Creative Commons Lab

     Photos and images are an excellent manner in which to bring new elements into a classroom.  I would use images to launch discussions regarding places of interest, geography, geology, as well as for writing prompts.  Depending on our current focus, the writing could focus on one of the five senses or emotion so students could absorb and interpret specific information without feeling overwhelmed.  Additionally, I would use images at the beginning or end of a unit to emphasize our learning.  Comparing and contrasting is another method that would be helpful for students to understand a certain concept.  With math, students would be able to see a visual representation of a concept.  For example, when teaching students about balancing equations, showing them a picture of a scale with two numbers on one side and another number of the other, they would be able to see what number was missing.  This would enable them to more fully grasp the concept and gain understanding.  With images in education, the possibilities are countless.


Oregon Coast
Link to Flickr image: Justin Wright
Photographer's website: www.lifeofjustin.com
Creative Commons License
     Ah, the power of water and geology!  I originally had a great picture from Yellowstone National Park, but it disappeared.  :^(  So I found a different photo.  This picture of the Oregon coast was taken by Justin Wright.  The captions for his photos were all the same, but very liberal.  Therefore, I have done as he has requested and posted a link to his website.  I like this picture because of everything taking place all at once.  It is chaotic and beautiful.  What a site to visit, I would imagine.


Photo: Going-to-the-Sun Road, Glacier National Park, Montana
Taken by: Duane B. Karlin

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
     I took this picture last summer while in Glacier National Park, about 40 miles from my home.  Unfortunately, I visited the park on a weekend, so there was a lot of traffic and nowhere to park at the summit, so after literally driving in a circle for about 20 minutes, we turned around and drove back down to the valley.  Click on the picture description to see this one and others.