We are fortunate to be in a beautiful, new LEED certified school building, with many cool architectural features. Middle school students love to work in groups, and a way to facilitate that in a structured way, is to send them out to photograph their surrounds in small groups with cameras in hand!
Our students are creative, multicultural, and come from a wide variety of socio-economic backgrounds.
40% of our students qualify for free or reduced lunch. They are typical 12-14 year old kids interested in finding out who they are. At this age they are becoming independent thinkers, and love expressing how they feel through various art forms. Art is the great communicator, crossing all boundaries, and I would be so appreciative of your support.
My Project
I would love to have several digital cameras so my students can work in teams to take photographs of their surroundings, self portraits, and photos of nature (think Andy Goldsworthy). We display art work throughout our building continually, and using a variety of mediums is important. I would like to have students use their photos in many ways -- cutting them up and using them in collage, using a view finder and cropping to the most interesting sections, then transferring that to canvas and paint, focusing on shape, line and value.
Much can be taught about the Elements and Principles of Art using photography in a variety of creative ways.
These are the guidelines for my curriculum: Line, Shape, Color, Texture, Value, Form and Space. These design elements can be found in our environment. Using cameras gets kids up and out of the classroom, helps them communicate visually and express who they are and how they feel, through pictures. Please support this project, and help me buy six digital cameras for my students.
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