DIFFERENT WAYS TO USE PHOTOGRAPHY IN THE CLASSROOM

There are many ways to incorporate photography into the classroom. The students and teacher can both be involved. For many of us, iPads and iPods were beginning to come out in our elementary school days. Including Android phones were just starting to get better and better. Nowadays, there is frequent iPad use in classrooms, and in high school, most students have a phone with a camera. That said, I will list different ways photography can be used in elementary, middle, and high school use.   

Elementary School  

1. Like what we are doing with our blogs, posting an end-of-week blog with photos captured of what you did that week. Could it be photos of an art activity or somewhere the class visited. I know many parents enjoy seeing what their kids got up to during the week, which offers parents the opportunity to talk to their kids about the photo!  

2. A neat idea I saw on the internet was allowing the special helper of the week to capture pictures of what the class is doing. Not only does this offer responsibility to the student, but it offers people who see the photo student perspective of the class. This is likely a project for grades 2 and up.  

3. End-of-year slideshow, compiling all the photos taken throughout the year and showing the students their progress. This is great for everyone as it shows the memories that took place in the classroom. 

Middle School  

1. Introduction poster, while this can be used for all grades. This is a great way to get students to introduce themselves. For different grades, there are many ways you could do this: taking a photo of the student and letting them place it somewhere on the poster. It allows other students to get to know their peers and put a name to their face. 

2. One way to incorporate photography in the classroom could include students’ digital citizenship. Doing this teaches students about asking permission and understanding what a digital footprint means. This is a huge subject for students at the beginning of middle school because this is when they usually start getting into social media.   

High School  

1. Scavenger hunt: My PE group had to do a lesson for the whole group as our assignment, and we decided to do a scavenger hunt around the neighbourhood. We weren’t always able to know if the group did complete the task. Therefore, we asked that each group take a selfie in front of the object and bring it back to show the leaders.  

2. Photo Essays could be used to compare photos from the past to current events. This offers a different prompt for students to write about and the chance to put some creativity into their essays. 

Feature Image: Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash