After Graduation, Advocation Should be My Occupation

March 22, 2011March 22, 2011
by Victoria J

Back in October, I photographed a future educator during a headshot session. To my delight, I was commissioned by him once again to do a portrait session for his birthday, and this time he chose to don a suit with a retro-1960’s cut. We previously set DC’s Union Station as our venue, but as I began to talk to him a little more and hear of his goals during the session, I realized that we needed to step outside of the venue. So we walked about some of the DC streets in this neighborhood, which was steps away from the US Capitol building. He shared with me his hopes to one day get his law degree and eventually advocate for the children – what a noble cause. I can actually think of many men of African or African-American decent that I have seen in education with the goal of moving towards policy creation or child advocacy, like this man, so I was not too surprised. Rather, I was refreshed by his drive, aspiration, community-focus, and all of those other good things that we do not often hear when speaking of men of African or African-American decent. I can go on and on about that, but I won’t. Instead, I will show a few of the stately images that I was able to capture during our session.

Before I show select images, here is my quick PSA: No matter what you find yourself doing, PLEASE make an effort to make a difference in the life of somebody else!

By the way, if you see something you like, don’t forget to leave a comment!

Celebrating Dr. King & Mr. Black

January 24, 2011January 24, 2011
by Victoria J

A few months ago, I attended a School Reform Town Hall Meeting in DC, and then I went and saw Waiting for Superman, which is a documentary about the American public education system. Both experiences positively impacted me, and fueled me to continue moving forward on my course to complete my Masters in Education and then move into the classroom as a teacher. Well, last year, I met a young man, who was then the Student Body President of Howard’s School of Education, and he graciously shared information about my business with others in the School of Education. From what I could see and have heard since, he was always willing to give, ready to keep people informed, and had a heart to serve. So, a week before our observance of Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday, he asked me to help him out with an event that the organization he works with (Heart of America) was sponsoring. For me, I did not have to think twice about taking the project on. I have not been too excited that our observance of Dr. King’s birthday has turned into a day of service because his life involved so much more than volunteering, but I knew this would be a meaningful way to spend this day as I think about where we as a nation have come from. Anyway, when Mr. Smith told me that this event would also honor one of the students, Anthony Black, featured in the movie Waiting for Superman, I was even more excited about the opportunity because it gave me an opportunity to really show my support of education, literacy, and closing the achievement gap in communities that need it the most. Below are images from this event that took place in Howard University’s School of Medicine on January 17, 2011.

Ms. Payne, An Author…

December 8, 2010
by Victoria J

When I first heard of the final project that we had to do in our Literature for Children and Adolescents class, I knew just how to take our project over the top! We were asked to create a Math Trail Children’s Book that showed math in nature or other real world settings. The examples that were shown to us were binders with pages that left much to be desired. We were given some class time and told that we could use our cell phones to take pictures. On the first day, we set a local mall as our backdrop, and at this time, I asked to be the group photographer (we would not be using camera photos for the book, believe me the camera makes a huge difference in the quality of your images). After our pictures and story themes were in place, I suggested that we use one of my vendors to have this book professionally bound, so that we could have a real hardcover children’s book. When we presented the book last week, our teacher was absolutely amazed. She kept looking for proof that we did not make this book or take the photographs, even though I assured her that I am professional photographer, and I regularly design books like these for my clients! Now we went totally above and beyond what was expected (the place I love to operate at), and for me this meant making time among everything else to “optimize” the photos and do all of the page layouts for this 28-page book – but to see the look on our professor’s face and to know that we raised the standard of expectation was PRICELESS!

This experience was different than the previous books I’d designed for the mere fact that it was text-heavy, which adds another element to the design. But all in all, it was a great experience. Who knows, I may be moving in this direction in the near future! We’ll see how things work out!

Below I have included images from this book.

Will You Answer the Call?

November 10, 2010November 10, 2010
by Victoria J

Earlier today, I attended the TOWN HALL Meeting on the TEACH Initiative with panelists US Department of Education Secretary Arne Duncan, Howard School of Education’s Dr. Fenwick, singer John Legend, DCPS Interim-Chancellor Kaya Henderson, and distinguished DCPS High School Teacher Ms. Angela Benjamin. This event aimed to inspire, motivate, and encourage more of the best and the brightest minorities to enter the teaching field as currently 91% of the teaching force is of Caucasian decent. When I reflect on my own educational experience, I remember that it was only in my 6th grade English class that I ever had an African-American teacher (not including my graduate studies at Howard, which is a historically black university). Secretary Duncan wants to ensure that the “Teacher workforce reflects the demographics of our students.” This will be a task since only 3.5% of the nation’s teachers and black and Latino males. I think that events like this will in fact recruit more college-educated individuals into the education field, if by no other means than by letting our “best and brightest” know that it’s ok and extremely beneficial for our communities for them to work in the classroom.

