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Showing posts from March 4, 2012

Can it already be Spring Break?

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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

One of the best classes of seniors ever!

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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

Disappointment. How to handle it...

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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