[This post has been a collection of thoughts and reflections over the past three days (2-4) at Rock Point. As a writer, I realize the length of the post, but I hoped to give the most perspective on the my teaching experiences without breaking up the posts.]
I fought hard today against a group of students who seemed to be unresponsive. But, one story struck a chord with them that prompted their interest.
On the fist day (Day 1) in the journalism classes, I was offered the opportunity to present a lesson about my experiences as a photojournalist. The journalism teacher here wanted me to show some of my work and talk about the trade (or, in my case, the hobby).
The first journ class of the day (Class one) did not meet yesterday because of a need for homeroom meetings to get new schedules out. I got only ten minutes to present the small, outdated portfolio that I actually have online. I felt very awkward talking about my work, especially knowing that pride in one's accomplishments in this culture is generally looked down upon. This was not what I wanted to teach... that is, I did not want to teach about myself. But, on day three here I was finally able to present to them the short lesson I had prepared.
[Check out the lesson plan I developed and then download the photojournalism powerpoint that I prepared.]
Class B (day 2):
I had prepared a full lesson for the two afternoon classes who met in-class yesterday and who already knew who I was and what I was doing in their classroom. I put together a PowerPoint that hit the essentials of being a photojournalist. I collected some links of photographers' projects that I thought I could really talk about, because I had either worked with the photographer personally, followed the story with them 'behind-the-scenes' as the project developed or I had thought had a really important national impact. My plan was to give an overview and ask the students to discuss what they saw, what can they tell about the story with just a picture, etc.
Turned out (as I had seen in other classes), the kids were not vocal with their thoughts. I shifted gears quickly, having them write their reflections down on paper. For the mainstay of the period, I had chosen a very emotional story published by the LA Times, called, "Marlboro Marine". (If you have not ever watched the story, I highly suggest it.) In the middle of my introduction to the story, I realized that I should ask the students to do something that they were already comfortable the day before. So, I asked them to write downt four adjectives that would describe the Marine pictured on the title slide. We watched half, and then I asked them to cross off the words that did not seem to fit this one, specific Marine. Everyone had a word to change that described him. I felt further rewarded when I had them write about whether the story was important and who should be seeing it.
Class C (day 2):
I fought hard today against a group of students who seemed to be unresponsive. But, one story struck a chord with them that prompted their interest.
On the fist day (Day 1) in the journalism classes, I was offered the opportunity to present a lesson about my experiences as a photojournalist. The journalism teacher here wanted me to show some of my work and talk about the trade (or, in my case, the hobby).
The first journ class of the day (Class one) did not meet yesterday because of a need for homeroom meetings to get new schedules out. I got only ten minutes to present the small, outdated portfolio that I actually have online. I felt very awkward talking about my work, especially knowing that pride in one's accomplishments in this culture is generally looked down upon. This was not what I wanted to teach... that is, I did not want to teach about myself. But, on day three here I was finally able to present to them the short lesson I had prepared.
[Check out the lesson plan I developed and then download the photojournalism powerpoint that I prepared.]
Class B (day 2):
I had prepared a full lesson for the two afternoon classes who met in-class yesterday and who already knew who I was and what I was doing in their classroom. I put together a PowerPoint that hit the essentials of being a photojournalist. I collected some links of photographers' projects that I thought I could really talk about, because I had either worked with the photographer personally, followed the story with them 'behind-the-scenes' as the project developed or I had thought had a really important national impact. My plan was to give an overview and ask the students to discuss what they saw, what can they tell about the story with just a picture, etc.
Turned out (as I had seen in other classes), the kids were not vocal with their thoughts. I shifted gears quickly, having them write their reflections down on paper. For the mainstay of the period, I had chosen a very emotional story published by the LA Times, called, "Marlboro Marine". (If you have not ever watched the story, I highly suggest it.) In the middle of my introduction to the story, I realized that I should ask the students to do something that they were already comfortable the day before. So, I asked them to write downt four adjectives that would describe the Marine pictured on the title slide. We watched half, and then I asked them to cross off the words that did not seem to fit this one, specific Marine. Everyone had a word to change that described him. I felt further rewarded when I had them write about whether the story was important and who should be seeing it.
Class C (day 2):
You can't always rely on technology. I had flawless internet service in the first session, but then just when we passed the 2-minute mark of the "Marlboro Marine" story, the buffers stopped working. I had a very interested and engaged set of students. Part of their enthusiasm must be their previous experience in having taken the journalism class the previous semester.
Class C (day 3):
The class reassembled the next day and I pulled the Marlboro Marine story from another website - Mediastorm.com, a well-recognized website which collects multimedia stories from photojournalists - where the buffer seemed to work better.
While the presentation loaded, we checked out some photos that I took from the Rock Point basketball game the night before. The kids got a kick out of seeing their friends in some freeze-frame action. I later used this enthusiasm to drive a writing assignment (on day 4 for all the classes), asking them to write a summary paragraph of the game.
Class A (day 3):
The class I missed on the first day gave me another chance to present to them other people's work that I have been following. Now, without the projector equipment that I used the previous day, we had to crowd around my laptop. At first, I did not really think that I could pull off the talk I had planned, nor could I actually show them the photo stories in a format that they could all see...
