Hi all,
I'm a teacher and photographer with an MFA and teaching certificate. I've taught high school photography, publication and English at a very good USA school for 15 years and am now ready to look internationally. I'd like to teach photography but know my options will be limited. I'd like to hear from anyone who knows of good schools with good photo programs.
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schools with photography programs?
Thanks for taking the time to respond. I'm sure you're right. I will end up teaching English or doing publications as well as photography.
I've advised the newspaper and the yearbook at my school before. It's a butt load of work but it's also a good way to quickly learn the culture of a school and to bond with kids.
I was able to build an award winning photo program where we topped out at 17 full sections of darkroom and digital (with a school of 1600 students). Unfortunately, AP fever hit the school and the electives bit the dust. So long Philosophy, so long British Lit, Shakespeare, Law and Politics, the literary magazine and my photojournalism class. I could propose an AP Studio Art 2D Photography program but I would damage the programs of my friends in the Art Department.
I'm patient. I'll find the right place.
I've advised the newspaper and the yearbook at my school before. It's a butt load of work but it's also a good way to quickly learn the culture of a school and to bond with kids.
I was able to build an award winning photo program where we topped out at 17 full sections of darkroom and digital (with a school of 1600 students). Unfortunately, AP fever hit the school and the electives bit the dust. So long Philosophy, so long British Lit, Shakespeare, Law and Politics, the literary magazine and my photojournalism class. I could propose an AP Studio Art 2D Photography program but I would damage the programs of my friends in the Art Department.
I'm patient. I'll find the right place.
Look for a larger school with an equally large art program. At our school we have AP Photography as well as main stream photography and we work in the darkroom. In addition, we have the yearbook class, 2 streams of journalism and lots of other opportunities to involve photography on the job. Don't get discouraged the photo jobs are there, maybe just under a different name.
Thanks to all of you who took the time to reply. I will hang in there and see if I can find what I want. I do digital and darkroom and with a little brushing up, I could teach an intro video or web design.
By the way, in response to one poster, darkroom is actually cheaper than digital for a couple of reasons: 1) In a digital lab you have to keep upgrading the software and hardware every few years at great cost while an old enlarger from 1950 or much earlier is still chugging along. You might have to hassle with chemicals and their cost but it doesn't come near to the cost of the computer lab. And 2) Digital camera gear breaks constantly. I have Nikon F3 that could survive a sandstorm or arctic blast while my picky D200 and its dainty $1700 lens have died on me a few times.
The upside to digital is that my students can buy cheap digitals and have a hard time finding film cameras.
I'll keep honing my English class skills. I hate being mentally split between the two but I can recognize that I'll have more options with English on my resume than I will with just photography.
Thanks again.
By the way, in response to one poster, darkroom is actually cheaper than digital for a couple of reasons: 1) In a digital lab you have to keep upgrading the software and hardware every few years at great cost while an old enlarger from 1950 or much earlier is still chugging along. You might have to hassle with chemicals and their cost but it doesn't come near to the cost of the computer lab. And 2) Digital camera gear breaks constantly. I have Nikon F3 that could survive a sandstorm or arctic blast while my picky D200 and its dainty $1700 lens have died on me a few times.
The upside to digital is that my students can buy cheap digitals and have a hard time finding film cameras.
I'll keep honing my English class skills. I hate being mentally split between the two but I can recognize that I'll have more options with English on my resume than I will with just photography.
Thanks again.
photography
The Singapore American School doesn't do IB and does have - or did a few years ago - an extensive photography program with a darkroom to rival almost any I've seen, in addition to a strong journalism program. There are other American schools overseas that didn't jump on the IB bandwagon. Good luck.
You know, that Bangkok job got me thinking seriously about teaching overseas. I saw it on a day when I was thinking that it's time to move on. Someone who knew a previous headmaster had told me about ISBangkok. So, I opened up the website, muttered "Oh shoot" (or something like that) and sent a resume literally a day after they'd hired another guy.
I heard that he was hired in London, certified in math and married to a Thai woman. (I got this information from the woman who'd been the photo teacher there. She was wonderful when I emailed her for information about the job and tried to get my resume to the headmaster who was meeting the new guy in London.) We were both too late.
It sounds like the new teacher will have many good reasons to stay. Lucky guy from everything I've heard.
I am keeping my eye on Singapore. Do you know anything about the United World College of South East Asia? Their philosophy sounds wonderful. Or how about the International School of Prague (has a photo program) or Brussels?
I heard that he was hired in London, certified in math and married to a Thai woman. (I got this information from the woman who'd been the photo teacher there. She was wonderful when I emailed her for information about the job and tried to get my resume to the headmaster who was meeting the new guy in London.) We were both too late.
It sounds like the new teacher will have many good reasons to stay. Lucky guy from everything I've heard.
