During this past week, our students have been taking photos with the digital camera on their school grounds. While they were asked to take photos of images relevant to text that they wrote beforehand, they’ve been sidetracked by their camera access. It’s great to see their enthusiasm for being able to document their friends’ funny faces, their teachers, and the classrooms where they sit all day long. When I had to take a camera away from one girl, so that the next group could take their turn, she asked “Please can I just hold it for a minute longer?”. When class time becomes frustrating with the language barrier, and I feel that the emphasis on fundamentals is being outweighed by the encouragement of creativity, I remember the excitement and special feeling that overtakes students when they use the camera.

This excitement also makes me wonder how many photographs our students have of their families and childhood. I’m certain that it’s in great contrast to life back home, where every dinner or night out turns into a Facebook album. It seems that there is so much more value for each image that they capture, their product inherently telling a story with greater depth.

Throughout my day, there are so many moments when I wish that I had a camera with me–if our students carried one all day long, what spontaneous images would they capture? I would hope that they would expand their idea of an interesting image, which seems to currently include, trees, flowers, and nature, to underappreciated parts of their homes, schools, and greater communities. As we weave together writing and images, I hope that we can successfully encourage the students to think outside of the box to tell unique stories.