The Language Teacher
July 2001

Classroom Tips: A "Photo Roll"

Harry T. Norris,

AS University

Jacqueline Norris-Holt,

Aichi Shukutoku High School

"What is your opinion?... Ah...you over there... Yes, you... Yes, YOU!... Don't look behind you! I mean you! Look at my eyes! Look at my finger! I'm pointing at you!! Stop looking around at other people. Answer the question!!"

Some of us teach a lot of students. Most of them know our names, but we might find it very difficult to remember theirs. For those of you who have this problem, here is a quick tip. Using a digital camera and a computer, it takes about ten minutes to make up a "Photo Roll," which will save you time in the long run.

It doesn't take much classroom experience to realize that a student-directed question is more likely to receive a response than a class-directed question. In the Japanese classroom, where eye contact can sometimes be a difficult way of directing a question, it becomes essential to know the students' names.

These instructions are written in step-by-step fashion for Mac users. For those of you with DOS machines the theory is the same.

Have the students make up "nameplates" on B5 paper using a thick black marker. Tell them to make big letters.
Set up five seats close together and have the students sit in "Roll Order" in groups of six or seven, on the five seats. (You only need their faces and names, so sit them in very close together and get the nameplates up just under their chins.)
You should try to get the whole class into five or six photos (assuming 35-40 students). This will allow you to put all the faces on one page. More than this and you will need to go onto a second page.
Load the images into the computer. They will be saved as JPEG files.
Open the very popular "Graphic Converter" (downloadable from the internet).
Open the first of the picture files.
With the "+" cursor, put one long box around all the faces and names of the students. Don't leave any space above their heads or below the names.
Go to Edit and Trim Selection. This will erase the parts of the photo outside the selected box.
Go to File and Save As. Choose where the file is to be saved (Desktop is good), and type the name of the file (e.g. "1").
Follow the procedure for all of the pictures. You will end up with a list of picture files: 1, 2, 3, 4.
Using Microsoft Word, go to Insert, then Picture, and then From File. Locate the saved area (Desktop) and select the "1" file, then click Insert. Repeat this for "2," "3," etc.
If you're using Apple Works, open a word processor file. Go to File and click on Insert. It will then ask you to find the file. Go to the Desktop then go to File Format and choose All available. The files should be there ready for you to choose. Click Insert, and repeat this for each of the pictures.
You will very soon have your "Photo Roll." Save the file and throw the original photos in the trash (to save disk space).
In your class folder you can now have your roll on one side and your picture roll on the other!

A key point for printing is to have a good quality printer and paper to match. Six hundred dpi or better will give you good results.

For those of you who don't have a digital camera, but do have a standard 35mm camera, stand seven students behind the seats and sit six on the seats. Three standard size photos will fit nicely onto an A4 sheet of paper. The faces may be smaller but the photo quality will be better. You will then have a nice neat page of reference. A photo roll! "What is your opinion?... Ah...Yukiko!"