In this section we are going to explore Right to Express yourself. Think about articles below and Express yourself in any way you want.
ARTICLE 13
You have the right to learn and say what you
think through speaking, writing, art and other
forms of expression. However, you must
respect the rights or reputations of others.
ARTICLE 31
All children have the right to relax and play,
and to join in with a wide range of activities.
Monika Zmiša, School of Midwifery and her painting Painted under the mentorship of Ruljančić Milanka - educator in boarding school
Monika Zmiša,1.a
Moja slika predstavlja moj pogled na svijet. S obzirom da je plava moja najdraža boja,a ruža najdraži cvijet,baš ta ruža predstavlja vedrinu u svijetu. Čini se da je nema mnogo ,ali svi će se složiti da se istiće. Zato što je to ono bitno. Istaknuti ono što vas čini sretnim. Svo trnje oko nje su problemi koji guše sreću. No isticanjem onoga što nas ćini sretnim postajemo svjesni toga da je sreća prisutna u našem životu i samim time postajemo sretniji i zadovoljniji. Volim crtati i slikati jer me to opušta i dopušta mi da izrazim nešto što riječima nebi mogla.
Ipak kažu da slika govori više od tisuću riječi.
My painting is my view on the world. Because the blue is my favorite colour and roses are my favorite flowers, a blue rose is perfect metaphor for happines on this world. It looks like there isn't it much, but everyone has to agree that it stands out. Because that's what's important. To point what make you happy. All the darknes around the happines make us feel worse. But if we point happiness in our lives we'll become aware of that happines and by that even happier. I like to draw and paint because it lets me express myself the way I couldn't by words.
I guess they are right when they say that one painting says more than a thousand words.
Monika Zmiša: Child's Dream
Valentina Šagovac, School of Midwifery, Zagreb: The Circle of Life
Moja slika predstavlja život i smrt .Krug života u kojemu se svi mi vrtimo...Monika je nacrtala nešto lijepo, nešto što bi trebalo predstavljati dobru stranu nasega života, a ja sam se odlucila da predstavim lošu. Nadam se da sam u tome uspijela. Crtanje je za mene odmor od stresa, volim se posvetiti svakoj crtici koju trebam nacrtati. Volim crtanje i preporučavam ga.
My painting represents life and death. The circle of life in which we all rotate ... Monika drew something beautiful, something that should be a good side of our life, and I decided to introduce bad. I hope that I have succeeded. Drawing is for me de-stress. I like dedicate to every move that I should draw. I love drawing and I recommend it.
(Painted under the mentorship of Milanka Ruljančić educator in School of Midwifery boarding school)
The educational drama is one of the methods used in the School of Midwifery, Zagreb. As part of the communication exercises for better medical training our students performed a improvisation in medical waiting room.
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Exploring the right to express yourself! - Portuguese team
Drama game:
"My Mirror"
In the mirror children see and try figures with different feelings and try identify them.
Another example:
Bibliotherapy
Teacher read an excerpt of the book The Soul Bird, by Michal Snunit, and after children express their feelings by using colours.
"Deep down,
inside our body's,
lives the soul
No one has ever seen it,
but we all know it's there.
Not only do we know it's there,
we know what's in it, too.
Inside the soul,
right in the very middle of it,
there is a bird standing on one foot.
This is the soul bird.
It feels everything we feel.
(...)
Do you want to know what the soul bird is made of?
Well, it's really quite simple:
it's made of drawers.
These drawers can't be opened just like that-
because each is locked with its own special key!
Only the soul bird can open its drawers.
How?
Ah, that's quite simple too:
with its other foot.
The soul bird stands one one foot,
and with its other foot..
(tucked under its wing when it's resting)
it turns the key to the drawer it wants to open,
pulls the handle, and lets everything inside- out!
Because there is a drawer for everything we feel,
the soul bird has many, many drawers:
one for being happy and one for being sad;
one for being jealous and one for being content;
one for being hopeful and one for being hopeless;
one for being patient and one for being impatient.
There is also one for hating and for being loved.
There is even a drawer for being lazy and one for being vain.
And there is a special drawer for your deepest secret -
which is hardly ever opened.
There are other drawers too -
whatever drawers you dream of (...)"
They chose the red colour to express the hate.
They chose the white to express the anguish because in many situations they can't help who they wanted.( In so many situations we became white for not helping someone).
They chose the black to express the sadness of loosing someone they love.
They chose the pink to express the love they have from somebody ( mother's love, the teachers tenderness etc).
Thet chose the yellow to express the happiness.
They chose the green to express hope.
Comment: Nice activity and the great choice of the book. Beautiful text. (School of Midwifery)
OŠ dr. V. Žganca, Zagreb
Drama games and exercises contribute to raising awareness, thinking, understanding of self and others and strengthening its resources. Talking we become more open, freer and lighten a bit of a problem, then we can better and more easily express in writing. Monika and Milica speak out on issues that preoccupy them most.
