Adteacher

The studio reopens on Monday! After not posting since springtime, I have decided it is time to create regular posts again now that the 2012-13 school year is here! I feel so excited when I get the new roster of students every semester: I'm not only happy to see the number of students returning for the second or even the third time, but I am also very happy to see the number of young first year students that we get every semester. This year is appearing to be another capacity year with every seat full and not just for the fall semester, but also for the spring. Lots of people continue to want to learn about design and art and especially how to incorporate technology to help them start a career in college in the field. This year, it appears that we have a record number of sophomore students who have signed up to take the course, so in a few years' time, we should have an outstanding crop of very experienced looking portfolios to send to the National Portfolio Days. (This year

I've been kind of looking forward to this day for awhile, because I always make the most of my summers...but by the same token, I've been kind of dreading this day too. I always look forward to traveling and spending time doing things at home. I love having these few months off work, and it gives me a chance to re-charge for a new school year (2012-13 is just around the corner!) It's very interesting to feel that familiar lump in my throat for about the 15th year in a row, as my students walk out the door for the "theoretical" last time though. I know that when (and if) they come back, it will be to visit, not to learn and to create here in the studio. I have had my time with them, and now it is someone else's turn to influence and help them. I always feel a little bit funny about that. Some of these people I have known since they were in middle school, so it's weird to see them grow up and fly away! But the cool places that they will get to go! We

Filling our younger students with hope... As we work our way closer to another outstanding year, with a total calculated estimate of over a million dollars in scholarship awards to this year's outstanding seniors in my classroom here at Career Center East alone, it is helpful to take stock of how we are helping students at a much younger age as well. We at Career Center East had a group of young students from the 5th grade tour through here today after school. One of the things that their teacher shared with me is that they are a group of students who are currently not hopeful that they have college in their future, that the ultimate goal is completion of high school. She is trying to change their vision. Bless her and lots more like her who try to give our youngest students a new way of looking at their lives, beyond the vision that they have been given by families or others. Sometimes it is difficult to look past obstacles, and there are people in education that are doi

I have a theory. Even though we have a designated week for appreciating teachers (and it happens to be this particular week) I really feel that you just can't really appreciate your teachers fully until a little later in life. If even then... I love the fact that we are getting treated nicely this week, with a whole slate of treats and events from various people in our school. Who doesn't like to feel appreciated, honestly? One of the things I know is that one of the teachers I really appreciated the most after getting older and gaining perspective was one of the ones that was labeled the most demanding ("meanest") in the school as an elementary school student. She happened to "like" me as a student, but she was very hard on many of my classmates. I was a student who was naturally motivated to make A's and B's in school, so she really never gave me a "hard time", but she saw the potential that some of my friends had who were not do

On my other blog, (the class assignment blog which is at ccedesign.blogspot.com), you can plainly see that there is still a lot going on around school. We have multiple assignments going on, and we are preparing for the Media Arts Review in mid-May, which is our year-ending capstone experience around here. I have been writing a lot about our seniors. While I know it is impossible to build a great department without great seniors - I am also aware that you have to have an "up and coming" group of great underclassmen to lead in the future. When it gets "down to brass tacks" it takes everyone doing their job on a daily basis. The students, teachers and administrators have to have the best interests of the students at heart on a day to day basis. I have found that we here at CCE are fortunate to have intelligent motivated people in all of those roles. I feel very lucky to have some really strong people in place as sophomores and juniors. I feel that some of them are

100% of all CCE Graphic Design and Illustration seniors this semester are college bound: Out of 43 seniors who attended CCE this year, 13 plan to attend a local community college first, and the other 30 are going directly to university programs or design colleges. Collin College is the first most attended community college, and Northlake is second. The highest attended university is the University of North Texas, and others include Texas Christian University, Texas State University, University of Texas, University of Texas at Arlington, University of Oklahoma, Arkansas, Florida State, Stephen F. Austin, and Texas State Technical College. Most of these students received academic or artistic scholarships. Some major accolades for our seniors this year: Kade O'Casey -accepted to multiple major art schools: Maryland Institute College of Art, Savannah College of Art and Design, Ringling College of Art and Design. Total scholarships offered by all schools: over $136,000 Kade was n

