Category: Learning to Teach

Dew Drops

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I posted a few days ago four images, shot with two different cameras, of essentially the same subject. Had another pair (below), which had me a little worried – was I really only seeing the exact same things every day? Is that why I did this, as well?

When I was shooting, I tried to take a different route to work every day. When I was going someplace I had been before, unless I was pressed for time (not like that ever happens at a newspaper) I tried to find a different path. It was my way of seeing more of my community and, uh, maybe padding the mileage a little.

But, really, it was to help me see. I’d occasionally find something along the new route that would lead me to a story or photo that we wouldn’t have gotten if I hadn’t gone the long way.

I need to get back to that.

Canon EOS Digital Rebel, Tamron 28-75 mm f/2.8, ISO 400, 1/200, f/4.5

Canon EOS Digital Rebel, Tamron 28-75 mm f/2.8, ISO 400, 1/200, f/4.5

Canon EOS Digital Rebel XSi, Tamron 28-75 mm f/2.8, ISO 400, 1/250, f/5.6

Canon EOS Digital Rebel XSi, Tamron 28-75 mm f/2.8, ISO 400, 1/250, f/5.6

Maybe it’s the size of the dew drops, but I think the older camera made a nicer file here.

End of the Slack

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I know, I know … but, you see, classes started … and then the committee meetings started … and then the disease epidemic at home started … and, really, I have been making frames. They just haven’t made it through the FireWire or USB connections.

Until now … so, um, here’s sort of what my life has felt like for the last few weeks.

I redid the syllabus for my intro course and am teaching a new course that’s half photo/half design, but the first two weeks overlap a bit. So they both got a new assignment – Nouns and Verbs. And since one class is using a new camera that I haven’t shot with, I decided I should shoot this assignment. Twice. Similar subject, two different cameras, same lens model (one brand new, one five years old), 24 hours apart. Color saturation in the newer camera is pretty intense, but I think the auto white balance was playing games … should really shoot them in raw and process equally, see what happens.

Anyway – twisted chain link with a railroad backdrop for you …

Canon Digital Rebel, Tamron 28-75 mm f/2.8, ISO 400, 1/640, f/2.8

Canon EOS Digital Rebel, Tamron 28-75 mm f/2.8, ISO 400, 1/640, f/2.8

Canon Digital Rebel, Tamron 28-75 mm f/2.8, ISO 400, 1/320, f/4.0

Canon EOS Digital Rebel, Tamron 28-75 mm f/2.8, ISO 400, 1/320, f/4.0

Canon EOS Digital Rebel XSi, Tamron 28-75 mm f/2.8, ISO 400, 1/60, f/8.0

Canon EOS Digital Rebel XSi, Tamron 28-75 mm f/2.8, ISO 400, 1/60, f/8.0

Canon EOS Digital Rebel XSi, Tamron 28-75 mm f/2.8, ISO 400, 1/60, f/8.0

Canon EOS Digital Rebel XSi, Tamron 28-75 mm f/2.8, ISO 400, 1/60, f/8.0

And, I have to say … that bokeh, for an inexpensive lens, ain’t that bad.

New American Media EXPO

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(This post has not much value unless you were there … just saying.)

On Friday afternoon I spoke to a room full of journalists from all types of media and from across the country about multimedia storytelling on the cheap. Several folks asked for a link to the presentation itself, which is now available.

Several others asked for a list of the recommended hardware and software, so that’s up now, as well.

I mentioned some of the storytelling my students have been doing, so here’s a couple of things to check out:

  • The Grady Journal – This is an online news site we created for our students this past year. Content comes from two places – class projects and an independent group of students who meet every Wednesday morning to plan coverage. (Go to the staff page and you can see who they are.)
  • Giving Voice to Us – This was a joint project between my class and a social work class looking at life inside public housing in Clarke County, which has the highest poverty rate in the state of Georgia and is also home to the University of Georgia.
  • A Day at UGA – Another collaborative project, this has 24 multimedia stories produced by my class.
  • Rural Health Care – This was a project with Prof. Patricia Thomas’ class looking at rural health care issues in north Georgia. 

(Those last three, by the way – all the photos, videos and audio slide shows were produced by the same 16 students. I kept them kind of busy …)

More on Grades, But, Really, Learning

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I wrote the other day about grades and grading and how I hate them. Then I came across this post by Marilla Svinicki that talks about orientation of goals – how there are various ways of approaching learning from both the teaching side and the learning side. 

No question I teach in the mastery/learning orientation and, I hope, after a few weeks in my class the students move away from the traditional performance approach. I’m a week away from the first actual “grades” going out in the intro class, the email responses will tell me who’s on my page and who’s on their own.

Do You Earn a Grade or Receive a Grade?

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We had one of those conversations in class yesterday, the kind I just abhor. It was about grades … the intro students don’t know how much I hate grades, or how much I hate students who ask about grades. I did not go into academia to grade people, I went in to teach them. 

Granted, I have to grade as part of my job but I minimize it as much as possible. My students have a nearly limitless redo policy – so long as they make deadline, they can redo almost every assignment for a different grade. There’s no curve – if everyone masters the material, they all get an A. 

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To Teach or Not to Teach

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Since I made the conversion from do-er to teacher a few years ago, I get a lot of people telling me that they would love to teach. Whether it’s a desire to give back, to help the next generation or a desire to get out of the newspaper industry, they all seem to believe the teaching life is a relaxed way to pursue their passion.

It is not. 

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