Summer Learning
Here are some excerpts from a great book I’m reading; “Be patient with yourself…carefully plan your day…You have to be “on” for anything that comes your way. You have to work long hours, often feeling completely exhausted at the end of the day….You have to be extremely organized, and have lots of initiative and an interest in creativity…Being detail-oriented, flexible, and able to envision how something should be…good people skills…Don’t rely on luck or chance.”
Then recently as I took a leisurely walk along the barge canal to take photos of the flowers and birds these thoughts kept drifting through my mind: be prepared, be ready for the unexpected, approach things from a different perspective, be patient, observe carefully, and take chances.
You might think I’m reading a book preparing me for teaching. But no, one of my summer goals is to learn more about photography, I’m reading Digital Nature Photography. It struck me that as I’m learning tips for photography these same tips can be applied in the classroom. I guess that’s part of being a teacher; always seeing those connections between new learning and what you already know.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t very prepared on my walk; I forgot the mono-pod on the table, I wasn’t prepared for the unexpected; early morning clouds quickly changed to a sunny day-I didn’t have filters, and I didn’t think of bug spray, so every time I stopped in the shade I became lunch for many hungry mosquitoes. Because of my unpreparedness and playing with different camera settings I only have a few pictures to actually upload to Flickr. But that’s ok. As I tell my students no one is perfect and we can always learn from our mistakes. And just as every photo shoot won’t be perfect every lesson I teach won’t be perfect either. But if I head the advice given above in both situations and continue to learn from the mistakes I’ll continue to do better in both areas.
Book excerpts are from:
Miotke, Jim. The BetterPhoto Guide to Digital Nature Photography (Better Photo Guide to). london: Amphoto Books, 2006. 
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: Digital Nature Photography, flickr
Relaxed and tranquil! I think you’re doing exactly what every teacher should do during vacation – immersing yourself in a creative hobby that takes you completely out of the classroom and refreshes your senses. I like your thoughts: “be prepared, be ready for the unexpected, approach things from a different perspective, be patient, observe carefully, and take chances.” Wonderful advice that I need to take! Thanks for the peaceful pix and thoughts.
I’m glad you enjoyed the pictures. I love taking them. I think photography is a great way for me to work on patience, something that at times seems to get shorter the older I get. Even though I seem to be spending a lot of time on line and thinking about the new school year I am trying hard to balance it with me time and family time so I’ll be recharged and ready to go in September.
I belong to a group “Photo Fridays” started by Bonnie Kaplan (@blkdrama). You might want to join and share photos there on Flickr. http://www.flickr.com/groups/photofridays/
Ann,
Thank you for the suggestion. I signed up today. Then I got motivated and joined to get a pro account since I was out of space. Then I added more sets and cleaned things up a bit. Of course none of that was on my lengthy to do list today!