Photoblitz

Start Time: 10:01

Photo #1: A Photo that Expresses Human Emotion: The pictures in the frame on my bedroom wall.

 

 

 



Photo #2: A Photo of Two Things That Do Not Belong Together: Books and shoeboxes and a bookshelf in a closet (aka me making use of what I have until I can get my own Beauty-and-the-Beast-esque library).

 

 

Photo #3: A Photo that Represents the Idea of Openness: An open book because I decided to be kind of literal and because who doesn't love Ellen Degeneres.

 

 

Photo #4: A Photo of someone else's hand or paw: This is George the monkey. I made him on a band trip to Pennsylvania at Boyd's Bear Factory, which is basically a Build-A-Bear Workshop. And instead of filling them with stuffing, they're filled with little beans that are different colors and represent different things. I'm pretty sure George is filled with laughter, happiness and other cheesy but pleasant things.

 

 

Photo #5: A Photo of an Interesting Shadow: The shadow of a wooden star hanging from the ceiling. This was actually a Christmas present from one of my friends, whose aunt makes these. I've actually always loved that it made a shadow on the wall, so it was pretty exciting to photograph it for an assignment.

 



 

End Time: 10:21



 

 

I really liked doing the photoblitz assignment, mainly because I really like taking pictures. I also found myself having fun with it and trying to be as creative as possible while also trying to take as many pictures as possible in 20 minutes, which felt more like 20 seconds. It went by entirely too quickly, but the time limit did make it fun. Sometimes when I take pictures of things, I'll delete and retake them a million times if they don't come out how I want them, but I really couldn't with this assignment. Whenever I found myseslf doing that, I'd remind myself how much time I had left and move on. It actually forced me not to analyze everything or take it too seriously and to just have fun.

I chose to complete the assignment solely in my bedroom which I figured would be challenging because it's just one room, but I actually found a lot of things that fit what I was looking for. It also forced me to be creative and use what I had to interpret the photo criteria in a different way. For example, I knew I could have opened my window and taken a picture of my front yard to represent "openness", but my room faces the street/neighborhood/front yard which didn't seem as open to me as my backyard. So I grabbed a book and opened that instead.

 

I loved how this assignment got me to notice things in my own bedroom in a different way and it also gets me thinking about what it would get me to notice about other places that are either familiar or unfamiliar.

 





I-Search Topic Options

Topic #1: How can I get students to view writing as something fun, interesting and enjoyable, as opposed to a chore, assignment, or something they have to do because the teacher is "making them"?
              There are a few ideas I have in mind already to answer this question, but maybe I could go into finding out a few more techniques and figuring out if they've been effective in classrooms, and also exactly how they've been effective. This topic is important to me and it's something I'm interested in looking into because as someone who does enjoy writing, I would love to be able to show others just how fun--and even relaxing--it can be.

Topic #2: What would be the most interesting, creative and effective ways to get students involved/give them experience with a variety of different kinds of writing, especially if a specific style isn't their forte?
                 There are some students who love to write poetry, but hate writing narritives. Some students are very descriptive, but do not feel comfortable writing dialogue. It would be interesting to come up with creative ways to effectively build their experience with many different writing genres, styles and techniques. This way the students who already feel confident can improve, while the kids who are less confident gain more experience and learn that they actually can write whatever genre or style they want and that it's actually enjoyable as well.