Today I took my Desktop Publishing classes outside for “Photo Friday.” This is a recurring plan I have, these Photo Fridays, where I give them a theme and remind them of photo composition rules and let them loose. Then we come back to the classroom, they make minor edits to their best photo, and we look at all of them as a class.
It was a gorgeous day, so today’s theme was “Take a photo of a small, unnoticed beauty.”
Most of the photos were of leaves beginning to bud on tree branches, flowers peeking out from bushes, messages written in chalk on the cement in the courtyard, or dandelions sprouting in sidewalk cracks or through bright red mulch.
But then there was this photo.
And I am not a fan of this photo. I look at it and see a lot of flaws. When this photo popped up the big screen, the class giggled, and the student who took it said something about me and beauty that I can’t remember now, but sometimes I can’t tell when kids are being serious and when they are being sneakily mean.
But with this particular student, I am choosing to believe she was serious. I may not look my most traditionally beautiful in this photo, but I hope what she sees in this photo is a teacher who advocates for her, a teacher who worries about her, a teacher who believes in her.
And if that’s what she sees in this photo, then I think she nailed the assignment.
Julie Rowse 