Teaching darkroom photography was a challenge.  Out of all the courses I had to teach, the photography course was the most difficult to facilitate.  This is because the kids are all at different paces and some will learn at a faster pace.  As a student teacher, we must finish our projects with them before we leave and I was teaching photo for only 4-5 weeks.  I opted to teach darkroom photography without fully understanding their comprehension of the darkroom photography process.  When I started my unit with the students, there were about half of them that were ready to proceed on with my project and the other were still in the midst of learning and catching up.  There were several challenges that I faced:

1. Not enough working cameras

2. Understanding levels

The way to accommodate this was to work in “waves”.  The students who are ready to proceed on with taking photos can start by using the cameras while those who were behind had to work on catching up.  Overall this worked well and eventually most of my students completed their project.  It was difficult though because I cannot split myself into three and be at separate stations at once.  This is something which I will have to figure out if and when I do teach darkroom photography.  I did have the help of my SA but when I am on my own, she won’t be there.  How do I navigate this issues?  Nonetheless, several of my students handed in their finished project.  Due to the stated limitations and the time constraints (which I did give them a 2 week extension and could very well keep extending their due date), the completed projects were of decent quality but not superb.  I believe that having a better understanding of the camera’s technology and capabilities would certainly provide some answers as to how they can better this project.  Some concerns that were raised include distinguishing where the mistakes happened: was the it the film? the camera? the student’s aptitude or lack thereof? or a combination of everything?  With time and experience, I believe that I will be better equipped to figure these problems out.