This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because
it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.
The students will be learning the art of photojournalism this year. It's a class that TJ hasn't had in its history. We desperately need more cameras. The class will start with the basics of photography and evolve into telling stories through their lenses.
Student photographs will definitely be used in our school newspaper called, "The Reveille" and our yearbook "The Document" that has been successfully revived and revamped this year! Amazing photographs will also be entered into various competitions and shows via the art department throughout the year. As always, we will showcase copies of the artwork in our hallways for other students and faculty to enjoy.
At this present time, we have 3 cameras; 2 that we have bought with our small budget this year (from yearbook sales last year), and 1 (my personal camera), that I myself have been allowing my students to use. It's not an ideal situation considering the new upcoming class. We desperately need more DSLR's at our disposal. It would be so amazing if we could have a total of 15 cameras (13 more). It seems like a lot, but that would allow me to assign multiple students to one camera (have partners).
This is not simply a class about photojournalism. It is a class about journalism, photography elements, visually telling a story, computers, and software. We will start the semester with the process of photography – apertures, shutter speeds, ISOs, white balance, focus, depth of field, captioning, workflow, multimedia production, archiving, and image correction with Photoshop.
Next, we will move into the aesthetics of visual imagery – composition, light, form, shape, color, and impact.
Lastly, we will cover the practice of storytelling – content selection, visual variety, etc.
In Their Own Words
EVERY student should have access to a camera (at least in pairs) in order to learn the fundamentals of good photography and photojournalism. We have never had a class like this before. It would expand our arts program, and we would acquire some amazing artistic skills in the process. Please help us expand this program!
We will be in charge of our own hands-on learning. We will take what we learn and apply it. Our hard work will be published in our newspaper, yearbook, and entered into various DFW shows or galleries. If we won awards at shows or even sold our work in galleries, we would be setting a precedent in this school and our community. This could also mean scholarship opportunities.
The key problem we are running into is the lack of available cameras. With more cameras, we will have a better learning environment (everyone will have hands-on access) which means better learning opportunities. This is something that has never been done at TJ before. It would expand our arts department and allow for more creation here at our campus!
DonorsChoose is the most trusted classroom funding site for teachers.
As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Ms. Melvin and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
