Sunday 10 March 2013

Camerashy- Feet First!


 Take 52 Wk10 - Feet!


As soon as I saw this week's challenge I knew what I wanted to do- Highjack a load of unsuspecting children, get them to go barefoot and then to pose for me!
Now I've done something similar before, using our hands, so they are quite used to me asking them to do random things. 'Oh, she's off again- Miss G and her 'let's work together projects!' I can hear them say- So they didn't even bat an eyelid when I ask them to take their shoes off!- Oh the power we teacher's have... anyway once 'desocked' (I know, not a proper word, but it works- right?) we got down to the business of posing.

This is where the fun starts- You know the old adage of never work with children and animals- well, when you do it for a living, nothing ever surprises you. So imagine 24 barefoot children, sitting on the carpet, legs outstreched.

"Lets get in a circle" I say- An easy instruction I would have thought, but no! With much shoving and jostling, the circle was 'too big', they cried, "Too small- I can't fit in', they shouted. "Move Back", '"move forward', "change places" And so they did, time and time and time again- until they were happy with it. I just wanted a quick snap- For them, it was like UN negotiations. J couldn't sit next to S, because they didn't want the boys sitting together, C couldn't sit next to J because their feet were too similar in colour! And so on and so forth. There were mutterings and mumblings and even insightful comments and I didn't even have to say a word.

It was the class who decided that this was an exercise in diversity- a way to show that we were all different and yet we are all the same, that we work together and work as a team to get things done. I never mentioned any of that- All I wanted was a shot of feet!- but if there's a lesson in there some where, then so be it! Teaching you see, is a two way process and sometimes it's nice to be on the receiving end!

10 comments:

  1. Fabulous shot and it sounds like you teach a great bunch of children!

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    1. Thanks and yes, they are a great bunch of kids, they can drive me up the wall at times, but they make me laugh:)

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  2. Love the idea! I teach teenagers, and they often look at me like I'm crazy when I ask them questions like that too. I love how the students took your simple idea of feet together in a circle and ran with it.

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  3. Oh Yes, if only every lesson was so easy!:)

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  4. Perfect! I came across a similar photo of a tribe in Africa a couple of days ago and it captured my attention! Nice and symbolic!

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    1. Thanks, yes someone told me about seeing that picture- I'll have to google it. Thanks for Dropping by :)

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  5. I love this post! What a beautiful picture and valuable lesson in diversity. It's nice to meet another teacher; I used to be one before I had my children. Thank you for your lovely comment on my blog, I'm looking forward to following yours. :)

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  6. A great photo of all those feet - I'm glad the children managed to work together!
    Sarah x

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  7. I love how they had to negotiate and communicate with each other and find a way to get their feet in the picture!!!

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