BP5_2009112_Flickr_in_the_class

Flickr is a website I am currently using in my 11^th and 12^th grade English classroom as I develop a lesson plan for each grade level. For my 12^th graders we are currently immersed in Arthurian Legends and the students were asked to go home and commit two chivalrous deeds over the weekend. They were also assigned an essay entitled, “Is chivalry dead in America today or has it just evolved?” Flickr photo streams could be additional assets to the essays because students can take a picture of these deeds and post to Flickr, making it easy to share between each other and the teacher. Come Monday we could view them on the data projector while sharing the event, relating it to their essay…isn’t a picture worth a thousand words? In theory, this is a powerful lesson plan; however, only one third of my students have digital cameras; does the technology allow for cell phone cameras to upload photos to Flickr? Can I access Flickr from my school or is it going to be blocked by the firewall? I think I already know the answer to that question; no access. Oh well, I will just keep lesson planning.

In my 11^th grade classroom we are studying the transcendental philosophers and writers, such as Emerson, Thoreau, Longfellow, and Whitman. Students were assigned groups where they performed literary analysis of the original poets’ work, employing literary terms, then assessed. At this point, they could write their own poetry, mimicking their favorite transcendentalist poet’s style and take a photo stream, publishing it to Flickr. This would help all of us to relate our lives to the themes of the philosophers. Again, the photo streams could enhance the lesson. Students would get in groups and pair share, and we would have a more concrete understanding of the students’ original products.

Photo from http://www.barnard.edu/library/zines/images/flickr-logo.jpg