Adteacher

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)  ht...

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 ...

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 adverti...

More lights every day! CCE I am in my studio today surrounded by a wide variety of students who are doing various things. I have my "hard working and diligent" Trevor who is hanging lights from the rafters in here. I have my group of several other students, who are drawing and some who are talking and joking. But the funny thing is that I have seven people here voluntarily and it is almost 5 PM. (I even have an animator in here!) This studio has turned into one of those places that stays active until I say it is time to call it a day on most days. I love that...it has taken a year and a half, but it has gotten to be kind of like DJCC was for the students that went there back in the day. Not just a class, but a place to belong. I am very satisfied to see that the studio culture is settling in and that lots of people WANT to be here into the evening time. It is good preparation for how things will be for them when they go to college and design school. Sometimes it takes aw...

 Our studio from my desk...becoming more festive every day. I am prone to become defensive when I hear people saying things to me like "Oh, you teach HIGH SCHOOL students! How can you stand them and their attitudes, aren't they difficult to deal with?" My eyebrows always get tied up in knots and I'm instantly perplexed by this. That's like saying, "Oh wow, you are an adult? How can you stand it? I know so many annoying adults ... it must be a pain." Categorizing all of any age group based on your perceptions of the worst of them is never a wise idea. In fact, I battle categorizations of all kinds. Stereotyping teen behavior is perhaps one of my least favorite categorizations made by adults who have minimal contact with the age group. I have some students who, admittedly, have a way to go before they are fully "grown up." I also have some others who are extremely mature and responsible, not to mention, kind-hearted and caring teens...and ...