Summer Learning about Digital Photography
Dawn teaches in the BELL Summer program at Bridges Academy, San Jose, CA. In the morning, along with a teaching assistant, she leads English language arts instruction and activities. In the afternoon, she teaches her passion: photography. This summer marked her first experience as a teacher and enrichment teacher in the program.
“The opportunity to teach in a small-group environment, and also to engage scholars in photography, represented an ideal opportunity to re-energize teaching,” explains Dawn. “I can have a great impact during the summer. “
She found that photography helped drive better engagement in academic activities, too. For writing activities, scholars were eager to put pen to paper about their experiences in the photography class.
Over the course of five weeks, Dawn introduced scholars to the camera’s basic functionality, covering the lens, aperture, and film speed. She taught scholars about depth of field. She taught scholars how lighting effects the subject and about what lighting and angles are best for taking photos of people. After portraiture, we dabbled in candids for a bit, which led right into taking action photos of other scholars in Tae Kwan Do and drama classes.
“Scholars asked a lot of questions about what it’s like to be a professional photographer,” notes Dawn. “We talked a lot about what it’s like to have clients, and to take photos of subjects you might not love.”