The Faces of the Bulldog

As a young school looking to break out of the model of inner city socioeconomically challenged stereotypes, Mill Creek is looking to put a new face to the school annual. This year's Paw Prints' cover will include the Face and life of each and every one of the 840 bulldogs and staff.

Working with the theme "Faces of the Bulldogs", the entire 116 page book will include at minimum 2 candid photos of each student in addition to their school portrait. This goal creates a need for over 1700 photos for just the pages of the book. Additionally our focus is to also include the entire as many of the 840 faces of Mill Creek on the cover.

The method we will be using is the montage concept. Through programs such as MultiMedia Lab V, the students will be able to use their photos of faces, smiles, animals, books, thumbs-up, and student life to create an interactive "Where's Waldo" style cover. Each yearbook will come with a mini magnifying glass to aid in their search. At the end of the book, a list of all the "images" to search will be listed. What "images" to include will be determined by the yearbook staff of 30 kids.

In addition to the 1500 photos required for the creation of the cover, students would also utilize the cameras for the initial photograph of the school and the "face" of the bulldog that will be used in the montage process.

Furthermore, the cameras would be routinely used to take other photos needs for the 116 pages between this interactive student created cover. Photos are needed for everything from student life and class candids to sports actions shots and club activities. The clicks will always be "points, shooting, and clicking" across the year.

Student Assignments include:

Week One:
A) Capturing the Structure of Mill Creek - a student photo assignment to photograph the school building that included the construction phase of our school with the existing building.

Week Two:
B) Finding the Bulldog "Look" - a student photo assignment to photograph the face of a Bulldog to be used for dominate image on the cover which the montage is created from.

Week Three to Week Eight:
C) The PARTS of Bulldog Life - a 6 week student photo assignment to photograph specifically assigned images that represent student life at Mill Creek. The students will be paired up and challenged with the task of seeking out and photographing 5 to 8 pictures of each item on their list. Examples of images on their list include: thumbs-up, high 5s, stacks of books, science activities, athletic activities, buses, lunch time, lockers, smiles, flowers, shoes, watches, backpacks, multicultural images, and many others.

Week Nine:
D) Sorting of images - Students will work in teams of 5 to sort through all of their digitally captured images in order to select the best 20 for each category. They will be responsible for creating a database and organized system for their submission of 200 images as a group.

Week Ten to Week Twenty-Five:
E) Between the Cover - Students will be routinely provided a list of photographs that are needed. Additionally student photographers will be given names of specific students to find to ensure their photo is included in the yearbook. Photo assignments will be given weekly on Mondays. Images will be due by Thursday. Friday will be used to edit, clean up photos, and complete student group grading activity.