Thursday, November 13, 2008

Many…..many ideas to use digital cameras in the classroom…

Digital cameras can be used more than one way in classrooms….if you start thinking in some of them….you can count them with the fingers of your hands….but have you considered these ideas?
Usually we have these general ideas to use digital cameras, for: PowerPoint Presentations, Open House, Web pages, Bulletin boards, Journal writing, School Newspapers, Document Classroom Projects, etc.

But to not get students boring we have always to go beyonfd that so here I present you a different kind of interesting activities for kids and teenagers:

Yearbook snapshots:
-
It is really interesting to post pictures around the school of students who receive special awards.
- Photograph examples of superior student projects to give other students ideas.
- To make calendars for the administration and staff.

Student of the Week posters for each class. Post them outside the classroom for all to see.
Take pictures the Set-Up for various projects and use pictures as a review for a quiz, or a quiz itself.

Take pictures of each childs' eyes only. Have children try to match up their classmates by only their eyes. It demonstrates how distinctive and unique we really are. Oral discussion can then follow.

"A Typical Day In The Life Of A Student At ."

- The students kept the camera for a day, take as many pictures as they wanted, and as a group created a booklet of that day.
- You can gain great insight into their thought processes doing a project like this.
- Publish photos for many projects.

And also here are some different ideas for different subjects…

Social Studies

- Take pictures of each student's face and incorporate that image into a computerized "Wanted" poster for the westward movement unit. Kids could add in (via text) the varmint's favorite book, etc. They could also be fancy and add in handlebar mustaches, black hats, etc. to make themselves look more sinister.
- Social studies students can use digital photos to design front covers for their reports. Photo essay projects of the old buildings and historic sights in your town.

Science

- Students can research more about leaves, rocks, or something from your garden. Those who study the ecosystems can use the camera to relate to nature. For example, in the fall, students take pictures to reflect different themes (color in nature, changing seasons, etc).
- Document growth of a classroom plant or pet. Use lab pictures with a question/answer session before the lab featuring the question "What will we do next?"
- Use digital photo for leaf identification and lab equipment identification. Take a picture of each lab group. Then print the pictures onto floppy labels with the names of the students, the period and their group number.

Language Arts

- Journal Writing. Classroom newspapers. Autobiographies. Students can insert photos in a biographical poem. A great way to start off the year and get to know your students.
- Demonstrate vocabulary, emotions, compare/contrast. Use a photo as a prompt for narrative or descriptive writing. Students take pictures of each other and write biographies of their friends

Elementary Ideas

- Have students insert their photo into a paint document and make themselves a character from a book or cartoon. They erase all but their face and paint the rest of the body with appropriate background and props for this person. Kids love this. Take pictures of students in various activities. The students dictate appropriate text for the picture then create books that they can "read".
- Use student pictures as gifts at Christmas, and Mother's day. Pictures made on the 1st day can be given to each student on the last day of school with a letter from you about how much they have grown and how much you enjoyed having them in your class. Make picture frames out of jar tops hot glue magnets to the back for the refrigerator. When you grow plants you can document the growth with snapshots. If you have different races you can do graphs. How many have ___color hair, how many wear glasses etc.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

HI - Interesting ideas, but where is the byline? And the source?