Help Us Judge Student Photographs (K-12)

[darrenwilson]

Hello!

I am helping my school district (Irving ISD) with a Digital Photography Contest for students. We have actually done for this many years, but are wanting to bump it up a little, so we have decided to get the photos online and make the judging process happen online. This way, we can open the judging up to local and not-so-local photography professionals and enthusiasts to help judge the entries without them having to commit to showing up at a particular location on a particular day to judge. We are hoping this will make it easier to get our community and extended global community involved with our students' work. This is where we need YOU.

We are in need of judges to provide some critique and comments on our students' photo entries. All of the photos are uploaded to our website and can be judged any time from December 20, 2006 to January 4, 2007 . We have a total of 97 photos that need to be judged, and you can choose to judge as many or as few as you have time for. Judging consists of filling out a short 10-item rubric (multiple choice) and making some brief comments for each photo. The photos are separated into eight grade-level categories ranging from pre-kindergarten (yes, 4-year-olds!) , elementary, middle school, high school to our adult/staff category.

The main goal of opening the judging to those outside of our district is to connect our students who are learning about photography with practicing photography experts around the world. Your encouraging words will go a long way in promoting photography and causing our students to become better evaluators of their own work. We would appreciate a few positive comments and a few “instructive” statements for each entry. The rubric items will be averaged and will be used to determine our first, second and third places in each grade category. Your comments, while not figured in to the composite score, are still very important.

We have a total of 97 photos and would like every photo to be judged by at least three different people. As you can see, we have a great need for community participation. If you have a passion for photography and the time to comment and critique some student photographs, then you qualify as a judge. If you know of anyone else who would be qualified to judge, please pass this on to them as well. Please help us by logging in and spending a few minutes reviewing our student entries. Our time is limited.

ABOVE ALL, we want to get and keep kids excited about photography, technology and sharing their work with a global audience. We need folks with an eye for photography, design, or art that would be willing give some feedback to our students and get them excited about shooting.

To judge the photos, go to www.irvingisd.net/photography and click on the judging link. When judging, please include your name and email address. Your email address will not be published. It will be used for security only. Please expect an email from our administrative staff confirming that the address listed next to your name is a valid email address.

Thank you SO MUCH for participating. If you need to contact me, my email address is dwilson@irvingisd.net and my cell is 214-226-1672. Any help you could offer would be GREATLY appreciated. I'll keep you posted as we progress. Thanks in advance.
Darren Wilson
Instructional Technology Specialist
WT Hanes Elmentary, Irving TX
www.wthanes.com

[Stephen H]

Sounds interesting- will try to check it out when I have more time.

The "Rule of Thirds" is all nice and good, but I would never use it as a criteria for judging photos. There're too many shots that are better without it. When I was in school, we learned to write 5-paragraph essays, but nobody in the real world would use that as a standard of good essay writing.

[darrenwilson]

I totally understand. It was very difficult to build the rubric, but we had to have an objective tool to determine some kind of composite score. We all realize that the school-world and the real-world seldom intersect, but that's why we're doing this project online. To get our students' work seen beyond the school house walls, and bring in photography experts from around the globe.

There are many amazing photographs that may not score high on this (or any other) rubric because art is so subjective. That's why we are really looking for folks that will take the time to make some constructive comments back to the sudents. Things like... "rule of thirds or not, you did a great job of framing this scene" ...would be welcome.

Thanks for your comments. Keep them coming. We really want this online judging to be successful and we will take notes as we go for improving the next go-round.

When you get some time, please volunteer some time judging. Thanks, in advance.

[darrenwilson]

Thanks to those of you who have jumped right in there and already judged some photos. Don, Tom, Ric, Jeff, Dave and Cathie, thanks so much. The quality of comments we have so far is simply amazing. Right on the mark. We have 97 photos that we would like to have judged by at least three-five different people, so we will welcome everyone's participation. If you have the time and willingness to judge, please do so. Every minute you spend commenting will benefit our students.

www.irvingisd.net/photography

[Chop249]

I'm not a professional but I love photography. I'm there.

