Inspiring Students

I found the article "Pictures Across The Curriculum: After The Tourists Have Gone" in ICT in Education Blog by Terry Freedman very interesting. Having studied creative writing and studio art during my undergrad, I am very familiar with the idea of bringing in outside stimuli  (in this blog's case a photograph) into the classroom to inspire conversation or creativity.

However,  Terry Freedman takes this idea well past the arts and, for example,  discusses how using a photograph could help focus conversation in a unit on economics. He asks in regard to his random picture of boats on a river,  what sort of industries might be in this region?

Freedman's main point appears to be that a teacher needs to provide some impetus to get the conversation started, something for students to focus on.

I took the above picture while on holiday in England. This bird was so friendly and desensitized, that not only did it sit on our car while we were inside...but the bird ate some bread out of my hand while sitting right there on the side mirror! Perhaps this picture could be a good way to start a conversation on how urban centers, urban crawl, and other human activities are affecting wildlife.