Rewiew of the activity

I know that after I had done the activity with the group of students I was very pleased with the outcome.
I feel like that I have taught them things on the computer that they will be able to remember and use in the future.
I feel that I have made them realise that photograpohy can be fun along with using Photoshop. I have made them realise that Photoshop is not only there for seroius purposes, but also allows you to have fun. I think especially at the ages the children are, this is what they need most.
Fun and excitement mixed with creativity is a recipe that all children need.
I think that the children were all really envolved and really enjoyed what they were doing. It was a great reward for them all.

So, seen as I was very pleased with what happened, I wanted to find out whether the children and the teacher thought the same.
So after the assembly that we had done, I took them all into their classroom and asked that how they found the whole activity.
Here are some of the response:
"It was so fun"
"I really enjoed making the pictures on the computer"
"I made myself look really cool in my pictures. I like looking cool"
"It was a very good day out. It was better than some of the trips we had"
"I wish we could have had more time doing it"
"I enjoyed taking the photos as much as I enjoyed changing them"
"Photoshop wasn't too hard to use"
"The webcam is so much better than the one in my house"
"I enjoyed pulling faces into the webcam"
"I'm glad that we got to keep some of the photos we made"
"I made mine for my mum, I think she will be proud of me"
"I would like to do it again now"
"It would be so good if it was a lesson at our school"
"I'm looking forward to going to secondary school even more now"
"I always enjoy making things, so I really enjoyed myself doing this"
"An amazing experience"

I wanted the teachers that were present to comment on how that thought the day went:
"It was a really good idea. I didn't think the children would be so involved in it, but I'm glad that they were. They all seemed to really enjoy themselves"
"It would be great to do it again, they were all so quitet and intrigued, it was lovely to see"
"We could definetly try and invlove this into our school I think. It is a really creative process and something of which this school is trying to urge people to be more of"
"The great thing is that there is so many things that you can do with Photoshop, it allows anyone to enjoy it. So everyone can join in and be creative in their own way as an individual"
"I have go to say that you did very well in controlling the class. Although they are a well behaved class anyway, but they all seemed to listen to you. It was really nice"
"I think it was because the activity you set up was something that they all wanted to do and they were all really excited about helped them behave"
"I think all we need is to know how to do it ourselves and then we could be off with it. We could all make photos like this. I must say, all of these photos displays who they are. They are all really individual people, and it really comes across in the photos"

I cannot explain how happy I am that both children and teacher enjoyed the activity so much that they would like to do it again if the chance arose. This had given me so much confidence. I feel that I have definetly completed the task that I had set out to do. I had taught them about the uses of Photoshop via the presentation I did with them. I definetly showed them how to use certain aspects of Photoshop through the activity I did with them, and through my demonstration to them.
They all showed that they understood what I was showing them, because they were able to recreate the things I had shown them, but applied it to their own photos. The photos are proof that I have completede this.

I have also got a review from the photography teacher who was there watching over me.

Amy arranged to do a workshop at a local primary school where the students carried out a practical printing project making mono prints, which was part of the arts development. 

Along with that she also talked about her own photography work using a PowerPoint presentation and showing students how she made the work and what equipment she used to do it. Amy was clear and engaging and kept the students interested throughout by questioning.

Amy also carried out a photography workshop where she explained the various processes of using cameras lighting and Photoshop. You could see that she had thought about her activity and delivery of it very well. Again Amy was engaging and clear and demonstrated techniques used carefully. The student’s outcomes showed that students had learnt the techniques well.

Presenting their work

After I had completed my activity with the group of children we needed to display our work that we had created.
The work needed to be displayed to show that the students have learned how to use Photoshop and that they themselves can create some good photos by only using a few programs.

A good opportunity came along for me to hold a gallery of their work in a school assembly of their.
In this assembly I was able to explain what I had taught the class perviously befor they came to my school, and what I had taugh them on the day.
I was able to show that using Photoshop is quite easy and that there are plenty of things to play around on, on Photoshop. You can create hours of fun along with good looking photos too.

I was not able to take photo in the school hall, so I was not able to show my display of their own work, but I was able to get some teacher to comment on what they thought of them.
This did not only make the children feel proud of what they created, but inspired to create more. This also helped me know that I am able to lead a group of people and fufil my objectives with a set out lesson.

The comments recieved from the teachers were:
"Amazing" 
"Extradinary"
"So creative"
"It looks really professional. Doens't look like a year 5 has made it"
"Looks full of fun"
"It just screams youth and play"
"It looks as if it was really fun to make"
"Wonderful uses of  colour"
"Reminds me of James Bond"
"Very imaginative"
"I definetly need to try this"

What the students created

On this page you will the see the work that the student produced whilst being with me at my school.
These are the photos that will be used and shown to the rest of the students in their school via an assambly carried out by me and the students.

Carrying out the activity

Before the students came to my school, I had to set up the classroom how I wanted it, and get everything out where it was needed to be.

When the students came to my school I greeted them at the entrance. I then lead them upto the classroom in which we would be working in. My photography teacher and my fellow student were already in the classroom waiting for us to arrive.

I sat all of the students down around one large table, I then stood at the head of the table and explained to them what we would be doing. I had my Macbook set up to the large screen at the front of the classroom. This was so that I could demonstrate to the class what exactly to do.


My plan for them was to take photos of themselves on PhotoBooth which was already installed in the Mac's. PhotoBooth has lots of different settings which enabled the students to have morphed faces. After I had let them 'play around' with PhotoBooth for a while, I introcduced them to Photoshop. I told them to take a photo of their face and then open it up with Photoshop so they could explore the uses of that themselves. I had to demonstrate what to do on the large board again to avoid confusion.


After I had done this my fellow student friend took the kids in two's over to the studio where they was able to take photos of themselves, full bodied. These photos would be of better quality which helps when using a program like Photoshop. This gave them something extra to do just incase they were getting slightly tired of using PhotoBooth. However I do not think this was the case at all because they all seemed really interested, they were all really enthusiastic about the whole activity that I had planned.
I was able  to show the student about some of the things you can do on Photoshop. Like, draw on the photo, change th background to something completely different and to distort things.

These following photos will be of me carrying out the activities that I have just described: