Winding Up the School Year with New Eyes

My favorite color! (Naomi's photos)
My favorite color!
(Naomi’s photos)

It’s the end of June again, which means that another school year has ended and it’s my birthday again.

While last year’s early 50th hoopla was in April (attending and presenting at the IATEFL conference in Liverpool), this year I began giving myself a small, quiet, daily present at the end of February. And it will last an entire year!

I joined a “take a picture a day” project, otherwise known as The 365 Project. People do it for all kinds of reasons but my goal is very specific:

To notice something small, every day, in my regular surroundings.

I’ve been living in the same town and teaching at the same school since 1988. It’s easy to find interesting things when one travels to other places. I needed to see what’s new right under my nose.

It works! This project has already had an unbelievable effect on me. There IS something new under the sun every day, and one doesn’t need to travel to find it. Lots of new things in fact!

It’s a great gift to give to myself. It’s free too. A side effect seems to be that my photography skills are getting better. The first pictures were taken on an Ipod. Now I’m almost always with a camera in my bag!

Here are some things I hadn’t noticed at the Yehud High-School, where I teach.

Here is the link to my daily project: http://365project.org/naomima/365

14 thoughts on “Winding Up the School Year with New Eyes”

  1. What a fabulous concept and great project. Totally agree and glad you were able to participate and learn from that.

  2. Naomi thank you for sharing this lovely idea and for your photographs. I saw so much and enjoyed Happy birthday and many more. IRIS SHENKMAN Levinsky College

    1. I’m so pleased you understand what I mean, Iris! Thank you for your kind words and wishes.

  3. Love this idea…It would be great to implement as a short project for students and have them take pictures -not only at school…Thanks for telling us about it!

    1. My pleasure Barbara, would be happy to hear what you do with it in class. Thanks for commenting!

  4. Thank you dear Naomi and Happy Birthday! The world is always at our fingertips even we open our hands and eyes and hearts. You do all three. Big HUGS <3

  5. Hi Naomi,
    I’m so glad you started taking pictures every day – I love seeing what you’ve noticed when you share them with us. That’s why I take so many pictures, and that’s the only way I’ve got better. As with everything – you improve with practice! Along the way, I’ve picked up a couple of hints from flicking through photography magazines and chatting to people (mostly my uncle who takes a lot of amazing wildlife pictures!) My favourite, and the one which probably made the biggest difference to the photos I was taking, is the ‘rule of thirds’: http://digital-photography-school.com/rule-of-thirds/
    Looking forward to seeing more of your pictures, and a very belated happy birthday!
    Sandy

    1. Oh, I owe a lot to you discussing photos and ELTpics, of course. I quoted you on our recent trip, how you said one should remember to look up!
      Thanks, Sandy!

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