Adteacher

So many groceries to buy to get ready for a week of healthy eating. The fact that I am about to cross a weight obstacle that I have been trying to get past for about 6 years now is keeping me motivated to stay on my eating plan. This week looks to be a three pound weight loss, and my friends, if you have never seen three pounds of human fat, let me tell you... it is a lot of weight. I am very pleased that so far I have lost 15 pounds since embarking on my less than 15 grams of sugar intake per day eating plan. I don't drink carbonated beverages anymore, and I don't eat anything with high sugar (or that changes to lots of sugar in the body.) I have found that I can find most of the healthy foods that I need at Sprouts. I heard a rumor that they may be building one right up the road from me, and I really hope that is true. I am driving to one in a neighboring town right now - it would be fabulous if a Sprouts sprouted up in my neighborhood! Another item on my agenda today is buyi...

As wonderful as most of my days are, this one had its challenges. I am very glad to see the end of day and my cup of warm coffee as I sit in my nice cozy living room. Another thing that I am happy about today is the wonderful work that has been produced lately by my students. Today we had a large number who competed for a spot on this year's SkillsUSA team. The work that they produced will be reviewed this weekend, and there should be an announcement upcoming on Monday or Tuesday. I will share the work of the top three winners on the blog. I am excited to know who will be chosen to represent DJCC at District 4 competition. Another thrilling thing that was unveiled today in class was the recent motion graphics work being done by Conner... wow. There will eventually be a copy of his work posted to the blog, but for now, just know it is worth waiting for! This weekend I hope to start shopping for my "Mother of the Groom" dress and also a few other clothes to wear to showers,...

Rain. It can be a metaphor for so many things, from tears and death to cleansing and purity. Today, I had a sick day spent at home... and the rain just kept coming down in buckets and the rain kept reminding me of blessings. When you get to be my age, you start doing a lot of taking stock of things. I guess it's natural to have regrets and to have wishes that never came true in your life. However, I feel differently. I think about all the stuff that has gone undeniably right in my life. I have had some tragic moments to be sure... none of us gets through this world completely unscathed. As I listened to the passing storms today alone in a very quiet house, I heard sounds that reminded me how very lucky I was to be in a position of few regrets. A house of many blessings.

Well, some days are somehow or other just more notable than others, and today was an amazing day full of notable events. I got official notification today that I will be heading to the new Career Center East next year. I know that this is probably surprising news to some of you, and for others of you it may be what you expected all along. Although I have mixed feelings about leaving after spending the past decade at DJCC, I do look at this as a privilege. I have always hoped to do what I consider to be the best thing for the growth of our program and the health of career education in the district, and this is a new challenge. It will be interesting as I transition, but I do not intend to start that process now. Until this school year ends, I will be 100% fully and enthusiastically a member of the Dale Jackson Career Center faculty. I love DJCC and always will, and my pledge to all of my students is that I will always be there for them, no matter which building I may be in. The value in...

Zoner and Mercy with PauPau Today I would like to feature one of our youngest department members. His name? For our purposes, we will call him "Zoner" because we are posting his photo. (He and his classmates know who he is, and the rest of the universe just needs to know he is awesome.) I asked him to tell us a little bit about where he is as an artist during this, his sophomore year of high school. This is what he had to say. "Me as an artist? Gah. I can't even think of how to really answer that one, unfortunately. What I typically tend to draw (I say draw because I am an illustrator/artist rather than a designer) is humans. I draw people that are based on characters that I have written about. I used to only write about the characters, but now I tend to want to illustrate them as well. I usually just do pencil work as that is where I have improved the most. I used to be terribly heavy-handed, and I just recently became confident enough to draw good strong lines. My ...

A special request came in today from Isaac, Class of '09. He has entered one of his works in a design competition about school bullying. There is $1000 at stake and he would love to claim it! He actually did this poster several years ago in ad design for an anti-bullying assignment in our class, but it fit this design contest perfectly. He would like to ask the ad design students at DJCC and any alumni who may be watching the blog to vote and elevate his piece in the rankings. If you would click through and vote for him, it would be awesome! Create an Anti-Bullying Poster Brickfish The Third & The Seventh from Alex Roman on Vimeo . Now, about the two items immediately above...Conner, one of our senior students, was kind enough to share this wonderful video with me. I thought it would be great to share it with you. It is completely computer animated and based on architecture. As you will see when you go to the video (on your home computer... those of you reading this at school...

There are places I remember All my life though some have changed Some forever not for better Some have gone and some remain All these places had their moments With lovers and friends I still can recall Some are dead and some are living In my life I've loved them all But of all these friends and lovers There is no one compares with you And these memories lose their meaning When I think of love as something new Though I know I'll never lose affection For people and things that went before I know I'll often stop and think about them In my life I love you more Though I know I'll never lose affection For people and things that went before I know I'll often stop and think about them In my life I love you more In my life I love you more -John Lennon and Paul McCartney The beginning of a new semester reminds us of the cyclical nature of our lives, and how people weave in and out of our lives like a beautiful tapestry. We had some of our seniors graduate at mid term,...