Both of the YAN Club classes on Wednesday focused on photography. Because there was no school Monday and Tuesday, attendance a bit low, but work ethic and motivation were both sky high!

The students were extremely receptive to the PowerPoint presentation which gave a mini introduction to Photography. Students took notes, explored the new YAN cameras and asked questions during this time to be sure they understood. After everyone had completed their notes and there were no more questions, we moved onto a quiz reviewing  what they had just learned: photograph types (portrait, close up and landscape), and several aspects of photo composition (view point [high angle, low angle, eye level], background, balance, lighting and more).

After the quiz, I chose groups for the scavenger hunt of 11 photographs they needed to take! For example, they needed to take a “high angle portrait photograph”. To spice things up, I had each student write their name on a piece of paper as they walked into the class room which I then used to pick groups. Students were getting a bit too comfortable working in their research groups so I thought it would be nice for them to work with other students. We had three cameras and three groups at Lycee. The kids had so much fun going out and exploring on their own. They really got a sense of accomplishment while completing their assignment! The Lycee class finished just a couple of minuets early so I allowed them the choice of going home a bit early or playing with the cameras a bit more. The class was split half and half: so half when home and the other half played a bit more with the cameras.


Here is an unbalanced photo taken by the YAN students at Lycee!

Next I was off to Buea Town! Since the lesson was on photography, there was no need to rent the cyber café that we usually work in. Instead, we used an empty room next to the cyber owned by a woman who does documentation services. After the PowerPoint and quiz, the students were off roaming around town for their photography scavenger hunt. Right at the end of the quiz, another two students showed up (late). So while the original 11 students were off taking photos the three of us went through the PowerPoint and quiz again. Right as the two late comers had finished, one group was back from their scavenger hunt with the camera. Buea Town students were very attentive and worked quickly leaving 20-25min of extra class time for the students to practice using the camera and take photos of themselves and classmates to use at another point in the year.

Hands on activities like this clearly work the best in terms of keeping the students attention and gauging what they have learned (which is usually a lot in lessons like this).

Thursday’s Advanced class also did photography but it was more of a review to see what they already knew. The students worked in partners to complete a quiz consisting of the parts of the camera, photograph types (portrait, close up and landscape), and several aspects of photo composition (view point [high angle, low angle, eye level], background, balance, lighting and more). What the students couldn’t remember was reviewed via PowerPoint and then the students were set off on an assignment. They were to take 3 photos, one portrait, one close up and one landscape using two different aspects of photo composition that we went over. For example, an unbalanced portrait taken from a low angel or an eye level balanced landscape. This was quite challenging for the students – they got most of them but no one was able to get 9 out of 9 using all components in just three photos. This could be something to work on when there is extra time or if the internet isn’t working. As soon as they finished taking their photos, we looked at each groups camera and debriefed on what type of photo and what aspects of photo composition were used. It was during the debriefing that all of the groups were able to recognize and correct their own mistakes. The last 30min of class were used attempting to update their websites but they didn’t get too far due to slow internet connection which wouldn’t allow the uploading of photos


Saturday was the Race of Hope – a sprint/marathon up Mount Cameroon!!

There were tons of festivities going on – stay tuned for a video of the days events!