Oh, wow, the school year started.  I am missing time with Millie, adventures with my friend, staying up real late reading, and all the gardening.

The kids in my classes are great.  I already love having them.  I have begun reading the lesson book I bought at the Holocaust Museum.  I am excited to use the ideas in there.  I also have a great deal of other societal issue topics I want to connect to the lessons.  So much has been written lately about the role of the photographer or just the photograph in history or contemporary world events.  I want the students to make mental connections with what they are learning in History class or what they learn from the "news" they get on the TV or online.  I also want them to look at that information more critically.

I put "news" in quotes because most of what they seem to be getting is not real news.  I hear a great deal of them talk about this News 12 channel.  I have had the unfortunate experience of being subjected to that channel in doctors' waiting rooms.  It is the same stuff repeated endlessly.  The issues that are happening in the state - taxes, school cuts, corruption, white collar crimes - as well as nationally and internationally are not touched on.  Do most people understand the roots of the conflicts in Israel/Palestine, Syria, Ukraine?  Do the students know about the debates that preoccupy the governments of other countries?  Do they understand the ramifications of the changes in the weather?  Do they have any idea of the role photography plays in documenting - bias or no bias, staged or unstaged, unedited or edited - the events?  Does it even matter if it does not affect them?  Could it affect us years from now?

I have so many ideas running around in my head.  On top of all this, I want to slow things down and get the students to understand the science behind the process.  And boy, is that confusing.  Trying to get them to understand the reversal of the image when the light compresses and then opens up when passing through the lens of the pinhole is a challenge.  Describing the changes in the silver in the emulsion based on degree of exposure and then the developer's effect on those crystals....  Taking it slower and using more videos sourced from online.  So far, so good.  Now think about trying to get them to connect to topics like history and science....  Oooh boy, hard work ahead for me.  But excited to try it.