I am keeping my eye on Singapore. Do you know anything about the United World College of South East Asia? Their philosophy sounds wonderful. Or how about the International School of Prague (has a photo program) or Brussels?
Hi PsyGuy,
This digital vs darkroom has been much on my mind lately because I'm on a state board to determine "frameworks" for future Career and Technical Development funding.
The safe disposal of chemicals is an important issue but the cost of silver is making that easier. Access to supplies can also get tricky but ordering online has never been easier. Licensing isn't as expensive as buying the initial software but the computers are massively expensive and mine are dying at age 5. We have a 1-1 laptop program but the tech people hate loading the software on all of those laptops (we've tried it in my advanced class) and then removing it at the end of the semester. The kids and I end up going to the lab anyway to use the bigger screens because we can really see what we're working on.
From the standpoint of the teacher, it's ten times easier to teach digital -- no clean up or ordering, quiet little students glued to a screen, their pictures always turn out.
But from the standpoint of a guilty teacher who deep down wants them to learn, I would miss watching the struggle and reward they get from the darkroom classes. I've gotten a number of interesting responses from other teachers and professional photogs who I've talked to about this. Here's are the arguments that came up (almost all of this assumes a digital program is offered, too).
Against darkroom: No one does darkroom anymore. It's out of date. You can do exactly the same thing in a lab. It's expensive and an environmental hazard. Teachers need to teach technology and forget this antique technique. This is the way kids think and work.
For darkroom: It is the "canon" of visual literacy. Would we stop teaching Thoreau or Shakespeare because it's difficult and because we can read an interesting blog? The darkroom slows kids down and makes them go through a difficult process. They are so motivated and proud once something finally turns out (I think they are in digital, too, if I make them keep working on their "adequate" images). It connects them to physics and a historic process. Being an artist is a legitimate career and most artists are going back to working with darkroom materials. In a communal darkroom kids interact and collaborate rather than isolate themselves at their computers. Leaders emerge who never had that kind of prestige before.
The top private school in our area (the one Bill Gates attended and where his kids now go) teaches only darkroom. No digital allowed. (Well, maybe a little self taught work in their third year.) The teacher there told me their students need to slow down and struggle. He likes seeing these really accomplished kids startled and challenged by the processes.
I like both. If a school already has a darkroom, I'd argue that they should try to keep it going ALONG with a digital program. If they don't have a darkroom, and particularly if they're in a poor area, go for digital only.
I know this forum is supposed to be about finding an international schools job but I've enjoyed our discussion. Thanks.
This digital vs darkroom has been much on my mind lately because I'm on a state board to determine "frameworks" for future Career and Technical Development funding.
The safe disposal of chemicals is an important issue but the cost of silver is making that easier. Access to supplies can also get tricky but ordering online has never been easier. Licensing isn't as expensive as buying the initial software but the computers are massively expensive and mine are dying at age 5. We have a 1-1 laptop program but the tech people hate loading the software on all of those laptops (we've tried it in my advanced class) and then removing it at the end of the semester. The kids and I end up going to the lab anyway to use the bigger screens because we can really see what we're working on.
From the standpoint of the teacher, it's ten times easier to teach digital -- no clean up or ordering, quiet little students glued to a screen, their pictures always turn out.
But from the standpoint of a guilty teacher who deep down wants them to learn, I would miss watching the struggle and reward they get from the darkroom classes. I've gotten a number of interesting responses from other teachers and professional photogs who I've talked to about this. Here's are the arguments that came up (almost all of this assumes a digital program is offered, too).
Against darkroom: No one does darkroom anymore. It's out of date. You can do exactly the same thing in a lab. It's expensive and an environmental hazard. Teachers need to teach technology and forget this antique technique. This is the way kids think and work.
For darkroom: It is the "canon" of visual literacy. Would we stop teaching Thoreau or Shakespeare because it's difficult and because we can read an interesting blog? The darkroom slows kids down and makes them go through a difficult process. They are so motivated and proud once something finally turns out (I think they are in digital, too, if I make them keep working on their "adequate" images). It connects them to physics and a historic process. Being an artist is a legitimate career and most artists are going back to working with darkroom materials. In a communal darkroom kids interact and collaborate rather than isolate themselves at their computers. Leaders emerge who never had that kind of prestige before.
The top private school in our area (the one Bill Gates attended and where his kids now go) teaches only darkroom. No digital allowed. (Well, maybe a little self taught work in their third year.) The teacher there told me their students need to slow down and struggle. He likes seeing these really accomplished kids startled and challenged by the processes.
I like both. If a school already has a darkroom, I'd argue that they should try to keep it going ALONG with a digital program. If they don't have a darkroom, and particularly if they're in a poor area, go for digital only.
I know this forum is supposed to be about finding an international schools job but I've enjoyed our discussion. Thanks.