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Santa Clarita School grabs campus life with lenses

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Contributed by: Carol Rock/valleynews on 6/19/2007

Ricardo Astiazarian could hardly wait to open the colorful book, weighing the possibility of messing up the pages with ice cream-sticky fingers against his unbridled excitement.

The book, A Day in the Life of Santa Clarita Elementary School, was a project of the Gifted and Talented Education (GATE) program at the school. More than 40 students armed with digital and disposable cameras, chronicled campus life from 9 a.m. May 17 to 8:59 a.m. May 18, producing more than 2,000 snapshots. Four parent volunteers, along with librarian Kathi Lund, pored over the pictures, choosing approximately 500 for the book, which debuted June 19 at a festive ice cream social on the playground.

"I saw the pages when they were putting it together," Astiazarian said. His mother, Veronica, was one of four parent volunteers who sorted through the photos and selected those to be included. He and his brother, Fernando, both had pictures included in the collection, which captured students, faculty, staff and visitors at work and play, lunch and recess, helping kindergarteners with computers, getting ready for Open House and families enjoying a book fair.

Campus landmarks such as Paul's Garden, a memorial created to honor at student killed in 1997, the gifts given by graduating classes, such as a statue of school mascot RJ the Bulldog and an American flag created of glossy red, white and blue tiles are featured. Historic notes, such as the school's origin marked by a faded newspaper photo of Dry Canyon Elementary School (the original concept name) compared with the same view of the school today; a photo of a 1995 city-sponsored tree planting showed slender shoots coming up from the parkway compare with current shots of towering trees with wide canopies added an air of perspective.

Stevin Kane, 11, said his favorite part of the project was considering what the pictures were all about.

"I took a picture of the sign in front of the school," he said. "I didn't think anyone would take that."

His friends crowded around him at a picnic table, pointing eagerly to their pictures on a page entitled "Critters." Several of the boys had shots of a bunny let loose in a classroom and one boy whooped with excitement when he spotted his shot of a bird standing on one leg and tipping dangerously to the side.

"He was tipping over," he squealed.

Michele Eusebi, one of the moms who used her computer skills to lay out the pages, said that the project sparked something new in the students.

"It was interesting to see how they saw what they did and what they thought was important. We had several pictures of the bunny, but from a bunch of different angles."

"They followed (advisor Gary Choppe) his advice about getting in close and telling the story with the picture," added volunteer Susie Quinn. "We especially saw this in the kids who shot digital pictures, they would start out with a snapshot and get in with their own ideas."

Quinn's daughter, Destiny, 10, wants to continue taking pictures.

"I liked how you can see unusual things with a camera and you can't see with your eyes," she said. "It's become a dream of mine to become a photographer."

"This project not only gave the kids the opportunity to take pictures," said Lund, who has worked on campus for several years. "It also captured things I've never noticed at school."

"A lot of enrichment programs take place in the classroom," she added. "But sometimes it takes an extracurricular activity that's fun to impress upon the kids what they can do. This liberated them to poke their noses where they've never been before."

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