I was taken aback, however, when I had most of the class engaged. Perhaps the proximity created a more personal atmosphere or maybe they knew where I was coming from, having already heard about my work. The first set of students might have even been disengaged because I fell into the PowerPoint drone-lecture mode, and this closer atmosphere put them more on the spot. Anyway, I had the students talking about the photos! And not only that, but they were also very quick to pick up their paper and pencils and start responding to the writing prompts I gave them. This was a class that had no background in journalism and really had no reason to come to the second day of class with high interest and ready to participate. I was really blown away. Some tech worked to help (thank you Mac screen zooming). Other tech failed, leaving me to yet again search for another way to show the "Marlboro Marine" story.
Another bit that comes to mind that may have made the experience a little more wholesome for the kids was humor. I brought my SLR camera in and talked to them about how uncomfortable you can make people with cameras that size. In order to describe the power of photos, I made up a little anecdote about either a city mayor (or, in their community, the chapter president) maybe falling asleep during a meeting. The photo can show you more than the story can: maybe the person is drooling, sleeps with his mouth open or otherwise making a funny face while sleeping -- the scene can be better set by seeing even some of the other officials trying to go about the meeting while he is snoozing. Some of the kids started looking up to take a chuckle at that, and I think it was then that I had pulled them into the lesson. So, my lesson for today: anecdotes for icebreakers or even context-builders.
Class C (day 3):
The class reassembled the next day and I pulled the Marlboro Marine story from another website - Mediastorm.com, a well-recognized website which collects multimedia stories from photojournalists - where the buffer seemed to work better.
While the presentation loaded, we checked out some photos that I took from the Rock Point basketball game the night before. The kids got a kick out of seeing their friends in some freeze-frame action. I later used this enthusiasm to drive a writing assignment (on day 4 for all the classes), asking them to write a summary paragraph of the game.
Class A (day 3):
The class I missed on the first day gave me another chance to present to them other people's work that I have been following. Now, without the projector equipment that I used the previous day, we had to crowd around my laptop. At first, I did not really think that I could pull off the talk I had planned, nor could I actually show them the photo stories in a format that they could all see...
I was taken aback, however, when I had most of the class engaged. Perhaps the proximity created a more personal atmosphere or maybe they knew where I was coming from, having already heard about my work. The first set of students might have even been disengaged because I fell into the PowerPoint drone-lecture mode, and this closer atmosphere put them more on the spot. Anyway, I had the students talking about the photos! And not only that, but they were also very quick to pick up their paper and pencils and start responding to the writing prompts I gave them. This was a class that had no background in journalism and really had no reason to come to the second day of class with high interest and ready to participate. I was really blown away. Some tech worked to help (thank you Mac screen zooming). Other tech failed, leaving me to yet again search for another way to show the "Marlboro Marine" story.
Another bit that comes to mind that may have made the experience a little more wholesome for the kids was humor. I brought my SLR camera in and talked to them about how uncomfortable you can make people with cameras that size. In order to describe the power of photos, I made up a little anecdote about either a city mayor (or, in their community, the chapter president) maybe falling asleep during a meeting. The photo can show you more than the story can: maybe the person is drooling, sleeps with his mouth open or otherwise making a funny face while sleeping -- the scene can be better set by seeing even some of the other officials trying to go about the meeting while he is snoozing. Some of the kids started looking up to take a chuckle at that, and I think it was then that I had pulled them into the lesson. So, my lesson for today: anecdotes for icebreakers or even context-builders.
Class A (day 4)
Since this was specifically a broadcast class, I pulled some instances of broadcast writing fitting into an audio slideshow from the DailyIllini website. The DI pulled this off pretty well for a couple football games, and again I used the multimedia presentation to teach -- using the story format to help illustrate how to write a sports story.
Collected responses:
After watching the full presentation of the "Marlboro Marine", I asked the groups to write about whether or not they thought this was an important story and why. Their responses/reflections showed a couple sparks of interest in the story. Summaries of the writing follow:
- They thought the story really dove "deep into the mind of a veteran" who could not find a solution to to the feelings he had for killing.
- America needs to know what happens to people who return from war and that many of our veterans are still fighting for us long after their duty has been served.
- One student revealed that he/she planned to follow his/her family's footsteps of enlisting in the armed forces and that knowing what could happen in war to him/her or his/her family was important.
Reflection
I was worried about was putting the kids on the track of believing that the marine's story was reflective of all people who served our armed services. I realized after the first day that I needed to add a disclaimer to viewing human interest pieces, because, like anything, you cannot assume that one person's story reflects on everyone's experience. Judgment can be passed very easily by associating a story with someone's look (or even vice-versa). I stressed the point the next day that he was only one soldier, with one story and that not everyone dealt with such troubles. Otherwise, I liked teaching the three classes about photojournalism and more specifically, multimedia journalism. I found myself really excited about collecting the directed responses to the "Marlboro Marine" presentation. As always, I love reading student writing.
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