Digital Cameras

Using digital cameras in the classroom looks like it would be so much fun. It is a way to get the students more involved with learning how to take pictures and how to use technology to get it onto a computer and do different things with it. It looks like it would be such a good tool to use in the classroom. After looking at the list of things to do with a digital camera, here is my top 10 list of activities to do with a digital camera.

1. Write a class novel and illustrate it with live-action photos of your students.

2. Have students go on a photographic scavenger hunt, taking pictures of the objects they find rather than retrieving the objects themselves.

3. Have each student choose a letter and find an object that begins with that letter. Take a picture of the child with the object and use the pictures to create a class alphabet chart.

4. Document the growth of classroom plants or animals with daily or weekly photos.

5. Create a seating chart with photographs for substitutes

6. Assign pairs of students to walk through the school to find such examples of geometric shapes as circles, triangles, parallel lines, obtuse angles, and so on. Label each photo and create a geometry book.

7. Take a photograph of each student at the beginning and end of the school year. Have students complete Venn diagrams of themselves, showing how they have -- and haven’t -- changed during the year.

8. Arrange students into groups and assign each group one of the five senses. Have each group photograph the appropriate sensory organ and then have them take pictures of objects that organ might best perceive

9. Photograph students dressed up as what they want to be when they grow up and use the pictures to illustrate career reports.

10. Use photographs to illustrate the process for complicated projects or for science experiments.


After looking at these ideas, I have decided that I am definitely going to use this kind of technology in my classroom!

Technology in the classroom

I think that technology should be made a very important part of an elementary classroom. Technology opens up so many doors that can be so helpful to help teaching now than it did in the past. There are so many different resources on the internet that can help a teacher reach the content standards. I used to think that there was not very many different ways to use the internet in the classroom, but I am constantly being shown different ways that it can be used. After learning about trackstar.com, I am definitly planning on using that in the future. But there are other forms of technology that can be used. During my classroom field study I was introduced to a Smart Board. That was the most amazing thing I have ever seen. My lesson plans will have to include different ways to incorporate technology and computers in order for my students to learn the skills that are necessary for them to function in the world today.