Photos in the Classroom

I could effectively use photo sharing in my classroom as a version of who’s who in theatre, film and television. I find that I make reference to many people that my students are unfamiliar with. I could add to my class wiki visual images of all of these individuals. I could also project pictures of them during class lectures and discussions. I think it would help us build a lexicon of familiar artists to refer to when discussing plays, television shows or films. One of the learning paths in theatre is learning who has done what with whom and when.

I also think that visual images could be very powerful to illustrate metaphors in poetry. Some times the levels of comparison can be hard to absorb with just language, but a series of images might be more memorable. We are always using the cliché “a picture is worth a thousand words”. Now perhaps it is time to show those pictures as compared to the words.

I could also see assigning students to create a slide show of photos to go along with a Shakespeare scene or speech. Again this would be a way to bring the arcane language to light. And it would also reveal different interpretations of the same material. As the students worked on finding the images the words would become more familiar and personal. It would also be a way to show parents what students are studying in an interesting, visual method.