Now that the quarter is underway, I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself as your teenager’s DIgital Photography teacher. I have worked with middle school students for 25 years in both English\Language Arts, technology integration, and Journalism writing, design, and photography. Aside from working actively as a journalism instructor locally and statewide, I have also worked with the National Scholastic Press Association (NSPA), the Columbia Scholastic Press Association (CSPA), Jostens yearbooks and Adobe in jurying student competitions and critiquing student publications at the National level. Through the years, photography has been a personal outlet for creativity and a steady source of personal income. I have worked in the field as a professional portrait photographer with the occasional wedding or senior portrait sets and as a travel blogger. Photography is many things to many people; I am hoping to arm your teen with a skillset they can translate into any aspect of their personal and/or professional lives.
Class Overview
KMS Digital Essentials is a 8 week course meant as an introduction to photographic basics of composition (rule-of-thirds and point-of-view), lighting, camera basics, and some photo-editing. As a CTE (Career and Technical Education) course we have also added a professional element that introduces student photographers to career opportunities that are reflected in Leadership points. The class grade breakdown reflects three main areas:
Expectation
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scoring
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Resources
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Work Folder
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30%
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Portfolio
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60%
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Turned in the last week of class
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Leadership project(s)
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10%
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In-class project board, individual
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Work Folder: Each Tuesday students start a new assignment. Assignments are posted digitally on the site and are also available in hard copies for students to pick-up in class. We usually look through professional examples of the week’s challenge and then go out together to experiment with our own cameras. Wednesdays are reserved as lab days to upload images and to sort through first round of images. Thursdays are often spent reshooting in small teams or with me so I can touch-base with individual photographers. Fridays we work in the lab reviewing each other’s work and commenting online as we look through individual sets for the week. Grade sheets for the week will be finalized and turned in ready for me to check.* Each student nominates one image from each set for the weekly competition. Mondays we discuss images from the prior week (reteaching concepts and reinforcing what we’ve discovered) before moving on to the new challenge the next day.
Portfolio: Students will choose their best image from each series to move into their online portfolio. They will use the checklist provided to finalize their portfolio during the last week of class. Any rescoring of portfolios past the end of the quarter will be handled on an individual basis and is up to the Instructor's discretion.
Leadership Points: Opportunities to extend learning through professional opportunities in both Arts & Visual Communications and Informational Technology are available. See list posted in class for opportunities.
* Students are always encouraged to reshoot or reorganize their working folders and portfolios. If they need a set rescored, they should send a Gmail with a link to the set and drop their grade sheet into the class dropbox.
Privacy
In order to keep student privacy in place, they set permissions for their own work folders and portfolios using Google Picasa. Ask them to add your email to their permissions if you would like to share in their collaboration. Your positive comments can be a valuable part of their process. Please contact me if you need help setting these individual folder permissions.
All other student work is shared through the use of Gmail and closed Google Groups. Students learn collaborative technology skills as a CTE component to this course.
End Notes and Links
Results of weekly contests are Tweeted out (first names only) on Friday nights and are posted in the main KMS Gallery (outside the Tech Dojo). Individual certificates are also sent home with weekly finalists. If you are Twitter friendly, I would love to increase our circulation and retweets are welcome! Follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/KMSyearbook or #KMSWolves #KomachinMiddleSchool #Verkana #YearbookLove
I look forward to sharing in your teens exploration of photography. Please feel free to contact me through Gmail or drop by the Tech Dojo if you are joining us as a WATCH Dog or DEN Mom.
Class information can also be found for parents on my NTPS site: http://www.nthurston.k12.wa.us/kreece or
Digital Essentials site http://digitalreece.blogspot.com/
- Kate
Kate Reece
Instructional Technologies
Komachin Middle School
KMS: 360.412.4740, ext 405
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