SCPHOTO - School Curriculum for Photography

SCPHOTO has been serving schools for over 15 years providing an Online curriculum in basic photography. It has been used by close to 1500 students from 10 different countries per day since its beginning in 1993.  Often a school will add a photography class to its curriculum with little support for the teacher in how that class might be taught. Textbooks can cost as much as $50 to $100 per student. This web site offers help that comes from 28 years teaching experience coupled with a love for photography that has lasted more than 50 years. SCPHOTO offers a variety of different tools for photography teachers or for individuals wishing to study photography Online in the comfort of their home. Instructor - Keith Wills - is retired from Santa Cruz High School and putting full time effort into helping others learn to love photography. Here are some of the tools available:

FILM BASED B & W  SCPHOTO was designed by Keith Wills in the 1990's to replace the outdated textbook in use in his photography classes at Santa Cruz High School. The archive of this site contains technical information about photography as well as a collection of assignments that have worked well in moving students from beginning to advanced skills in photography. This B & W course evolved over 28 years in the classroom working with close to 4,000 students. What you see in the archive is the class as it was taught before Keith retired and moved on into technology consulting.	CURRICULUM ARCHIVE Project samples shown on this site are actual student work in black and white produced in class in the 90's. This class has an emphasis on black and white darkroom work. This is an archive of the class as I taught it and is offered as a free resource to teachers and students.  VIEW CURRICULUM . . .
ONLINE BASIC This is a live web based classroom for learning the basics of Digital Photography. Designed for independent study this class can also be used in a classroom as a teacher directed curriculum.  Students view resource materials and lessons Online and then put that lesson to work in either an assignment, quiz, journal or shared discussions in a forum. Assignments are uploaded to the web and graded Online. Quizzes are graded Online for instant feedback.  Independent study students working with Keith Wills have one to one contact for evaluation of work as well as suggestions on ways to advance their knowledge and practice of photography. Almost like a private tutor you have an opportunity to grow as much as you wish with your photography skills.     The cost for the Independent Study class is $75 for a course that is  equivalent to a semester length in a 450 minute per week classroom. The class would represent a full year study in traditional schedule schools that meet one hour per day or less.  Students should contact their local school or home school adviser to see if credits can be accepted for this class before enrolling.	PHOTOGRAPHY COURSE - Study Photography at home To review the class and see how this works without full access to the assignments visit CLASS.SCPHOTO.COM and login using an account name of "visitor" and a password of "visitor".  Instructions on how to register for the course - - -     VISIT OUR ONLINE STORE TO SIGN UP FOR CLASS Visit our new Online store to enroll in any of the courses offered by SCPHOTO using your Pay Pal account and credit card.
Classroom Edition Online SCHOOLS can co-teach this class using their own teacher to do the grade and critique work while SCPHOTO provides the curriculum and foundation for communications Online.  The co-teacher price per student is based on enrollment. Effective January 28, 2008 the price is $20 per student. You will need to have a teacher account plus one account per student. Simply send your Purchase Order to Keith Wills Design, 3917 Winkle Ave, Santa Cruz, CA 95065 and we will send you group enrollment information and a spreadsheet to use to enroll your group. If you would rather use a credit card you can use Pay Pal and enroll using our ONLINE STORE.  Co-teacher classes do not include evaluation of student work by course instructor / administrator, Keith Wills, but they do include assistance for the teacher with lessons, evaluations, assignments and questions.	SCHOOL OR CLASSROOM BASED ONLINE CLASS Teachers using this as their photo curriculum have a complete classroom management package using the power of the Moodle software system that hosts the class. Here is a sample of a participation report that lets teachers see if students have reviewed or participated in a section of the course. Online submission of assignments as well as grading options gives the teacher a complete Online classroom. All assessment and test data can be exported to Excel spreadsheets for use in your own grade book. Co-taught have the added advantage access to the course Administrator, Keith Wills, for additional assistance or ideas on how to use the curriculum in your classroom.  To review the class and see how this works without full access to the assignments visit CLASS.SCPHOTO.COM and login using View the Course Outline    Instruction on how to sign up my school . . .
DIGITAL TEXTBOOK This web site contains the lessons used in the SCPHOTO Basic Photography class. This web site is intended to be used by schools needing a textbook for their photography class and are shocked by prices of upwards to $50 per copy. This version of the Basic Photography curriculum contains no assignments, tests or projects. Just add your own projects and this class is ready to go. If you are looking for a textbook for your photo class and you do not need the Online interactivity of the Basic Photography Class this textbook is for you.  One annual fee covers use for one edition. Purchase a user license for a classroom set of 30 for as little as $300 at a fraction of the cost of a paper textbook. A "green" alternative this textbook will be updated frequently during the year and can be customized for your school needs. This is a full year subscription / license at a cost of $10 each for one year. You may use it on one work station with different students as long as only one is using it at a time.	THE GREEN ALTERNATIVE TO A TEXTBOOK  Note:  If you enroll in the Basic Photography course you will not need this textbook as all of this same content is included in the course.

Teachers Break Room - Free Resource For Photography Teachers

The break room at most schools is where teachers hang out and share experiences with other teachers. In a similar way this is a free web site for any photography teacher wanting to share or discover things about teaching photography. Many photo teachers are professionals or amateurs who love to take pictures and they find themselves lost when it comes to getting students to discover that love in a class. This break room has Forums where you can ask questions and / or share things with other photography teachers.

I have added things that I have learned from teaching photography for 28 years and working with close to 4,000 students as they journey through learning the difference between just taking a snapshot into making a beautiful photography that communicates with another.

The site will only be as good as the teachers that share here. The gold at the end of the rainbow is the knowledge we gain when we share with others. The rainbow takes white light from the sun and breaks it into the primary colors that make it up. I hope that this site will likewise take the processes and challenges of teaching and shed light on them to help teachers help their students learn the joy of photography. 

To join in you must first make an account with a user name and password. You will need to provide a valid email to join. Check the box in the column on the left of this page for the link to make a new account. After you make the account to enroll in the class enter the enrollment key of "teacher" when asked. Teachers who have signed up for the Basic Photography Class will automatically be enrolled in this class.

If you just want to visit without being known use the account name of "visitor" and password of "visitor" and you can explore.

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