Waiting on the snow, yo.

I am very anxiously curious... will we or will we not have a school closing snow tonight? It is predicted to begin snowing late tonight and if the temperature remains cold enough, I feel like we could have another day off. I think the predicted range of temperatures is 30-39 degrees for tomorrow. That may not be quite cold enough. It would be a wonderful day for us to get some snow, because it would give me a day to rest up from the week that I had previously. Also, I need some time to regroup and refocus.

I gave some individual photography assignments in my afternoon class, and that one will be interesting. I gave them one word topics, such as these: Mirrors, Music, Glass, Keys, Light, Fur, Windows, Violence, Silence, Dirt, Wheels, Alone, Caged, Gears, Movement, Glee, Overcome, Broken, Soft, Automatic, Tough, Transparent,Convoluted, Fluid, Pointed, Spiral, and Stripes. The students are to think beyond the obvious solution and see if they can come up with beyond the norm photographic compositions that express whatever word they were assigned. I can hardly wait to see what they come up with.

I am looking forward to the rest of this semester. Really, the hardest part of the semester is past us now, and we can go forward to much more challenging work than we have been doing. I want to give them "shorter fuse" projects - things that they have to complete in a short period of time. I want them to finish the work they have been doing on the projects that we kicked off the semester with, and I want to give them new things to do. I am always so happy when SkillsUSA is over and we get to move forward with things that are a little more exciting.

Interestingly, this group of students is very self-motivated and they all love to create. I just think that they may be more wide ranging in their interests. We have painters, photographers, motion designers, illustrators, graphic designers, and a few that probably will major in marketing or advertising. I think that there may not be as many "straight up design students" as there were even last year. I find it interesting to see that things have flexed that much in one year.

Many of these kids will end up working in the field in some way, and it will be fun to see where their careers will take them. I got a really nice letter from a former student in my e-mail last week before all of the craziness of SkillsUSA happened, and he was telling me about how he was trying to figure out what he wanted to do and was living in another southern state. He ended up declaring a graphic design major, and he was saying that he remembers so much about his time at DJCC and thanked me for being the one who pushed him harder than any other teacher has since in his creative thinking. He had gone to an out of state community college for a few years, and was feeling particularly underchallenged, and felt that he was very far ahead of the other students in that school's design program. He asked me to give him an assignment to keep him creating. It made me realize how deep this desire to be creative is in these students. It is wonderful to have been able to be a part of getting that started. It is wonderful to be asked to help them keep from losing the spark.

At this point in our lovely February, the best advice that I can give us all is the wonderful advice reflected in the poster above...Keep calm and carry on.

Great advice.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The happiness train is back on track today!

Image
Ahh. Like a breath of fresh air, my mood is back to usual today. I don't like feeling down in the dumps. The happy train is back in the station, and boy is that a relief. What can you do to elevate your mood when you are feeling glum? Sometimes stress can actually cause you to feel sick. If you have a lot of stress, I have come up with some very simple ways to feel instantly better. These work for me, they may not for you - but if these don't work, there are probably some that are just as easy to accomplish that would work great. Really, all you have to do is ask one question. If someone looked at you and said, "Hey, tomorrow there will be no jobs that you have to get done, no chores, and no one is depending on you at all. You can do whatever you want to do for one 24 hour period, just because you want to do them." If someone gave you that permission, what would you choose to do? I have a few... I would take a long, relaxing bath. I would go to a florist with
Read more

A new topic...Mark has been facing a new challenge.

Image
Just for the eyes of our family: the challenge of prostate cancer. Since the beginning of May, last spring, Mark has earned so much respect from me. He has bravely faced his diagnosis of prostate cancer. He had surgery in July, and now in August, he is recovering from that. I am so proud of how he is dealing with the whole thing. He (thankfully) seems to have caught it early, thanks to his regular yearly physical. His PSA was slightly elevated and his biopsy came back showing cancer in four of twelve cores in his prostate. He had the option of radiation or surgery, and he opted for surgery. We are now post-surgery by exactly one month, so I can report good progress at this point. We have a follow-up appointment coming up soon, and are hopeful that the reports are good. Since I have not discussed it since the diagnosis and surgery, I felt that I should start the dialog here. He is being so proactive and is working hard to do everything he can to get past it all. His diet has flip
Read more

Conner keeps hitting them out of the park!

Sometimes people just get on creative hot streaks, and Conner seems to be on one right now. First he created a new logo for the Dale Jackson Career Center. Then he created an awesome motion graphics typography-based piece in After Effects. Then, when asked to create a new logo for the Career Center East, he created a unique and professional logo AGAIN! Conner, we are proud of what you do every day in terms of your relationships with your classmates and your high standards, but now you also deserve serious respect for your professionalism as well. We are very honored to have a talent like yours in our studio every day. Conner designed this motion piece in After Effects that features the logo design that he created in animated form. The logo is a symbolic representation of a pathway to the top of the earth. The slogan is "Paving the Way" and it is capitalizing on the switch to "career pathways" that we are using in Career and T
Read more