Second possibility
Feelings are very complicated. Sometimes you can’t even express yourself with words.
I could go on and on about happiness for days but I wouldn’t tell you anything you already don’t know, because that happiness is visible. Those feelings that are invisible, that are just ours, they make us special. I’m familiar with that kind of feelings very well. They make you stay up late at night thinking about all possible (and impossible) things. But in the end it all leads to two possibilities: you are so happy that you can’t fall asleep or you are so overwhelmed with sadness that it is simply impossible to stop the tears. That is one of those feelings that is just ours. Sadness is just ours and no one else’s. I’ll be honest, in my case it’s almost always the second possibility.
24th January, the day I was born, the day I’m always full of commitments, which doesn’t bother me. The day when everybody is coming over to say ‘happy birthday’ to me and my brother. My father was one of those people. It was like this:
He announced his arrival one day before our birthday and said he would come around 12 or 1 p.m. because he has a surprise for my brother Mario. He even kept his word and came at 12 p.m. He had some sort of envelope and it was Mario’s name written on it, in red. I was hoping he had something for me too, but I was disappointed when I found out he had nothing, but we’ll get to that part later. He entered the house and sat down on the sofa in the living room. Mario joined him. And me, well, I was in the kitchen helping my mum with the lunch because we were expecting guests. I heard my father saying ‘happy birthday’ to my brother and I could almost hear Mario’s excitement when my dad gave him the envelope (it was his 18th birthday so he knew there was money in that envelope, hah, what else). When I came into the room I saw an unforgettable view:
*father and son counting money with such happiness on their faces.*
Of course, they were so mesmerized from counting that they didn’t even notice when I entered the room. I went back to the kitchen to make some coffee for my dad. When I got back into the living room, Mario and dad were already talking about some new video game they both had started playing two days ago. That game was obviously more important than me because my dad didn’t notice me, again, and didn’t even thank me for the coffee. That was the moment when I thought: ‘For God’s sake, am I invisible!?’ But you get used to being invisible. And while I was thinking about that, dad and Mario already decided to go to Mario’s room so they could try out that new video game, which was obviously, more important than me. One hour later, they came out of the room because dad decided he had to leave. On the way out he shook hands with my brother before he left, and me, well he waved at me and said: ‘See you Moni’ (and he said it like some kind of cartoon character, how else would he said it). When he left Mario went to his room, happy and satisfied, and I went back into the kitchen to help my mum with the salad for the guests.
Can you even imagine how I felt? I don’t know what to do with that feeling. I don’t know how to explain it. I just locked it somewhere deep inside me and continued preparing the salad for the guests who I welcomed with a great big smile!
Monika Klaić
Comment: Dear Monika: your story is so touching that we were able to live your own feelings. School of Midwifery
I Serb am also human like everyone else
I can’t say that Serbia is my country. I’ve never been there and I wasn’t born there. If someone asked me which country is mine I would say Croatia. I was born here. I grew up here. I had my first steps here. I fell in love for the first time here.
When I started first grade I was never thinking about what nationality or religion I am. I was just scared of school. But as I was growing up I started to realize what nationality I am and what had happened in the past. I have to say it wasn’t easy even though I had a lot of friends. I thought I might start losing them because of my nationality or religion. The thing I was scared the most was eighth grade because then we stared learning about Croatian War of Independence and visited the City of Vukovar. Every time when someone said something about my nationality in a bad way it would hurt. I’ve never been patriot, but when someone sad something bad in general about my nationality I had a feeling someone was talking to me. My dad always taught me to respect all people no matter what nationality, religion or race they are. I am like that. I don’t care what race, religion or nationality someone is. But I think all the time that my friends have something against me because of my nationality, even though they say they don’t. I was always embarrassed in front of my teachers. I thought they didn’t like me. Now I know it isn’t like that. The hardest thing was when a football match between Croatia and Serbia was held about two years ago. The class ended earlier because of the match. When the school bell rang everyone in school started yelling: ‘Kill, kill Serb’. That hurt and it was the worst moment in the last eight years of my schooling. I had a feeling they were insulting me and my family even though my mum and dad didn’t do anything wrong, but it looked like that. I didn’t watch the mach. I didn’t want to watch that ‘fight’ and hate. After that there weren’t any similar situations like that in our school and I hope that there won’t be, ever.
I am glad that I have been accepted by my friends, teachers and neighbours. Now I’m in eighth grade, we visited the City of Vukovar, we talked about what happened in Croatian War of Independence, because of we all judge one another. That is the past and it shouldn’t be forgotten. I am glad that I was born in Croatia and that I live here. It is beautiful country. Who knows how my life would be if I wasn’t here.
Milica Vasilić
Comment: Dear Milica, realy great, honest and brave story. School of Midwifery