My Journey into the World of Elementary Tech » flickr

A Picture a Day

Nedra Isenberg — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 03:48:51 +0000

Last year I joined Flickr and I saw Tweets about people joining a 365 photo group. I looked at it briefly but quickly decided there was no way I’d ever keep up and forgot about it. Later in the year I joined Photo Friday at the suggestion of Ann Oro. This was a manageable project-one photo a week. It has become a habit and I enjoy looking at and commenting on the variety of photos. So this year as I began hearing about the various 365 groups I took another look. I’ve been doing more photography and decided this year I was ready to give it a try. First I joined 366-1 which is a large group. Then I heard about EdTech 365/2009 which is a smaller group and many of my online friends belong to it so I joined that one as well. Then another once a week group started up on my PLN-Foto52 so I joined that as well. Belonging to so many groups isn’t that big of deal. I’ve been posting the same picture to the daily groups and then picking a favorite to add to the weekly groups. Sometimes it’s one I’ve already posted and sometimes it’s something different.

I’m beginning to hate leaving home without my camera. I notice so many more great photo opporturnities since beginning the daily project. I really think it is helping me to be more aware of my surroundings. I have a particular interest in nature photography with a focus on macro. I’m putting my photo right into my Photo Journey blog as well. It is so easy to do from Flickr that it seemed silly not to do it. So the project is getting me to write at least a little bit and often a short story each day. For someone who has never been particularly fond of writing that is a good thing!

I take a look at photos as people post links on Plurk and then on the weekends I try to look through the flickr groups as well and leave comments. It’s really interesting to see the variety of photos and I’m so impressed with the quality. I try to make sure I’m leaving comments because I truly appreciate the comments I receive. The one group I haven’t spent much time on is the 366-1. I finally stopped by today and found out they are having a focus for many of the days such as Macro Monday or Black/White Friday. I’m going back to jot those down and try to start doing those as well. I figure it will be a way to help me grow as a photographer. I’ve started bookmarking some photo sites as well and hope to someday have some time to do some reading.

If you’re interested in photography and haven’t joined a group yet you should give it a try. I think of it as ‘me time’. I’ve made it through the first 24 days without missing a photo. Will I keeep it up for all 365 days? Time will tell but I hope so.

Dr. Suess and Eric Carle Musuems

Nedra Isenberg — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 03:06:44 +0000

Last year I tried putting together a Google Earth presentation on Dr. Seuss for my second graders while they were learning about biographies in class. Trying to learn how to use Google Earth and finding photos for the presentation was a very time consuming task. While I was doing my research I learned about a Dr. Seuss museum in his hometown of Springfield, MA. At that time I made a decision to visit the museum before doing the presentation again. Well, this fall I finally made the trip. I took a friend, a first grade teacher, and off we went to visit both the Dr. Seuss museum as well as the nearby Eric Carle museum. We arrived in Springfield just as the museum was opening. There are actually four different museums all located together. We began in the sculpture garden. The details in the bronze sculptures were amazing. My friend patiently waited while I took over 100 pictures! The morning light on the sculptures surrounded by buildings was not the best but I was content with the fact that we pretty much had the place to ourselves. After that we wandered through the different museums until we finally made it to the Seuss on the Loose exhibit. It was a small but very informative exhibit. A favorite part showed pictures of the Springfield area when Ted was a boy and then showed how something from that photo later showed up in one of his books such as Indian motorcycles or smoke stacks. It was great to see those connections. After leaving the museum we drove by Mulberry Street so I could take a picture of the street sign and then on to Fairfield Street where I not only took a picture of the street sign but of his boyhood home as well. Then a few blocks away was Forest Park where he spent time playing as a boy and his dad worked at the zoo. I hate to say I forgot to swing by the zoo for a picture. After a brief walk through the park we headed up to Amherst to visit the Eric Carle Museum of Children’s Illustrators. This was also a great stop. One room has work done by Eric Carle along with explanations on how he does his work. Another room was artwork done by a large variety of artists and many works included interesting tidbits of information about the artwork or artist. The museum has a wonderful gift shop. Of course it had plenty of Eric Carle books, puzzles, games, posters etc. However, it was also jammed packed with quality children’s literature. I could have spent hours just looking at all the great books. One other interesting part was the art studio. It was a great room full of natural light. Children’s art work lined the walls and even windows. Children and adults were invited to participate in an art project. It was an active place. I would highly recommend a visit to both museums if you ever pass through the Springfield, MA area. Also, I have posted pictures from the trip on Flickr. The pictures are under a creative commons license so feel free to check them out and use them if you can.

Summer Learning

Nedra Isenberg — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 03:30:53 +0000

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.