To drive this initiative, there are several financial incentives that the goverment is providing. These include a $4,000 per year TEACH Grant towards undergraduate and graduate studies in exchange for a commitment to teach for 4 years in an 8-year period in a high needs field in a low-income school. This may sound like a lot of stipulations, but it can provide up to $16,000 towards a person’s education. Also, there is a program that promises complete loan forgiveness after 10 years of teaching. School systems like DCPS in the Washington, DC boast that first-year teachers can make up to $73,000 with salary and bonuses, and I will admit that this exceeded my expectations. Ultimately, school systems want to “celebrate and reward highly effective teachers,” according to Interim-Chancellor Henderson because as John Legend put it, “An effective teacher is the single most important factor in improving student performance.”

One of the biggest things that I took from this town hall meeting was that students (our children) need:

Adults that have the highest expectations of them
People who believe that no matter where they have come from, they can achieve

Students (our children) desire:

Teachers that inspire them
Teachers that know what they are doing
Teachers that come out of the textbook sometimes

But at the end of the day, “The most important thing that our best people can do is to TEACH,” according to Chancellor Henderson.

I have included some images from this event below. For the record, I found out about this event at the last minute, so I did not have my trusty Nikon with me, and my cell phone had to work. In this post, I am less concerned with quality of the picture as I am with the effectiveness and urgency of the message!

By the way, I was quoted in a post in response to this event, feel free to check it out on ESSENCE.

Call Him “Mr. O”

October 27, 2010October 27, 2010
by Victoria J

The other day at the School Reform Town Hall Meeting at Bus Boys and Poets, one of the panelist shared a statistic that is still shocking every time that I hear it: of all US teachers, only 1.9% are black males. This measure does not show that black males have no desire to teach because if you take a closer look at the data, you will see that the #1 profession for black males with a bachelor’s degree is Primary Teacher, #3 Secondary Teacher, #9 Administrator, and the #10 profession is Counselor. The issue really was found in looking at the number of black males that actually earn a college degree, which is 15% (a bachelor’s degree is typically a requirement for teacher certification).

I share these numbers not to paint a negative image, but rather to motivate and encourage others towards college and possibly the teaching profession. Contrary to popular belief, teaching can be a lucrative career, but even more than that, it provides people with an opportunity to make a real difference in the lives of our future leaders! As I complete my graduate degree in education, I have the pleasure of learning and teaching alongside a few distinguished gentleman. Recently, I had the opportunity to photograph one of these men in a portrait session at a local elementary school. Below are images of “Mr. O,” and by the way, if you see something that you like, feel free to post a comment!

The Day the School Became a Museum…

October 25, 2010October 25, 2010
by Victoria J

If you’ve been following my blog lately, you are probably aware of my love for children and desire to teach. To this end, I have been completing my practicum at a Northeast DC Public School. Last week, the school had it’s annual “Museum” in which each classroom becomes a gallery with artifacts and students to explain each artifact. Members of the community are invited as well as parents, and each student gets an opportunity to visit other classrooms to see what they have put together for the day. The exhibits ranged from a fish fry to dancing mice (children dressed as mice, and not the actual rodents, thankfully) to interactive story books to shaving cream paintings. In this post, I have included some of my favorite exhibits from the museum.

If you remember my “I still have hope“ post, you will remember that I tried my hand at painting and came up with a decent representation of the Obama Hope campaign logo. This time around, I flexed my drawing muscles… and again, I won’t quit my day job, but you can tell that I was drawing the Titanic! Thankfully, children are not too hard to please when it comes to painting or drawing!

Ever since I started planting seeds in planters in my home back in the spring, I have had this love for plants, seeds, and flowers. There are many ways to incorporate plants into an elementary lesson from science (photosynthesis) to math (probability and measurement). I will definitely use these in my classroom!

Now the “Fish Fry” will be a little harder for me to incorporate into the classroom – not because I cannot see a connection to the academic content, but because I want to teach my students about healthy nutritional choices. Regardless, this teacher had her students’ attention (and appetites).

Most of the time when you see a real fish in a classroom, they are swimming around in a fish tank. But what about teaching students how to remove scales from fish? Real life skills!

One of my first experiences with shaving cream was when I was in elementary attending a friend’s birthday party/sleepover. That night, we sprayed some shaving cream into the hands of the first girl who fell asleep, and then we tickled her feet with a feather. To my credit, I did not come up with this idea, but I did not stop it! Well, at this Elementary School’s Museum, one of the teachers found a better use for shaving cream. In this picture, students were using the shaving cream to mix colors and create beautiful pictures. It looked like a lot of fun, and it seemed easy enough to clean up!

Don’t you remember those art projects we made in elementary and then gave to our parents with the hopes that they would stick them on the refrigerator?

Now the only time I remember cooking in grade school was when I took a Home Ec. class in high school… At the school’s museum, students had the opportunity to work together to make muffins from a box.

What if I told you that these were the muffins the students made? Would you believe me? Well, I think these muffins were store-bought, but I’d imagine that the students’ muffins did not look to far away from these.

In the music room, students had the opportunity to play the keyboard, bongos, maracas, and tambourines to a song.

My Lens . My World . My Perspective

Capturing art and beauty in everyday life.

Category: Education