Easy Classroom Activites Article

I found this article on Education World (which is a fantastic resource if you are not familiar with it...it has a whole section on technology integration). It's called Smile! Digital Cameras Can Make Your Day. In the article the writer talks to classroom teachers who share ideas and tips on using digital cameras in the classroom. Here are the highlights:

• Teach students how to handle the camera to prevent damage
• Teach students basic photography principles (like how to choose good shots)
• Discuss privacy issues/review your school's policy on photographing/publishing students and their work
• Read your camera's manual and don't be afraid to try things out (like all those cool buttons!).

Starr also gave the following eight ideas on how to use the camera in the classroom:

• Snap pictures of body parts and allow students to make puzzles with them.
• Photograph important places in the school, such as the main office, nurse's office, and media center, and display the photos to help students visually identify key places in the school.
• Photograph parts of the daily routine and using them for sequencing activities.
• Photograph objects that are the same color.
• Take pictures of students and let them make trading cards with facts about themselves. Print the pictures and let students write basic favorites or facts. This is a good activity for the beginning of the year when they're getting to know one another.
• Take pictures to represent nouns, or of students in action to show verbs.
• Take pictures related to whatever topic you're studying. Display the pictures and have students write journal articles or short stories about them. The pictures provide a good visual prompt for creative writing.
• If you really want to be creative, let students save pictures of their favorite cartoon characters. Have them take pictures of their own faces. Then, using a graphics-editing program, let students brush out the character's face and insert their own.

Apparently I wasn't the only one who thought of photographing important places at your school! I have also done a sequencing activity using photographs. My students were having trouble when asked to do a writing prompt where they had to give directions or tell how to do something, so we did this activity as a class "model" lesson. I photographed the steps of popping popcorn (I did that step ahead of time, but I really popped it in front of them, too) and put the photos out out of order in a slide show (also done ahead of time). The students then had to correct the order on the first slide. Then we put each photo on its own slide. Then I called on students to tell me a sentence describing what was happening in each photograph. It really helped them to learn about writing directions and logical sequencing.

I hope these suggestions help! Happy Snapping! ~Sabrina :o)

Starr, Linda. (2004). Smile! Digital Cameras Can Make Your Day. Education World. Retrieved March 18, 2008, from http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech147.shtml