After being somewhat coy the past few days, the little businessman and co. spent some more time with me last night. I have an old Iphone that I bring with me for the students to use as a camera and to play some songs in English. I decided to turn it over to Augustino, Cecilia, and Mateo for about an hour to teach them how to take photos. I told them that this talent would be something that they might offer as a service for tourists, so we practiced. Of course, my ulterior motive was to get some, hard-to-come-by, photos of my little friends and to get them used to photos on both sides of the camera.
They were delighted by the machine, wanted to know what all of the buttons do, wanted to run the timer, the camera, and every song at the same time.
When I showed them how to take videos, they weren’t sure what they should document, but when we played the first one back and they could hear their own voices, that was the best. They could’ve sat around talking and recording the rest of the night.
When they saw I had my other phone, they wanted to use both. I told Mateo I would entrust it to him, but he needed to be careful. They started competing about who could take the clearest shot, the most interesting. They were getting it—and fast.
Three other children approached us: Mauricio, Raphael, and a pretty little girl that made Mateo’s eyes all sparkly. We let them play with our toys, but when I asked Mateo if they were our friends, he shook his head, no. When I asked quietly if they were our enemies and we should fight them, he laughed.
Wrapping up for the night, I told them their homework was to think about what pictures and videos they will take next time.
Augostino was so excited about our photo adventures, he tried to climb on someone’s motorcycle for a photo shoot. I warned him against this, but he just looked at me as if to say, “I’m cute; I can do stuff like this.” I had to agree.
Love this! Of course you are trying to make this into a teaching moment! : ). There were a few shots of Mateo!