The surge of the COVID-19 Omicron wave is threatening to shut down many businesses and school events. Despite the surge, Brookline Lens is adapting as they persist to fulfill their clients’ requests.
Launched in the fall of 2019, Brookline Lens is an optional semester or full year course which provides students the opportunity to produce free photo and video projects for the high school and the greater Brookline community.
These projects include an informational video on Tappan Green, a mini documentary for the Brookline Recreation Center and a video for the PTO.
On Jan. 12, Brookline Lens had to cancel their launch party for the second time in a row due to issues with COVID-19.
IMG_3984Gallery • 4 Photos
Bezawit O’Neill, a junior who is one of the project managers, said that the launch party was meant to advertise Brookline Lens to students interested in joining and future clients who may want their services.
“I was part of the group that was in charge of the slideshow presentation,” O’Neill said. “If people wanted some project done or seniors wanted their senior portraits, it was supposed to be an outreach for them to know that Brookline Lens is there to provide that help if they needed it.”
Lori Lynn, a teacher for the course, said it is difficult to plan a virtual launch party event because it was challenging enough to produce the projects.
“We really feel like it’s something that will be better in person. So this year, we’re attempting to do it. It’s tricky because we’re prioritizing our projects for clients,” Lynn said. “But we hope in the future to have some kind of in-person event where people can meet us and learn about what we do.”
Thato Mwosa, another teacher of Brookline Lens, said she hopes to reschedule and plan the in-person event when Omicron dies down.
“We feel like the next couple of months is really for promoting the things that we’ve always wanted to do,” Mwosa said. “We’re going to launch and make sure that people know that we exist, that we’re a great class and we offer students a great opportunity for hands-on learning and to contribute to the community.”
To compensate for the lack of a launch party, Brookline Lens has found other avenues to advertise. Students in the social media team and marketing and advertising team have been working closely to promote Brookline Lens on Instagram, Facebook, Tiktok and Twitter, while the website management team has been organizing Brookline Lens website.
“We are thinking of ways that we can advertise what we do and get the word out,” Lynn said. “We want people to know that if they have a project in mind or need help with photos or videos, they can come to us. We’re getting there. But I think there’s still a lot of people that need to learn about us.”
Senior Kamini Bhadauria, a student in Brookline Lens, said COVID-19 caused delays in her project.
“It has slowed down the process of the projects. We’re heading into filming our Brookline Rec video project, but because of COVID-19, we’re very unsure about when we’ll be able to film and interview people,” Bhadauria said.
Despite COVID-19 affecting the students’ experiences in Brookline Lens, students said they are glad that they are able to learn about photography, filmmaking and how to communicate with clients.
“It’s a great experience that you can use in any field that you’re going to do when you move on with different levels of high school or also college,” O’Neill said. “I think for any student, if you have any interest in filmmaking or photography, or even if you don’t and you just want to experience something new, I’d definitely say Brookline Lens is a great experience.”
Lynn and Mwosa said they hope that Brookline Lens grows and that they can be a pillar for those who may need their services.
“We have so much potential, and we hope that more and more people come to us,” Mwosa said. “We want people to just know that we’re here to help and understand that when they come to us, they’re also giving students an opportunity to learn, to work with clients and to develop their skills.”
Brookline Lens provides clients with free photography or videography services. Clients can offer to pay a stipend. To request their services, reach them at brooklinelens@gmail.com or at their website Photo Video Productions House | The Brookline Lens | United States
Brookline Lens seeks to be flexible amid COVID-19 issues and cancellations
Allen Yu, Staff Writer|January 25, 2022
PHOTO CONTRIBUTED BY LORI LYNN AND THATO MWOSA
In Spring 2020, the BHS Innovation Fund awarded a special COVID-19 Teaching and Learning Response Grant to Brookline High School educators, led by the Curriculum Coordinators, to support their work in preparing for the current school year with the goal of rethinking educational approaches to teaching and learning during the ongoing pandemic. This past Summer, more than 30 Brookline High School teachers, administrators, program leaders and specialists met remotely over the course of three weeks as part of this first-ever multi-departmental collaborative curriculum programming initiative. Representing the Departments of English, Math, Science, Social Studies and World Language, as well as Special Education and Career and Technology Education, participating educators conducted an important assessment of their experiences teaching remotely this past Spring in order to prepare for the school year. Acknowledging the many challenges that the pivot to remote teaching had required due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they used an inquiry model to explore these questions:
- How do we engage students in their learning and help students develop understanding?
- How should we blend synchronous and asynchronous lessons?
- How will we build relationships with students when not able to work with them face to face?
- How should we adjust assessments and diagnostics in a remote learning environment?
Throughout the project, educators used these guiding questions to research and develop best practices and a collaborative, holistic approach to teaching that will:
- More effectively engage students in the remote and hybrid learning process by focusing on strategies to develop executive functioning skills to teach students how to learn remotely as well as approaches to introduce experiential learning work; and
- Support social-emotional learning by incorporating community building activities into each and every lesson to establish student-to-student and student-to-teacher connections in classes.
“I am grateful to the Brookline High School Innovation Fund for making this critical work a positive and productive reality and to BHS teachers and staff for working together to identify the gaps and opportunities to strengthen the remote teaching and learning experience as we continue to navigate the changing academic environment.”
~ Anthony Meyer, Head of School, Brookline High School
Grant Work Yielded New Opportunities & Inspiring Outcomes
BHS faculty members who participated in the project presented and shared their research with colleagues in early Fall in multiple professional development day demonstrations and workshops using the BHS Remote Learning Toolbox, a best-practices online resource designed to help staff teach students effectively while remote. While the Toolbox was not outlined as a deliverable in the grant proposal, teachers quickly realized that the best, most innovative way to share these important recommendations would be to build an online toolkit and make it accessible to all faculty at the high school. It is already proving to be an invaluable resource to many educators.
Topics in the Toolbox include:
- Building a Digital Classroom: Strategies and tools to set up a hybrid classroom
- During Planning: Strategies and tools for taking the analog to a digital environment
- Tech Tools: Tech Tool support from PSB and colleagues, and tech support for students
- Research and Synthesis: A deep dive into the research and synthesis completed by subgroups
Curriculum Coordinators share that working collaboratively across departments yielded several inspiring outcomes. As teachers began to envision the initial back-to-school period, they were excited by opportunities that remote learning presented. With a more flexible block schedule this year, teachers can engage students in assignments and activities that give real-world meaning to school, and increase connection and rigor. Then, moving into the year, teachers anticipate identifying new, experiential work that can involve students in their community. Rethinking teaching in this way will have benefits beyond the pandemic response. Remote strategies can be used when presenting digital material even when BHS returns to in-school learning. If students are unable to be present, teachers will have a menu of activities that students can still follow at home. Because the grant funded inter-departmental work on a large scale for the very first time at BHS, and contributed greatly to creating connections across curriculum, students will benefit by experiencing a more coordinated approach and manner of communication with all their teachers.
Founded in 1998, the BHS Innovation Fund is a community-supported 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that is unique for a public high school because it offers grant funding to faculty and administrators for initiatives that aren’t covered in the current curriculum and budget.
“The BHS Innovation Fund has supported teacher-driven curricular initiatives that are innovative, interdisciplinary and forward-thinking for over twenty years. As an organization, we are constantly evolving and responding to the academic needs identified by BHS teachers across departments. Given the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, we were thrilled to be able to partner with educators and provide the necessary funding to support this important work during this challenging time at BHS.”
~ Ellen Rizika, Chair, BHS Innovation Fund Board of Directors
