Residency- Venice Arts- Issa Sharpe- 10 Hours
I spent a lot of time this week working on my lesson plan. I also traveled to Minneapolis this week and was able to meet Lynda in person. We talked about my experiences studying here in LA, different ideas and philosophies in teaching, and the lesson plan that I was to pursue this week. I was also going back and forth with Angela, a lead teaching artist, while developing the plan. On top of developing a lesson, my lesson was on the day of a field trip, therefore, I had to plan for a place to go as well.
My plan was to go over compositional elements and give the students time to practice these elements at Santa Monica. I chose Santa Monica, for a couple weeks ago we went over the camera obscura, and Santa Monica has an actual camera obscura to view. I made an introduction powerpoint and a handout for the class and came a bit earlier than usual to set up. However, one thing I completely overlooked was the possibility of rain in Southern California. I flew back from Minneapolis the night before the lesson, and apparently, it had been raining all week. The morning of the lesson, I was driving to Venice as it down poured. I knew that we wouldn't be able to take the cameras out.
When I got to Venice Arts, it stopped raining but the clouds were still thick. Angela said that we probably wouldn't be able to take the cameras out, so we planned the day to take place at the facility rather than taking cameras outside and to the beach. We were planning on extending the introduction on composition, and also reviewing these elements within the photos that they took. Then, as students began arriving around 10, the clouds cleared. We quickly decided to go back to the original plan. The back-and-forth-ness was really exhausting.
The rain led many students to believe that class was canceled, so only about 8 or 9 kids showed up. I went through my introduction and we talked about composition for a bit, while a fellow mentor, Kevin, pulled up the van. We had to print the handouts last minute which help back our departure a bit. We got to Santa Monica with about a half hour to shoot. We basically walked down the pier and to the beach. I overlooked doing much to enforce the compositional elements that the students were supposed to be shooting for, I was more concerned with them shooting towards their projects. Each of us leads help students to their individual needs.
After walking to the ocean, we headed back up to the camera obscura. We all went in as a group, and I think the kids really enjoyed it. I explained how the camera obscura worked exactly like our cameras did, and I think that helped them understand the device they're using. This was the most successful part of the day in my opinion. All in all, the lesson was pretty hectic, but everything turned out just fine.