Digital Photography Workshop

Lesson Plan Examples (used with real school students)

Assign students an introduction poem.  This poem is 8 lines long.  Each sentence is about the student, but 4 of the statements are true and 4 are false.  They should mix them up well and choose plausible “lies” to try and fool their audience about what is true and what is false.  Then, after the poems are written, allow the students to use word processors to type their poems.  Take pictures of each student with the digital camera and load their picture at the top of the poem.  Print out poem to give to student or collect them to make a class anthology.  My 10th grade students loved this activity.

2. Beginner’s Virtual Field Trip
Subject area:  All   Length of time:  1 day (on a field trip)

Use the digital camera to take pictures of your students on a field trip.  Then when they return to school, give them the picture disk and let them create a PowerPoint presentation that becomes a virtual field trip to share with others.  It would make the presentation better if the students know ahead of time they will be making a virtual field trip later so they can plan their photos.  I have done this with Latin students that collected digital photos of examples of Roman and Greek architecture from the University of Alabama.

3. Class Web Page
 Subject area: All   Length of time:  3 blocks

Use the digital camera to take pictures of your students doing their classwork—studying, writing on the board, working in small groups, doing experiments, doing skits, etc.  Then, create a class web page with pictures in Netscape Composer or MS FrontPage to let others in the school and community know what your class is doing.  This is a great idea if you are doing a volunteer project or other long-term project where students produce something.  Be sure to get permission from the students to load their pictures to the Internet.

4. Class PowerPoint
 Subject area: All   Length of time:  3 blocks

Use the digital camera to take pictures of your students doing their class work—studying, writing on the board, working in small groups, doing experiments, doing skits, etc.  Then, create a class PowerPoint presentation with to show at PTA or other school event to let people in the school and community know what your class is doing.  You can also use a PowerPoint like this to promote programs in your school like athletics, clubs, or events.

5. Student of the Week or Month Awards
 Subject area:   All   Length of time:  10-15 minutes each week or month

Take digital pictures of your Students of the Week or Month.  Print them out on a color printer.  Post them to a bulletin board outside your room.  This is a great way to reward high school students for being good citizens or improving on a test.

6. Zoo Mania
 Subject area:  Science   Length of time:  2 blocks

Teacher preparation:  Go to the zoo, take pictures of animals, hand out the pictures (One species to a floppy disk), put on the disk some web addresses for the species, ask the
students to surf the sites and look for:
1) more pictures of the species
2) background information on the species
Then have the kids put together a PowerPoint presentation on the animal. This would work for lower level life science and biology/zoology classes.  

1. Using the Digital Camera in the Classroom
 http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Olympus/7123/camera.html
It has many great ideas plus easy to follow directions for using digital cameras.

2. Ideas and Examples from Ron Kubota
http://www.k12.hi.us/~rkubota/digiphoto/ideas.html
This site has great examples of a how to project, a virtual field trip, and a study trip.

3. 1001 Uses for a Digital Camera
 http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~ucfcasio/qvuses.htm
This site has lesson organized into areas like school wide projects, English, math, foreign language, social studies, science, and art.

4. Why should I use digital photography in the classroom?
 http://www.forsyth.k12.ga.us/sbeck/digital/goingdigital.htm
 This site has a list of curriculum activities that use a digital camera. 

5. Digital Photography in Action
http://www.lauriefowler.com/digphotoaction.html
A lesson that uses digital cameras to teach prepositions.

Dear Parents,
[Insert name of school here] is on the Internet at:
[Insert URL of school home page here]
We have a home page on the World Wide Web. The purpose of this home page is to inform people about our school and to share work created by students and staff.
Your child's teacher is considering putting student photos, writing or art work on our school home page. Because this document can be seen by people all over the world, there is a separate permission form. For security reasons, only first names will be used and students’ faces will not be shown. Please sign and return the slip below.
If you have any questions, please contact your child's teacher of [Inset name] at [Insert school].
Thank you.
Signed by Principal and teacher.
 
 

SAMPLE Internet Web Page Permission Slip

I give my permission for my child's:
photo ____
writing ____
art work ____
to be included on the home page for [Name of school inserted here]. I understand that this document is located on the World Wide Web (WWW) and can be seen throughout the world by people with access to the WWW through the Internet. For security reasons, only my child's first name will be used and his/her face will not be shown.
Student name ________________________________
Teacher ________________________
Parent Signature _____________________________
Date ______________________________________