::OBSERVATIONS::
Photography with Ms. P
(period 4, 2/12/03)
This class is an elective. The assignment for today’s lesson was to think of photography as a way to capture an abstract idea. The example Ms. P gives to help students understand was how can a picture represent Love. She gives images of love being in a picture such as a baby in a father’s hands. She wanted students to get into groups of three and walk around the Parkway school to find a picture of love. Students should capture that image in the picture frame or one picture shot of the camera. Students would write about the image (without developing the picture to see) during the rest of the class period to share with classmates.
One group of three students leave the classroom at a time for about five minutes. I followed one group of students around the hallways to look for possible picture ideas. Because Valentine’s day was coming up, there were many decorations of hearts and flowers and such around the school. Most students focused on these decorations while some students became super-creative and focused on aspects of the school, people, or photographs of people. One student focused on several cracks in the floor and reflected how they connected to represent his idea of love. Students would go back in the classroom and write a short paragraph on their observation. At the end of class, Ms. P read some aloud (anonymously) and gave some feedback on their descriptions.
::ANALYSIS::
I think that the photography class is a very nice idea. However, the resources and materials and funds for such are quite lacking which makes it hard for students to have access to having a camera, film and a darkroom on a regular basis. I think this assignment was very good yet its implementation was not quite smooth as many students just had to wait around for their turn to run through the hallways and others found it hard to write in the amount of time given. Without the ability to develop pictures immediately, I think it was hard for students to visualize the images students were describing and to fully enjoy that experience of seeing the abstract. Ms. P did not have to do much to keep the class going and behaving well as students were engaged in the lesson. However, unless Ms. P continues to think of creative ideas and activities, this class could get very tedious and boring as students are wanting to work with the cameras and film.