Using photos to bring your classroom to life

After a short holiday and rest of all my obligations, I have just returned to my continuous PD. I simply like it because I think that if one does not do a continuous development in his/her job, he/she won't be able to keep in touch with all up-to-date and constructive pieces of information which are very helpful for PD. 

The next thing I am going to post is about how we can make our classroom more lively by using photos with Flickr. The Flicker is almost certainly the best on-line photo management and sharing application in the world. 

From my experience, I can say that students like to learn and they are very eager to find out more about something when the photos are used during a lesson. I use photos a lot because I found out that it is the best way to keep students concentration during the teaching process. 

By discovering Flicker, it will be easier for me to keep all photos in one place and to organize them better. The Flicker can be used for many school subject not only for English. Here are some tips if you want to open your Flicker account:
Open Flickr Accounts
With your school and parents’ permission, have you and your Art students open Flickr accounts. Have
them photograph all of their artwork and upload it to their Flickr account. Share the pictures with Art
classes from other schools, as well as with their friends and families.
Use a Flickr Slideshow to Teach History
When giving your next History lectures about the Victorian era in England, play a slideshow on Flickr
of photos or paintings that you have collected of notable people from the time period. Point out each
person's picture with name, and noteworthy accomplishments.
Use Flickr as a Digital Yearbook
Have the yearbook class take digital photos of things that happen during the school year, such as sports
games, club meetings, field trips, performances, and spirit activities. Have them post the pictures to Flickr as a set, and order calendars be made from them for the next school year. Sell the calendars as a
fundraiser.

Start a Synonym Search Game
Create a game for your English students to have them do speed drills to see who can search for relevant
photos on Flickr the fastest. Give them a word and have them search for photos using it and as many
synonyms as they can think of, and see who is the most successful at using Flickr’s search engine to
find the photographs.
Hide and Seek
Take some photos of different cities that you have visited in your travels and post them to Flickr. Make
sure that you geotag them with the location of the photos. Have your geography students then conduct
a search using Flickr’s World Map to see if they can find your photos.
Use Searchable Tags
Use the searchable tags feature to find as many pictures as you can for your science students about the
various animal species that they’re studying. Once you find the pictures and monitor them for content,
download them into a folder so that you can play them as a slideshow for your class.
Constellations and Comets
Take some digital photos of the night sky’s constellations and of any comets that have recently passed
by. Load the photos in Flickr and organize them into a set titled, “Astronomy.” Share the pictures as a
slideshow with your Science students as an alternative to a planetarium visit.
Photos for Spanish Vocabulary
Have your Spanish students take pictures of items that represent the Spanish culture, such as foods,
clothes, flags, or people. Have the students upload their pictures to Flickr and organize them into sets
labeled with appropriate titles. Have them learn the Spanish vocabulary words to accompany each
photo in the sets. As they learn new words, have them add corresponding pictures to the sets.
Practice Uploading with Tags
Have your Art students upload and organize pictures on Flickr. Have them take pictures of their own
work, as well as anything that can be used as a reference, such as a horse or a bottle cap. Have your
students organize their favorite photos in sets, such as “My Work” or "Inspirations." Once they've
loaded the pictures, have them label them with searchable tags to be used as a portfolio or as a body of
reference material for future art projects.
Photo Blog with Math Students
Take some pictures of geometric shapes and angles that can be found in daily activities. Post the
pictures to Flickr, tag them, and create a group for your Geometry students so that they can view the
pictures. Have them blog about the different pictures, and discuss which formulas can be used to solve
the various angles.

Post Photos with Your Class
Have your photography students take pictures of nature as a homework assignment. In class, help them
create Flickr accounts and their own group to join as a class. Have them post their nature pictures to
their Flickr accounts and arrange them as sets. Then have them share their pictures with each other
from in their Flickr group and then blog to each other about the photos.

Advanced Upload
Download one of Flickr’s advanced uploading tools so that you can upload larger numbers of pictures at a time. Post in Flickr random pictures that you have taken as a set for your Creative Writing
students. Show the class the pictures as a slideshow, and have each of them choose one picture to write
a story about.

Download Bilingual Photos
With your Spanish students, browse Flickr for pictures that people have taken of street signs, airport
signs, park signs, or building signs that are written in both English and Spanish. Have your students ask
the Flickr authors of the photos for permission to download their pictures by e-mailing them from a
Flickr account. If permission is given, download the photos and have your students use them as flash
cards to learn the Spanish phrases on the signs.

Download for the School Paper
Have the school newspaper staff perform a search on Flickr to see how many students in the school
also are Flickr members. Have them start a group with a blog for members of the school, and see how
many students from the school are willing to submit photos of their pets. Download the photos and
publish them in the school paper.

Download a Presentation
Conduct a search on Flickr for photos to illustrate your next science lesson. Ask the photos’ authors for
permission and download the photos to your computer. Create a slideshow to use as a visual
presentation for your class.

If you want to open Flicker account, here is the address: www.flickr.com/. 

Best regards