Adteacher

College students are making their way back to school in faraway lands. CalArts , SCAD , Michigan, etc., all across the country. I have had many very nice conversations recently with students who are making their way to college for the first time as well as some who are going back. One thing remains consistent - the joy that I feel knowing that they care enough to come back to high school to visit their old teacher. I feel so lucky to have a neat bunch of college grads as well as current college students. I try to stay informed about what life is like for each one of them, but I have lost touch with a few. I hope that life is treating them well and that they felt well prepared for the challenges that college life presented them with. Sometimes life is funny, and I get included on some of their great conversations. Today there were 4 alumni here after school along with about 4 or 5 of our current students, just hanging out in the studio with me and enjoying the time together. I got a c

I should have gone home long ago. LONG ago. There's no air conditioning right now in the studio and it's after 8 PM... But here I sit at my desk at CCE, looking at the photography of recent DJCC graduate, Cason Hallock. I can't seem to pull myself away. Cason has recently been taking photos with his new macro lens, and they are jawdropping. I have been mesmerized for the past 30 min., and I have so much other work to get done, but Cason's gorgeous photos have taken their toll on my time management! I am so lucky to get to work with such talented artists who are so generous with their work. I will be printing several of Cason's recent photos to add to the rapidly developing collection that is going up in the CCE studio. Cason is such a humble young man, but he has a real talent behind the lens and I hope that he will go on to pursue the field of photography with a vengeance. I can tell that he loves it, and he is doing such great things with his Nikon. Keep on shooti

Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948) I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles, but today it means getting along with people.--Gandhi I am pretty sure that Gandhi had a lot of things right. His opinion on leadership is surely correct, and it cannot be stated clearly enough. The importance of being capable of being a team player and getting along well with the people you work in close contact with is one of the surest ways of becoming a success. To become a good leader, you will need to know when to use a certain leadership style for a given situation. Authoritative style: This style should be used when you wish to persuade those that follow you to carry out a specific task. A leader who uses the authoritative method is telling their followers to "join them." This is a style of leadership which will convey a great deal of confidence. Coercive method:  When a leader uses this style, they are telling their followers to "do as I say, not as I do." This style i

I was just posting on the new class site, ccedesign.blogspot.com and I realized what a great day it had been for a Monday... It is really something else around here. We have an explosively talented group of young advanced students mixed into the afternoon group of beginning designers, and there are already 30 people in this room. It is very exciting to see the potential. It floats around this studio like a golden cloud of "wonderful" and I feel the presence of some amazing yet to be fulfilled possibilities. This year feels like it might be the strongest year yet, and I am slightly hesitant to predict such an outlandish thing... since I have loved so many of the years that I have taught in this district. But this year feels a little bit special. I have more really good photographers this year than I can ever remember having before. I am looking at their work on flickr and other portfolio sites, and WOW! Just wow. I am also proud of Mallory Strong for being a featured ph