Essential Question #1

I am looking forward to reviewing my Photoshop skills as I prepare lessons for digital imaging.  My class will be making bookmarks, faces, logos, and a host of other activities.  This class will also use Illustrator, Flash, iMovie and Acrobat Pro.

It is that time of year again!  Yes the beginning of school is upon us and we need to get ready.  My class lists were in my mailbox this week and I have full classes which I am excited about.  I am also excited about this coming year because I have been to some trainings, learned new things and want to do some new projects with my students.

If teachers are really that upset about going back to school then it is time to get a new job or retire.  Students will only be excited about learning in our classes if we are excited about it.  (Not every kid I know)  Kids are smart enough to know when we really care about what we are teaching and when we don't.

Am I a perfect teacher and can I reach every kid.  NO!  But I am excited to start a new year and try new things.

Summer training 2013

Summer training 2013 has begun!  I like doing training because as I do training I learn and I like learning.  When you are preparing and going through lessons before the students you learn.  What are you learning this summer?

I am a terrible teacher!

Recently I was reminded of what a terrible teacher I am.  I don't know all the answers.  I forget to come help them.  I ask someone else to help them.  I am not as smart as they are.  I want them to follow a set of rules for the benefit of an entire group.  If they are in a bad mood or it is their birthday, I still want them to do their assignments. 

I am guilty of all of those things above.  I am not perfect and I forget things and I don't know all the answers. 

What I am good at is giving students an opportunity to be exposed to different classes that they would not have otherwise.  If I had not been willing to write the contend standards and develop the courses we would not have digital imaging, web page and game design at our school.  Also I helped write grants to have an Apple lab to give the students experiences with a different computer system.

I am old, and with these courses are way too may programs, for me to be able to know all the answers.  I am giving the students opportunities for me to teach them some basic skills in each then how far they go is up to how hard they work and want to learn.

Unlike other teachers whose curriculum rarely changes, mine changes daily.  Between equipment and software I am constantly trying to keep up with just the basics and do my lesson plans and grade papers and develop projects.  Wait!  I want to add that I do have a life outside of school.

So I am guilty as accused.  I am a terrible teacher!

Mobile Curriculum

In as much detail as possible explain what you have learned using the Mobile Curriculum.  What was the best thing about it?  What was difficult or confusing?  What would you change?

This semester the students at Randolph Technical have been using Unity curriculum as a test site.  Please give me your feedback as to what is good, what is not good, what needs to be added, what needs to be improved.  Be as detailed as possible.

Learning

I am learning Unity!  At first I was so intimidated and thought I cannot do this.  Now I feel more comfortable and all because I am brave enough to ask my students for help.  I am the teacher and I am leading the class but I still don't know everything and never will when it comes to all the computer programs I teach.  Frequently I ask students to help me or show me how they did a particular skill.  Members of my game design class recently downloaded Blender to use with Unity so I guess I will be learning some basics of yet another program.

There are times that I get so tired of the constant learning but most of the time--I love it!  I wish more teachers had that attitude.  There are teachers who do not want to teach new classes because they don't want to learn or do anything new.  How sad and boring!