[ChuckW]

I have some experience critiquing photos (and being critiqued) at the college level and am also, by coincidence, an Irving resident so I will give it a try.
One question - what exactly is the Adult category? Would this be any adult Irving school system employee, teacher, staff member or administrator?
Do I get a reduction in my Irving ISD taxes for participating :)

[Jeff_Green]

Judging by the scores already up, I am being too critical! I guess that is one downside of jumping right into the mix ahead of everyone!!

[darrenwilson]

Jeff, your numerical scores are lower in some cases, but your comments are right in line with the other judges. (and so far, all the comments are great) I don't want to tell anyone to score higher or lower, because it all averages out in the end. Just keep on with whatever system works for you. We will average each other out in the end. That's why the more judges we have participating, the more accurate the composite scores in the end will be.

I would think that the scoring might get tougher as we move up to the older grade levels. Also, the comments may get more instructive and technical as we get to middle school and above. The Adult/Staff category is open to the IISD employees (teachers, aides, administrators, etc.) and is the largest catergory this year.

Thanks to everyone who is judging. All are welcome. If you are reading this, you are qualified and deputized.

[Jeff_Green]

lol So just for reference, I would be the Russian judge who is trying to "keep it real"! lol Don't want these people thinking too highly of themselves! :D

I've only judged the high school and over ages. If I drop down to the lower ages I find it difficult to judge them accurately (for me anyways!).

[Jezebel]

I wouldn't mind going through and judging a few of these. Am I to understand that K/1 is kindergarten/1st grade? And 4/5 is 4th-5th grade?

If that's the case I'm pretty impressed with a couple of these kids, haha.

[darrenwilson]

Here's an approximate translation:

Rre-Kindergarten (4-5 years old)
Kindergarten/1st (5-6 years old)
2-3 grade (7-8 years old)
4-5 grade (9-10 years old)
6-8 grade (11-13 years old)
9-10 grade (14-15 years old)
11-12 grade (16-17 years old)
adult (well you know...teachers, staff and administrators)

And yes, some of the work is pretty good for young'uns.

[bondarnes]

Originally Posted by Jeff_Green

Judging by the scores already up, I am being too critical! I guess that is one downside of jumping right into the mix ahead of everyone!!

Jeff, You need to be consistent in your scores and don't change in the middle. I too am fairly critical, but I try to include good comments and am consistant in my scores.

[darrenwilson]

Originally Posted by bondarnes

Jeff, You need to be consistent in your scores and don't change in the middle. I too am fairly critical, but I try to include good comments and am consistant in my scores.

The numbers, as it turns out, aren't going to be nearly as important as your comments. In reality, noone would benefit from a series of ten numbers whether they add up to 21 or 50. You are bringing a level of professionalism and expertise that will most definately shape the way we run our other media/technology contest divisions in the future. Thank you for that.

If you haven't done so already, please take some time to judge a few photos. Most of the photos have been reveiwed at least once or twice, but their is no limit on the number of times that our photos can be judged. If you are having a slow day at work or need something to do to pass the time at the in-laws this weekend, don't forget about us.

www.irvingisd.net/photography

BTW, I rebuilt some of the pages on the site to display your comments as well as the composite scores. Several peopled have emailed not knowing exactly what you could say to a 6-yr-old about their photography. Well, those of you that have commented, can serve as the best example. Go and read, and then feel free to leave your own comments.

One more thing, if you'd prefer that your name not show publicly, leave that box empty but include your email address. Your name won't show up, but we'll have your email address in our database, to verify privately that you are a real person.

[darrenwilson]

Just a friendly reminder that the judging window is still open...and will be through January 4th. Everyone is welcome to comment and critique as many or as few photos as they'd like. I must say that the participation thus far has been tremendous. If you aren't interested in judging, at least go take a look at the comments so far.

http://www.irvingisd.net/photography

[darrenwilson]

One last "bump to the top" for this post...

Judging is open for only two more days. We have had tremendous participation, but still need more critiques specifically in the 4th-5th grade and 6th-8th grade categories. These kids will really appreciate any comments and critiques you leave for their photos. Thanks so much for your time.

www.irvingisd.net/photography