Starting students with digital photography

    Last week I introduced digital photography to my 7th grade enrichment class. Our school has a case of 12 cameras that teachers can sign out to use with students.  I have kids work in pairs or groups of three in some cases so that the entire class can work on a project at the same time.  
    In previous years I had given my students a quick overview of how to use the cameras and sent them on their way.  However, after attending a fabulous session at the NAEA Convention last month called "From Pix to Art: 10 Step Digital Photography for the Middle!" led by Teresa Nagel, I changed my tune.  She emphasized how important it is to spend a whole class period making sure students really understand all of the features of the camera in order to take quality shots.  The list below reflects many of the examples that she gave to have students go through that first day with the camera, as well as a handful that I have added to get them thinking about the artistry of their shots.

_______ Turn the camera on.
 _______ Turn the camera off.
 _______ Use the zoom.
 _______ Take a photo with the flash on (lightning bolt symbol).
 _______ Take the same photo with the flash off to see how different it looks.
 _______ Take a shot of something up close in macro mode (flower symbol).
 _______ Take a photo at ground level.
 _______ Take a photo from a birds eye view level.
_______ Take a photo of something that fills the frame and has virtually no background.
 _______ Take a photo of something from far away.
_______ View the photos that you have taken so far.
 _______ Delete one of the photos you took off the camera.
 _______ Take a 5 second video clip.
_______ Use a USB cord to connect the camera to the computer.
 _______ Download your photos to your folder on the network.
 _______ Delete all of the photos from the camera before turning it back in.