I've taught high school long enough now that I feel I usually have a good handle for the progress of time. As a teacher, you are naturally prone to think of time in "units" because of the nature of planning for a year of instruction. This year's march to the end of the year has seemed all too quick. I know that we all look forward to summer and its potential. However, this year has really zoomed past and I think a lot of it has to do with the caliber of student that I have in my studio this year. This is a focused and mature group, I enjoy every day that I get to work with them. I rarely have to remind them to work, they enter the studio anxious to get going. I see that there are a lot of future success stories in here. Having said all of that, I am happy that time is going rather quickly because I know that their futures need to get underway. With this group of seniors more than most, I know that they are prepared for what lies ahead. They have had experience with

I continue to be extremely proud of this year's group of seniors. It seems that every day, I hear of a fantastic new accomplishment. (I have also received word about one of last year's seniors that makes me proud and happy.) Let me start with college news... We have had recent college and design school acceptances that are completely exciting. For example: the list of schools that have been accepting our seniors reads like a list of the best design schools in the United States. So far, I am aware that we have had students accepted to Ringling College of Art and Design http://www.ringling.edu/  (Zach Nienhuser and Kade O'Casey into the illustration department) Minneapolis College of Art and Design http://mcad.edu/  (Sophie and Miekala Cangelosi) Maine College of Art http://www.meca.edu/  (Sophie Cangelosi, illustration and Miekala Cangelosi, graphic design)  Kansas City Art Institute (Sidney Higgins into the illustration department)  http://www.kcai.edu/  California I

In my life, I have had some great victorious days when I felt on top of the world. I have been extremely lucky. I feel fulfilled most of the time. Recently, I have had some rather major disappointments. These are some external things over which I have no control. I personally could not have done much to change the things that are at the root cause of them. Yet, I still feel a hole in my gut from time to time about these things, and I have had to learn to cope with the disappointments. How do you get a handle on disappointment? How can you keep it from bringing you down and causing you to plummet into the depths of sadness? The answer is not simple, but it is important. Realization that how we handle adversities and disappointments before it leads us into despair is a critical life skill. With every situation in life, no matter what it is, you have the CHOICE and complete power to decide how you will respond to it. That is probably one of the greatest things that I have learned in m

It is so easy to feel tired in the mornings. I have noticed that my afternoon class comes in with a lot of energy (probably because it is right after their lunchtime) and that my morning class has a few days that they have a hard time until they "wake up" completely. I know... I am the same way. Maybe it has to do with how many hours of sleep we get? Here is a statement on sleep needs that could prove to be important, found on a recent article on WebMD. "Not sleeping enough and not sleeping well is not OK. As a matter of fact, there is quite a price to pay. It may surprise you to learn that chronic sleep deprivation, for whatever reason, significantly affects your health, performance, safety, and pocketbook. There are many causes of sleep deprivation. The stresses of daily life may intrude upon our ability to sleep well , or perhaps we trade sleep for more work or play. We may have medical or mental-health conditions that disrupt our sleep, and be well aware that we

Sophie and Miekala All Rights Reserved 2012 I have rarely had the opportunity to work with twins in my class. It has only happened one other time, with the Sprague brothers (Calvin and Ryan) who are responsible for this: http://www.pavlovvisuals.com/  They were also from Flower Mound, just like the Cangelosi sisters. Highly talented twins seem to run in that town. Lately, there have been some very cool things going on here in the studio. Sometimes students at Career Center East get big opportunities during the time that they are here. Miekala Cangelosi, a senior Practicum student in my Graphic Design and Illustration program got that opportunity recently during an internship for 35 Denton Music Festival. Miekala earned a spot as a design intern with 35 Denton, and was assigned the task of creating an ad to announce the music festival in D Magazine, who is one of the sponsoring partners of the festival. Her ad appeared in the February issue as a full page full-color advertiseme