Zoom In- Play with Photography
Original photo
For the past 11 months, my son has been my favorite photography inspiration. I have so many photos of him, but they all look like photos that anyone could have taken. I wanted to do some editing to one of my favorite Christmas photos. Some of the results are below.
What's the big idea?
Playing is a very important part of teaching and our adult lives. However, “playing has become so rare in our society that some people…worry that the art of it will be lost” (Root-Bernstein and Root-Bernstein, 266). As I sit here typing this assignment, my son is playing on the floor. During the course of this assignment, I am sure that I will take breaks to play with him because it helps me relax. It also keeps both of us happy. I often find the same to be true in my own classroom.
I find it true that children are the easiest to engage in play. As a child, my friends and I had this favorite game was called “tornado”. Our deck was instantly transformed into a vast estate under the looming threat of a tornado. The possibilities were endless. My son can easily transform any object into a chew toy without even a seconds thought. I think that playing and transforming have been two of the most easily relatable concepts that we have studied. As we play, things tend to take transformation.
One of my favorite assignments during my school days was in 7th grade science. My friend Dana and I took information about the kingdom fungi and set it to the theme song for the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. As part of the assignment, we were allowed to play and choose any mode necessary to convey our information. We then had to transform the information we had into the mode we had chosen. Root-Bernstein and Root-Bernstein tell us that this is an example of “…playful transformations of detailed information into known patterns that are easily remembered” (277). I still remember some information about fungus because of that song.
There is a reason that we have a saying about all work and no play making a person dull. It is what we believe, but at the same time, we still have a hard time engaging in play during what is often seen as a serious time such as our work or school day. It is often that the best discoveries come out of play and “transforming concepts from one form into another can yield discoveries in any field” (Root-Bernstein and Root-Bernstein, 286). I like to think of such discoveries as fortunate accidents.
One of the types of play that children often engage in is game playing (Root-Bernstein and Root-Bernstein, 249). We all tend to make up our own rules as we play a game especially as children, Adult are always reading directions, but children often change the rules to a game or make them up as they go. This serves to foster their creativity and transforms one game into something completely different.
Playing and transforming are two creative tools that are really fostered in childhood, but tend to disappear as we grow. As adults, we don’t use those tools as much, but I will say this, now that I am a mother I have revisited my own creativity through playing and transforming.
I find it true that children are the easiest to engage in play. As a child, my friends and I had this favorite game was called “tornado”. Our deck was instantly transformed into a vast estate under the looming threat of a tornado. The possibilities were endless. My son can easily transform any object into a chew toy without even a seconds thought. I think that playing and transforming have been two of the most easily relatable concepts that we have studied. As we play, things tend to take transformation.
One of my favorite assignments during my school days was in 7th grade science. My friend Dana and I took information about the kingdom fungi and set it to the theme song for the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. As part of the assignment, we were allowed to play and choose any mode necessary to convey our information. We then had to transform the information we had into the mode we had chosen. Root-Bernstein and Root-Bernstein tell us that this is an example of “…playful transformations of detailed information into known patterns that are easily remembered” (277). I still remember some information about fungus because of that song.
There is a reason that we have a saying about all work and no play making a person dull. It is what we believe, but at the same time, we still have a hard time engaging in play during what is often seen as a serious time such as our work or school day. It is often that the best discoveries come out of play and “transforming concepts from one form into another can yield discoveries in any field” (Root-Bernstein and Root-Bernstein, 286). I like to think of such discoveries as fortunate accidents.
One of the types of play that children often engage in is game playing (Root-Bernstein and Root-Bernstein, 249). We all tend to make up our own rules as we play a game especially as children, Adult are always reading directions, but children often change the rules to a game or make them up as they go. This serves to foster their creativity and transforms one game into something completely different.
Playing and transforming are two creative tools that are really fostered in childhood, but tend to disappear as we grow. As adults, we don’t use those tools as much, but I will say this, now that I am a mother I have revisited my own creativity through playing and transforming.
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways...
In my classroom, we frequently play with words. We will take a verb, for example, and play around with the word ending to change is tense of the word. Sometimes we make this into a race by dividing the class into teams and placing a word on the board for the students to race to make it into a past or future tense. We also play a “slap game” where the students are given fly swatters and have to smack the appropriate word posted on the whiteboard. We watch the School House Rock segments and redo those sketches to serve our needs. Making rap songs and dances about verbs is also something that catches students’ attention. Ron Clark does some great work in this manner and I admire him very much.