I've been asked to teach photography - Help!

[Sushigaijin]

Offer follow-up tutoring for the more interested students. You're not going to get far with an hour lecture. Maybe stick to composition and just tutor the technical stuff.

[mjs1973]

Thanks for the advice Erik. I'm on my way out the door now to go to the school!

[ken1953]

So, Michael...how'd everything go??? Hope you had fun and hope the kids learned a lot!!!!

[mjs1973]

So, Michael...how'd everything go??? Hope you had fun and hope the kids learned a lot!!!!

I think it went really well. The kids and teachers seemed to enjoy it and they had lots of questions. I enjoyed it too.

[Grandpaw]

I think it went really well. The kids and teachers seemed to enjoy it and they had lots of questions. I enjoyed it too.

Congratulations on a job well done, Jeff

[mjs1973]

Thanks Jeff.

One of the teachers did mention having me come back as a mentor if they find that some of the kids show a real interest in photography so that could be a lot of fun too.

[Greg McCary]

They teach photography at most of our middle schools. They have only recently went digital. Up until that they had some great darkrooms.

[ken1953]

Maybe if you start mentoring there, I'll go back to middle school...hehe...what time do classes start...I'm usually in town about 3 a.m.... hehehehe...
Glad the class went well. I knew you had it in you!!! Try to get the teacher to have her students post on here...that would be awesome...just a thought..

[Liz]

I think it went really well. The kids and teachers seemed to enjoy it and they had lots of questions. I enjoyed it too.

Congratulations Mike! I thought they might ask you to mentor. I hope you will get paid. :thumbsup:

At any rate, keep us updated.

Liz

[mjs1973]

Congratulations Mike! I thought they might ask you to mentor. I hope you will get paid. :thumbsup:

At any rate, keep us updated.

Liz

Thanks Liz.

Yes, they did offer me a stipend but I haven't received it yet. I'm not expecting much, but it's nice to be rewarded for all of the work I put into it.

[Frog]

I skipped this thread for a while because I figured I didn't have any good advice.
I did think I'd learn from the advice you received though, so opened it just now.
I thought maybe you were teaching a community college course or something.
When I saw you had one hour with 55 middle schoolers and 6 cameras, I thought,"HOLY COW" Ok! Cow isn't the word I actually thought.

It did get a bit better when you said they were divided into 3 groups and sounds like you had 3 one hour classes.
Still in one hour. I think composition and rules of thirds and watching background and not chopping hands and feet off is about as far as you're going to get.
Sounds like you did well and though you've always been one of the enthusiasts I respect here, my respect has shot up for taking on such a task.
That they asked lots of questions means you did well. If they ask questions they're interested. If they are bored they throw spit balls or what ever they do now a days.
Who knows? Maybe you inspired one or a few to expand.

Good job, Mike!

[mjs1973]

Thanks Frog.

I did start out with some of the technical stuff (aperture, shutter speed & DOF) but tried to keep it as simple as possible. I did give them all the link that Jeff (Grandpa) included in one of his earlier replies so everyone had access to a "camera" to play with.

If I had it to do over again, I think I would have skipped most of the technical part and focused more on the creative aspects of photography. The reason I did include the technical stuff is because I feel you need to know a little bit about that in order to express the creative side of photography. For me, DOF is a huge part of my photography and if I didn't know how to control that my photography would be pretty limited.

One thing that I found very interesting was the way the students and teachers behaved in each class. In the first class, the students & teacher were very engaging and asked a lot of questions and showed a real interest in what I was saying. In the second class, the teacher sat in the back of the room with a book, and didn't seem to be paying any attention. I felt a very similar response from her students. There were a few that asked questions, but there was a noticeable difference between the way they reacted and the way the first class reacted. The third class was very much like the first. The teacher was engaged in the discussion and asking questions, and so were the students.

Could it have been that the students were modeling their behavior after that of their teacher? That's the first thought that came to my mind and I thought it was very interesting.

[JETA]

All I have to say is congrats and these kids are lucky. I'd pay big bucks to be able to take a class by you. I mean that with all sincerity.

[Anbesol]

Awesome dood, that sounds like a lot of fun, giving those kids a foundation for photography. With any luck you may get to mentor some of those bright kids.

Frog - no more spitballs, they browse the internet on their phone or start texting.