We are more than two months into our class “Photo of the Day” project.  In reality I am running more than a week behind, so we will be playing “catch up” when the kids come back after spring break.  Having students participate in a “Photo of the Day” project  seemed like a natural progression, since I am on my second year of doing a 365 photo project myself.   I had thought about trying it from the beginning of the school year, but I was concerned  that I might be biting off more than I could chew.  When I read about the photo projects that other classes were trying, however, I decided to give it a try. 

I set up a “Class Photographer” calendar for January, February and March.  That gives each person two opportunities to be the photographer/blogger.  On their day, the student takes the digital camera and the hall pass and is given time to stroll the building or classroom to find a few good pictures.  After they select their photo, they write a blog post and I help them upload the photo to our class blog.  We brainstormed a list of photo possibilities, so that we can keep variety in our posts.  We have been working our way through that list.

It has been another opportunity for students to write and be published on line.  They have learned how to take photos, upload the photo, and communicate to parents and the community about the things we do.  They have been excited to see their work on line.

Keeping it going has been somewhat overwelming and with so many demands on our time we are constantly behind.  Instead of posting each day, we have been posting three or four photos once or twice a week.  Getting the right photos onto the correct laptop has been challenging, so I installed Dropbox.com onto the laptops.  Then the student has access to their photos, no matter which laptop they are blogging from.  This has helped things a lot.

I do think it’s a project worth doing.  Next year, instead of trying to do it on a daily basis, we will have a class photographer for the week.  This may be a good collaboration project.  Then students can summarize the highlights of our week and report on them.  In fact we may switch to a variation of that model beginning in April of this year.

It’s been fun, but I’m still perfecting things.  If you have tried this or a similar project, please share your insights with me.

Check out our “Photo of the Day” blog posts on our class blog:  Ms. Day’s Class Blog.