Photography Club

As you may remember, I received a Lilly Endowment Teacher Creativity Grant last year to study photography and go to Cambodia to capture a story through photos.  I had a wonderful experience in Cambodia, capturing pieces of its history and projects of hope for its future (scroll through these posts to see more)!  As a result of my experience there, where I had my own chance to view the world from a different perspective, I wanted to start a photography club at the school where I teach.  With the help of a fellow teacher and friend, Mrs. Tsu, we worked with a group of ten fifth and sixth grade ESL students to help them view the world differently through photography.

We were really thankful to all the people who contributed cameras, batteries, and memory cards to help supply our crew.  We had a great time getting to know these kids from the U.S., Burma, Mexico, and Iran.  We challenged them to look around their school and home for things that represented beautiful, ugly, shapes, shadows, reflections, candids, and portraits.  It was really fun that I was able to use some of my photos and stories from my experience in Cambodia to guide their photography.  At the end-of-the-school-year program, Mrs. Tsu put together a great slideshow of pictures the students took, as well as some of them in action as photographers.  The students also chose their favorite photo to have framed and displayed at the program.  Below are some highlights from our club and display.

It was really fun to share some of my photos from my trip to Cambodia with the students to help guide their photo-taking.

It was great to share some of my Cambodia photos with the students!

Here is part of the display of students’ (plus a couple from my trip) photos at the school program.

Here is part of the display of students’ (plus a couple from my trip) photos at the school program.

Some of our photography club students enjoying the slideshow of their photos.

They had a great time showing their photos to family and friends after the program!