Kasota Primary School Photo Assignment
While at Kasota Primary School in Masaka I gave a child an assignment to photograph his life, friends, and surroundings with a disposable camera provided by the students of Clayton Elementary in Austin, Texas.
The teacher in Texas, Angela Houdyshell, is a close friend of mine and has been really invested in the project. She is a great second grade teacher who always tries to teach her kids above and beyond the state curriculum. She starting telling her students of my travels and my plans for the trip to Uganda. According to Angela the students became extremely interested in the trip and wanted to become involved in any way they could. This was a great teaching moment for Angela. She was able to introduce the students to a cultural group they had not been exposed to before.
Along with the camera I brought to Uganda from Texas, the students of Clayton Elementary provided a notebook full of letters to the students of Uganda, and drawings of their daily activities to try to make deeper connections. Though so many things about both of these communities are different, the children were able to learn about each other and actually find common interests. I was excited when one of the students from Uganda said to me “They like futball too?!”. This really made his day.
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I asked a young man at Kasota to be the special photographer for the day. He was thrilled with the opportunity. I gave him a quick camera tutorial and he set out on his mission to capture through images his life to show the American children. I learned a lot from these photos. What do you take from them?
Amanda, Great images!!! I love that you and Angela worked together to help connect “Austonian” (not sure that is a real word, but it sounds so proper!) students to Ugandan students…what a great lesson…You two should definitely present (and write???) about this!! Wonderful….
Yes! What a great idea to present on this topic.
My students had some time last week to freely explore the pics, drawings, and artifacts that Amanda brought back for them. I am looking forward to a class discussion this week. I already know that they are making some significant connections. I hope though that they will see that even though our world is so large and diverse there are many ways that they are like the students in Uganda. We will also explore the concept of giving, which reaches so far beyond material gifts like the ones they will be receiving this holiday season.
I am excited about broadening their horizons!