About Franchesca Warren

For fifteen years Franchesca taught English/Language Arts in two urban districts in Atlanta, Georgia, and Memphis, Tennessee. Increasingly frustrated with decisions being made about public education from people who were not in the classroom, in 2012 she decided to start a blog about what it was really like to teach in public schools. In the last four years, The Educator's Room has grown to become the premiere source for resources, tools, and strategies for all things teaching and learning. To learn more about Franchesca Warren's work, please visit www.franchescalanewarren.com.

This post is sponsored by Getty Unshuttered.

“I need something to do! I’m tired of sitting in the house and doing work and watching Netflix!” This is what my 15-year-old screamed as she ran to her room, frustrated by her algebra homework and research paper on Shakespeare. As of today, we’ve been 48 days self-quarantining while trying to make sure that we stay CORONAVIRUS FREE. In this short time, we’ve:

  • organized our entire house- from closets to cabinets to my work bag and my kid’s backpacks.
  • rode bikes, we’ve searched YouTube to find new workout routines and even set a schedule.
  • Organized our entire virtual schooling along with deadlines, charts, and all.

We’re ready…or so I thought.

It was around day 40 where my teenager broke down. She was overwhelmed with not being able to see her friends and having so much work to complete. So one night on our nightly walk, I asked my daughter to list what she’d be interested in doing during our “break” from school.

I was surprised to see the five things she listed 1.) baking 2.) makeup 3.) photography 4.) sleep 5.) more Netflix.

For some reason, photography jumped out to me (maybe it was the camera I bought her this summer) so I decided to search for some super affordable or free resources for photography. I came across the app/website Getty Unshuttered and I was hooked.

For those who don’t know, Getty Unshuttered is a new website/app focused on building a community for burgeoning photographers to show their world and most importantly build their platforms. The cool thing is when you log in you see a picturesque feed focused on social justice and honing your photography skills. Dubbed as “Getty Unshuttered” was founded with the belief that everyone is an artist and they need a place where they could gather, share and learn.

To sign up is easy. You can download the app and/or sign up at https://bit.ly/2yA01Wm.

From there you will see a feed where you can see other content from creators, skills a place where you can learn more about the technical art of photography and challenges to encourage users to experiment with their photography.

On my daughter’s feed, we decided to focus on nature and just her day on quarantine. We have pictures of breakfast, our cute doggie, and just life. I’m finding my daughter finding time to create and using the app to find quick photo lessons and challenges. She’s even met some of fledging student photographers from around the globe. She has entered two challenges and she’s actually excited about learning.

So while the pandemic roars around the world, my sweet child who misses middle school is spending time finding her passion and becoming a creator. She’s inspired by the world and how she can best capture what’s happening around her.

 

 

Getty Unshuttered

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