WRITING GRANTS FOR PHOTOGRAPHY?  

     Writing grants can be really tough, especially right now with budget

    cuts being the overall theme in education these days. Further, the

    arts are often the first thing on the chopping block. if you are a teacher,

    principle, or otherwise involved in education here are some things to

    think about:

    Depending on your school, the arts may have been stripped from the

    learning curriculum altogether, you may have to write up the grant as

    an after school program or a developement enrichment program. The

    developement program must be age if posssible. Follow the stages of

    developement while writing the grant. Here's some benefit of

    photography... 

 -   Developement of fine motor skills.

 -  Spacial perception, distance, and shape recognition.

 -  Learning colors

 -  Cognitive developement and problem solving skills.

       (operating the camera and understanding settings vs situations)

 -  Creating a healthy couriousity of nature, science, and culture.

       ( subject matter: emphasize photography as another way of learning it)

 -  Health and wellness... walking, exploring, exercise!!!

 -  Reading and writing skills... concurrent essays.

 -  History... Field trips to local historical places.

 -  Self esteem... Nothing says instant gratification like digital photos!

 -  Computer training... a wonderful way to augment computer lessons.

 -  A sense of community envolvement... have them make a newspaper.

 -  Socialization is encourage in many of these.

 -  Math... converting from megapixels to lines of resolution, DPI, and       

    other elements of photography that requires the use of numbers.

 -  Technology... digital photography is evolving rapidly.

     These are just a few ideas in various ranges of age and

     developement. There's lots of other ways to work digital photography

     into the form of a grant proposal. I tried to include all the basics of

     the current curriculum... Social Studies, Math, Reading, Writing, ect.

     Some principles and administrators are great at writing grants, others

     my need teachers to help or even write the proposals. Some districts

     even leave this up to the teachers for the most part. feel free to print

     and use anything you see on this website, but try to mention us when

     possible :)   CLICK HERE FOR MORE IDEAS ON GRANTS

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       know if you'd like a credit line in the article.

                                                                     Thanks and have fun!  - CFK Staff

      TEACHERS, HERE'S A SIMPLE LESSON PLAN...

      Thank you ATASCADERO UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT and the

      2nd and 5th grade classes at San Gabriel Elementary for trying out

      this lesson plan. The following lesson plan take approximately 30

      minutes to run with a classroom of 30 children or so. This does not

      include setup, preparation, or cleanup. The plan was designed to

      teach kids about digital photography without having to supply digital

      cameras. It focuses on basic camera functions and operations. The

      lesson does not require prior computer knowledge and only covers

      using the camera. Teachers will have to print out a few images and

      other materials needed to teach this class. Don't worry, some of the

      supplies to teach this class will be downloadable at the bottom of this

      article. The actual camera knowledge is all in the CAMERAS FOR

      KIDS BOOK and is already in easy to understand language.

      SETTING UP THE CLASSROOM is simple, but it's probably best if

      you plan the lesson to be right after a recess so that you have plenty

      of time. The materials are outlined in the downloadable lesson plan

      at the bottom of the article.

      Tape some large format images on the

      wall behind you. (7 to 10 photos recommended) Large format being

      11"x 17" prints or larger. if you do not have access to a large format

      printer, 8.5"x 11" will suffice.

      Bring the lesson plan which is available from this site. It's in bullet

      form to make teaching the class a simple play by play system. The

      plan is two 8.5"x 11" pages and can be laminated into a simple two

      sided card that you hold throughout the lesson.

      Have 3 large poster boards with samples of the camera functions

      and operations. Check out the sample posters below. Notice how

      each poster has 3 topics highlighted in red at the top. POSTER 1

      has CAMERA FUNTIONS, CAMERAS PRESETS, AND CAMERA

      SELECTION, POSTER 2 has LANDSCAPE, MACRO, AND NIGHT

      MODE. POSTER 3 has PORTRAIT, SPORTS MODE, AND NOW

      WHAT? The 'now what?' section of the poster can be crafts or other

      information you'd like to add to the class. These poster board  

      sections can be color copied right out of the book and pasted onto

      the poster boards. the color images of the functions and presets seem

      to help kids grasp the concepts of all those buttons and knobs.

     On the first poster you'll see CAMERA FUNTIONS and CAMERA

       PRESETS. Creating COLOR HANDOUTS of these is a really good

       idea. The pages are in the book and all you have to do is make color

       copies to give to the kids. These are the fundamental basis of a

       basic digital photography class. It's nice for kids to be able to take

       these concepts home and play with them while it's fresh in their minds.

      CERTIFICATES: Nothing says gratification like a certificate of

      completion. The certificates can be taken home for parents to hang up

      or for the kids to keep. Either way, the sense of accomplishment

      is nice and it's a great way to remind kids to practice. There's another

      reason for the certificates, too. The certificates get the parents more

      involved in what's going on with their children's education. Parents

      will often warm up to the idea and encourage their kids to keep

      practicing. The certificates are optional, but if you'd like to use them

      and don't have the time to create them. They can be downloaded at

      bottom of this article. Both the handouts and the certificate are good

      for creating open dialog between kids and parents.

      SETUP CHECKLIST: Let's go over this list. 1 Lesson plan, 7 to 10

      large format images, tape (preferably masking tape), 3 large posters,

      2 color handouts (for each child), and 1 certifcate of completion (for

      each child). The plan was written to eliminate the need to bring in

      a camera and/or computer. This eliminates costs and keeps the

      flow of the lesson pretty seamless. Most of these materials can be

      color copied out of the book or downloaded off this site. Preparation

      should be pretty simple.

       TEACHING THE CLASS is pretty straight forward. Just follow the

        lesson plan which is written in bullet form and try to keep the kids

        engaged in the conversation. Throwing in extra information about

        about some of you photos is a bonus. Facts about animals, nature

        or science are always fun. Doing the class right after a recess or

        lunch is helpful. You can set up the class during the break.

         DOWNLOAD LESSON PLAN

         DOWNLOAD CERTIFICATE OF COMPLETION

      * OTHER PRINTED MATERIALS CAN BE COLOR COPIED OUT OF

         THE CAMERAS FOR KIDS BOOK. SOME MAY NEED TO BE

          PASTED ONTO POSTER BOARDS.