So last Wednesday night I get an urgent message on facebook. A recent graduate needs help putting together a portfolio. That night. She wants to take a Photo class and the instructor gave her less than 24 hours to prep for a review. Could I please call her? On the phone.....
Gulp....
I don't do well dialing phone numbers. I hate calling people. I feel like I am pestering them, even if they wanted me to call them. So... I futzed around in the kitchen... Cuddled with Millie.... Then bit the bullet. I did ok. But let me tell you.... Talking on the phone with a former student is weird. It's like I broke through that teacher student wall in a really strange way. It was really nice hearing her voice and hearing someone who was happy to hear from me... So we got the specifics out of the way and she asked how Millie was doing. Ah.... they care so much!
Then I got to work on finding her images on the network and e-mailing them to her. I have been meaning to delete all my saved scans and files of student work and burn them onto cd. It is a good thing I didn't because she and I would have been SOL if I had done that.... We made plans to get together for coffee when she comes back to NJ to visit... Hooray!
And then... I took some kids to jail.
Love putting it that way....
I did another trip to Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia. This time I went with the Sculpture teacher and her level II kids. It's really different doing a field trip with someone who does 50% of the work. It's not as tiring and I can enjoy seeing my kids enjoy themselves. I am actually stunned when I tell people I bring students here and they have never heard of it. Are their heads in the sand? Oh, no.... Just busy keeping up with the latest b.s. reality show star or something. My sister used to bring her students here. Gosh, it's been used as a site for movies and even a Dead Milkmen video! http://www.easternstate.org/learn/filmed-esp Where have these people been? It is so popular with photographers, they have a program for usage by photographers.
Well, the kids had a great time. They napped on the way there and were ready to go once we arrived. The guides I get there are always soooo nice. Strange since there really is no brotherly love in Philly.... The site is different each time I go. More stuff has been restored. It seems like I can find new things. I was tailing some girls I knew might need watching. Lucky for me because they found the restored synagogue. They charged their phones there. (I didn't want to risk the students losing our digital cameras so I let them shoot with their phones. Of course all the phones were dead by the end of the trip.) It was interesting tailing the girls.... These kids that people stereotype "bad" might be in some ways. But in so many other ways, they are just kids. They are silly, slightly immature, rash, and just stumbling along to find an identity. I decided to let them alone for the last 15 minutes and retrieved their phones for them.... Let them enjoy themselves.
So I told all the students to e-mail the images to themselves that night and to download form e-mail in class the next day. I was very happy with the results! My Photo II kids shot film and digital, for the most part and Photo III shot infrared - dark filter, hand held light meter, and all. Oof. The kids did well. Many of them want to return to the site to spend more time there. Others who could not go on the trip want to go because of what they heard. Woo hoo....
Now, to just make it through today...
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