This year-long photography project we\u2019re doing in Chicago is progressing very well.<\/p>\n
Having spent a few weeks in Chicago teaching the 8th grade outside in tents (mid-September\/early October), once the weather got cold and after I returned to Philadelphia, my teaching turned virtual. Every Friday, I zoomed with all three sections of the eighth grade, and their History and Art teachers.<\/p>\n
Virtually, the students learned how to conduct an interview (to prepare them for the interviews they will soon be doing with survivors and\/or survivors\u2019 relatives). Thanks to the exaggerated interview demonstrations by History teacher (Dr. Jeff Ellison) and me, the students learned the difference between what a good and bad interview looks like. In addition, (and thanks to Jeff\u2019s great sense of humor), we had lots of fun and giggles, while learning techniques of good interview protocol.<\/p>\n
Then, before taking photos of their own for their digital exhibition that will be premiered in May, the art teacher (Gili Sherman) and I taught the students the history of photography, how to \u2018read\u2019 a photograph and ultimately how to take a good photograph. They are also learning how to analyze clues in old photos that help to discover \u2018story beneath the story\u2019\u2014or at least, to speculate what it might be.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been a remarkable and exciting year-long project to do at ANY time \u2014but especially, and even more so, during this time of corona and the pandemic.<\/p>\n