancing group communication in designing the scene, and conception of the story line together, as well as overcoming the language barrier step by step, almost sounds like the perfect recipe to implement a current and frequent demand for active integrative politics:

"Other than teaching", Fromm emphasizes, "my job is to demonstrate meaningful leisure activities and thus diminish possible existing potentials of violence. I show young adults ways to express themselves, where entertaining others as a form of altruism has proven to be a most appropriate vehicle to accomplish that.

There's no doubt: Michael Fromm takes his educational assignment seriously, yet has found a rather playful way to implement it, which will hopefully set an example for others to follow.