Use photos in the classroom to:Inspire writing, reflections, raise questions. Photos are an open-ended resource, with lots of potential for use in the classroom.There is a wide variety of applications to photo sharing exist by using Flickr and Picasa, from using single photographs as writingprompts to storytelling projects. Flickr, users can draw hotspots on the image and then attach a note to those hotspots. Teachers can use Flickr's annotation function to have students engage in discussions in the class. You can also create slideshow in Flickr and in Picasa. All you have to do is to create an account, upload your pictures and start sharing them.!

Working with photos in the classroom

Arrange photos in some sort of context. Why was the photo taken? Who by? What for?

Use photos of good technical quality.

Photos can help students to distinguish between fact and opinion.

IDEAS FOR WORKING WITH PICTURES IN THE CLASSROOM

•Give students a list of items to look for in the classroom or in the school.  They must take pictures and compile a presentation (slide show, web page, etc.) of the things they found during their scavenger hunt.

•Photograph places in the community (parks, libraries, etc.).  Have students compile reports to go with the photographs and print a brochure about their community.

• Good project for beginners and children: Give students a letter of the alphabet. They then have to find an object in the room that begins with that letter. Then post pictures and make your visual alphabet.

Maximizing Speaking Opportunities usingPictures and Photo Sharing Tools

Students have one minute to present allAdjectives they can associate to the picture.

Teachers shows a pictures and starts with a sentence like: This person is…Teacher then nominates a student to complete the sentence and the student then asks another learner to continue speculating about the picture. The activity goes on until everyone has participated.