Sacajawea Students Develop Photography Skills

With spring on its way, it’s time to adjust your sights, close the shutter and throw away the flash.

That’s student teacher Brian Reathaford’s advice to students at Sacajawea Middle School who have been studying photography this winter.

“The kids got their first roll back this week - indoor with flash. This week we’re going outside,” Reathaford said.

Reathaford, who is earning a teaching certificate at Eastern Washington University, is also a professional photographer.

When Mark Lishner, head of the Quest program, Sacajawea’s alternative education program, heard about Reathaford’s interest in photography from another student teacher, Lishner nabbed the man and his camera.

“We’ve wanted someone to come in and work with our photography club forever,” said Lishner.

Last week Reathaford took eighth-graders Dino Norris, Carolyn Wilson and Alicia Rybarczyk to St. Joseph Care Center to photograph the center’s senior residents.

“The kids really loved it,” Lishner said. “They also were exposed to some elderly folks.

“They had to speak a lot louder to be heard. They were all in wheelchairs. It created a real awareness of the elderly.”

Reathaford draped sheets over air conditioners to create a softer background, set up flowers and helped the three students create portraits of the St. Joseph residents.

“The elderly people are excited to have someone come and visit them,” Reathaford said.

Norris, 13, experimented with different lighting effects.

“We were doing portraits with natural light and flashes,” he said.

Wilson, 14, said she learned to focus on one aspect of a subject.

“If a woman is wearing glasses, you focus on that,” she said.

When it comes to lighting, Wilson favors a mixture of light and dark.

“It’s always nice to have highlights,” she said.

“Let’s say it’s a dark room, and you want to open the shutter. It would be better not to hold the camera, but have it on a tripod.”

Reathaford, who specializes in taking photographs of wildlife and wildflowers, will be helping students capture wild birds on film next week.

This week Reathaford’s students will head to the darkroom at Spokane Falls Community College to learn how to develop black-and-white prints.

“It’s wonderful to see students who are even halfway interested in photography taking off with this, loving it,” Reathaford said.

Student wins architecture award

Jason Weatherred, a senior at Ferris High School, was awarded on Friday a $100 U.S. Savings Bond for his architectural and academic aplomb.

Weatherred, 18, received word that he is one 3,000 winners nationwide in the Tools for Tomorrow All-American Vocational Student Award contest sponsored by Servistar Coast to Coast Corp.

Servistar awards are presented in recognition of students’ vocational and academic achievements, leadership skills and community development.

Mike Hadway, drafting teacher at Ferris, nominated Weatherred for the award.

Weatherred’s win makes him eligible for the state award, a $500 savings bond. Servistar officials will choose one winner from each state.

“They’ll tell me within a month if I make it to state,” he said.

State winners are eligible for a $1,000 national scholarship and trip to Washington, D.C., to receive the award in May.

Weatherred, who plays forward for the Ferris basketball team, plans to attend Montana State University or California Polytechnical Institute. He he intends to major in architecture.

Young poets know about cinquains

Five Sunset Elementary students have had their cinquains published in this year’s Anthology of Poetry by Young Americans.

Cinquains? Not a relative of the penguin, a cinquain is a poetic form.

“The students’ poems were chosen as particularly good examples of cinquain poetry,” said their third-grade teacher, Anita Mauerer.

A copy of the anthology, published in the fall, already has been delivered to the school library, Mauerer said. The five students, who wrote the poems last spring, will soon receive their own copies of the anthology.

A cinquain begins with a one-word subject. Each line then increases by one word. The final line ends with a single word.

The students - Josh Hotelling, Bradley Reeser, Heather Hunley, Matthew Combs and Megan Boquist - were members of Mauerer’s third-grade class.

Student teacher Stephanie Hampson introduced the cinquain to the budding poets.

Wilson students know ‘Math Is Cool’

Fourth-graders from Wilson Elementary were high scorers at the Feb. 7 “Math Is Cool,” championship at Lewis and Clark High School.

In its second year, the competition tests individual and team skills.

Brian Christensen placed third in individual competition; Brian Porter, second; and James Connelly, 13th.

, DataTimes MEMO: Education Notebook is a regular feature of the South Side Voice. Please let us know about interesting programs and activities, and the achievements of students, teachers, administrators, staff and volunteers at schools on Spokane’s South Side and in Cheney, Medical Lake and the Liberty School District. Contact Janice Podsada, South Side Voice, P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210 E-mail: janicep@spokesman.com Or call: 459-5439 Fax: 459-5482