When we worked with the Cherry Hill Elementary students on the photo essay assignmen, we realized the important contribution that came from Stephanie --the classroom teacher. Our purpose was to help the students observe the ordinary in their world. The essays turned out great, but the group working with Stephanie had a more rich experience. She had just taken them to see William Post’s Quiet Landscapes at the BYU museum of Art. She and the students had already discussed his philosophy of observation, which was that you notice where people were supposed to be because of their absence. Because she could link the assignment to another classroom discussion, the students experimented with Post's idea in their photo essays. This lead to great discussions about the two mediums and their possibilities.
