A Picture in My Mind

As well as take pictures, I teach.  That's my day job, anyway. 

I think I've mentioned before that I teach English Language Arts to late elementary students.  April being Poetry Month, we've begun a unit on understanding poetry.  This is so much fun.  The kids are loving it, and so am I.  It's refreshing to hear their ideas about what they think a poem means; it's also sometimes surprising how perceptive 9- and 10-year-olds can be.

Part of teaching poetry is teaching children how to visualize.  As you might imagine, this is exactly the kind of thing I love to teach.  Here are some of the words they brainstormed when I asked them what we do when we visualize:

                            picture    imagination          think         
      
     meaning         listen         wonder     
                                                  feelings      image        scenery     ideas 

         details     connections     

  focus      infer        setting    words

These wonderful words capture what we do when we stop and listen.  They are what we do when we read.  And they can be applied as easily to what we try to represent when we photograph.

How's that for inspiration from the minds of children?