The teacher of the week for Dec. 21st is Photography teacher Jenna Cozzarelli.

Cozzarelli has been working at the school for 3 years as an art teacher, but prior to that, she worked for three years as a paraprofessional at the school. She said that a paraprofessional was like a “teacher’s assistant.”

“I just think it’s fun,” she said. “I love seeing the creativity, I love seeing how every year I feel like these students create new photos with new projects and they execute new ideas even though we’re taking the same photos.”

In her class, students start the year by learning the mechanisms of the camera, so they start in black and white. Students take photos around the building and then move into colored photography. They take colored portraits and microphotography.

“Microphotography is like the little army men toys,” she explained.

Her students also practice photojournalism.

Now, in her class, students are taking pictures of shapes by blurring lights, which is called “bokeh.”

Cozzarelli says that when she was in college, she studied abroad in Paris. That’s where she she first learned about professional photography, even in one of the places where it was invented. She spent an entire summer in France with her camera, taking photos. That’s where she found her inspiration to do photography.