First of all, I would just like to share the terms which I don't like to use while referring to the Boys & Girls Club people. "Kids"- a baby goat (knowledge courtesy of Grandma Anna). "Children"- which is, in my opinion, degrading for a middle schooler. Anything with the term "young" in it. I know personally when a speaker or teacher of any sorts refers to me as a "young person" or "you young people" it drives a wedge between myself (of the younger age group) and the speaker (slightly older than I am). I think we should be finding ways to point out our commonalities to show that "young people" can still impact the world and beat the stereotypical "kids will be kids" bull.
Second of all, here's an update on the B&G Club:
Monday:
I went to the B&G Club to take photos of a coloring contest that they were participating in so that the people in charge could put the pictures in a newsletter. It makes me happy that they feel open enough to ask if I can take pictures for them because they don't have any way of getting decent images of anything. Mrs. Pass even called me "their photographer." Kinda tickles me just thinking about it. I'm happy that I can provide that for them.
After I was done we (Mrs. Pass and I) had a meeting with the people I normally teach as well as a couple of new folks. Mrs. Pass was very blunt with them that I only have a month left and they don't need to waste my time being flakey about photo class. She went around and asked each of them if they still wanted to do it. One said no. One was having an attitude and said "no. yes. no. yes. yes I do." And I got three newish people (two of them came to the very first class but never came back b/c they said they didn't know). One of my normal girls was not there. We also decided we would start meeting on Thursdays instead of Fridays.
Thursday:
I got there at 3:30 to help with homework. At 4:30 they had snack and then I rounded up my people to have class (one boy who said he wanted to join wasn't there). The girl that wasn't there Monday said she still wanted to have class. So, I ended up having three girls and a boy.
I began be explaining to them that in addition to the cameras I normally bring, I brought my Canon XT camera and two people each week would get to use it. One girl (who had been on her iTouch) said she wanted to use it. I proceeded to tell her maybe if she'd listen and put her iTouch away. She didn't like that too much.
I began to talk to them about the importance of light and the different kinds of light. Two minutes later the same girl with the iTouch said she needed to call her dad. I knew it wasn't an emergency so I told her to call him after our class. She argued with me for a bit then I told her to be quick and come back. She then told me that it was okay to just call in the room. I then pointed out how she was wasting everyone's time. She didn't like that either.
Eventually, I finished the lesson and I explained to them that we'd shoot for five minutes in the game room, five minutes in the gym and five minutes outside. Two of the girls took photos for about 30 seconds then decided they'd stand in the corner and not participate because they "already took pictures." I tried to encourage them to take pictures for the full five minutes. They took a few more then stood in the corner again. The two other people were running around enjoying their time taking pictures. Same type of deal happened when we went to the gym. Except one of the girls decided they'd completely walk away from the group and hang out in the hall not taking pictures (same girl with the iTouch and the phone).
We started to go outside and three of them went but the one girl told me that it was too cold and refused to go outside. After reasoning with her, she said she'd go outside but she wasn't going to take pictures. Which, you know, taking pictures is the whole point of photography class. After a little more prying, she went outside with us and took some pictures (once again only for about the first 30 seconds while complaining how cold it was).
After five minutes we went inside and I asked to speak to the one girl. I told her that she was being extremely disrespectful and that if she didn't want to be there, not to come. She said her daddy taught her never to quit. So, basically even though she is not going to participate and is going to be extremely disrespectful to me and everyone else, she is going to condescend to our level simply in order to say she didn't quit. Long story short, she is going to be asked not to come to class anymore. It breaks my heart but if she isn't going to participate and if she is bringing others down, she just can't be there.
That's unfortunate but the bittersweet highlight of my day was when I had to almost drag the boy inside from taking pictures because he was enjoying himself. He also asked me if they were allowed to keep the cameras which broke my heart to say no.
All of this plus deciding to go to grad school at FSU rather than trying to get a teaching job really got me thinking. Maybe I'm not supposed to be teaching in a high school. Maybe I am supposed to have a job that allows me to have time to tutor high schoolers in photography and I can afford to let them keep the cameras at the end of the class time. Maybe they'd have to reach a certain level of experience and knowledge with their shooting and they'd "graduate" from my class and I'd send them off into the world of photography with a decent camera at hand.
Goodness, I'm really not sure what to plan for my future but even though I want to figure it out, the mystery of it all is so exciting and I'm so hopeful for whatever I'll end up doing. All I know is that I will be taking photos, doing video and teaching that to people who cannot afford a camera let alone to be taught how to use it affectively. I'm getting all giddy inside. I also can't wait to find a program that I can partner with (or maybe start?) to teach in Florida!
Horray for disappointments, excitements and hopes!
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