Adteacher

Today I wasn't in school. Instead it was a rainy, gray, drizzly drive to and then back from Waco. Being the District 4 Technical Chairs, we had a responsibility to set up all of the projects for display today. There were about 52 total Ad Design projects in our district this year, and they are all judged and rated and ribboned now. The blog entry for tomorrow will have a full listing of the students who will be advancing to state for projects, but for now I can say that two DJCC students have won recognition for Best of Show in both Advertising Design and Illustration categories. Nick Hummert's technical illustration of a Saleen F150 was singled out for Best of Show in illustration. Nick is a senior from Hebron HS who plans to attend Texas Tech University next year. For the first time ever, a motion graphics entry was named the Best of Show in advertising design, and that honor goes to Conner Tozier, who was recently accepted to CalArts and hopes to attend if he can get a schol...

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...

Wow. This has been such a long few days. They say there is no rest for the weary, but I am about to disprove that old saying. My body is almost numb from dealing with all of the projects and competitions this week, but I am about to deliver the projects for judging, and I submitted the website for District judging last night at about 8 pm. I am ready to put SkillsUSA behind me for awhile! If curious to see how the students in District 4 did, you can access the site that the judges from Leo Burnett in Chicago are looking at by visiting this URL: http://djcc.lisd.net/adskills2010 I will talk later about how our four kids from DJCC fared, but since judging is ongoing at this point, the students are only identified by number. I was proud of how they did with such a short amount of time. (Less than 3 hours total.) The awards and project display take place next week in Waco, so there will be a short trip out of town next weekend, but it won't be for long. We intend...

It was interesting getting through today to say the least. Usually I'm not much of a complainer. I figure that many people in the world are much worse off than I am in so many ways, it just doesn't make much sense to whine. I have to tell you, it was challenging getting through this day. I've done something to my back, and it hurts like crazy. It almost hurts too badly to be a muscle sprain, it almost feels like a nerve problem. Whatever it is, I have a feeling I will end up in the doctor's office about it. I was on my feet all morning doing presentations at Creek Valley Middle School for their career day, and by the time I left it was pretty bad. I did enjoy being at CVMS though, and I have been asked to come back at another time and speak to the Leap classes about the new Career Center. The Leap teacher was very certain that some of those classes would be a good match for some of her students. It's so much fun for me to get out into the district and meet new peopl...

This year in the advanced afternoon class, there are more people doing traditional art to complete illustrations than in any year since I have been at DJCC. There are talented students painting and drawing, there are even some really cool mixed media pieces that are being created. Typically, a majority of the projects done for our spring competitions are digitally produced. This year, we have a lot of students intrigued with doing some of their work using non-computer technique mixed with digital. It is a great way to work, and I am glad that the students understand the relevance of all the tools that they have at their disposal. In the studio is a conference table with a nice working surface. Students in the PM class come in around 12:30 or so and sit there for half an hour before we start class and eat lunch together and share conversation. It is a nice time of the day where they can talk about art topics and just spend a little while discussing whatever they would usually discuss ...

Today I would like to feature one of our advanced class students, Charlotte, a senior who attends Marcus HS. This is a girl who never slows down! She is a very hard worker and never stops thinking of ways to be creative. She visited France over the recent winter break and is always working on some interesting project. Her words regarding her artistic motivation: "Myself as an artist? This is something I really can't quite tell you at this point. I would, of course, tell you about me as an artist if I really knew myself. Art is much less a hobby than it is the way I am and the way I do everything in my life. I have been to foreign places and lived in different countries but my attraction to art has remained the same. My most particular talent is my willingness to venture out of the box. I have gone through lots of different courses in school to always keep my mind going. One genre of art is not enough for me. I have designed theatrical productions and sets and watched my idea...

I promised a look at Conner's logo designs, and as promised... the unveiling. Above is the logo that he designed for the new Career Center East, and below... the new logo for the Dale Jackson Career Center. We are proud of the new slogans as well, "A new direction in Career & Technology" for CCE, and "Paving the Way" for DJCC. The next thing that must be said is a sincere congratulations to the five students who were selected to progress from local competition to District 4 in advertising design skills. The students whose work will be featured later in another entry are: Ryan Brownhill, David Venable, Adam Williams, Amber Jackson and Amy Hillberry. All of these students are from Marcus HS except for Adam Williams, who is from Hebron HS. Good job and good luck as you go on. Competition time is always a little bit stressful as we all prepare projects and process books and get ready for outside critique. There is something validating about it and still, so...

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,...

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...