Inspired by the saying, “See you ’round, like a doughnut.”

See ya 'round...like a doughnut

This is a challenge to myself, to get back on track with these Illustration Friday “challenges.” The goal, as ever, is two-fold: both to get back into the habit of drawing more myself (a tough thing to do, with all the responsibilities of teaching), and to challenge my students as well, particularly those (relatively few) who are up to the task.

As luck would have it, we got dropped off at the Art Department, so I walked into one of the ceramics studios & struck up a conversation with one of the students who was working on a pottery wheel.

When I asked if he could give us an impromptu tour of the department, I was directed to an adjacent area where a tall Native American Indian was instructing a few students in the art of welded metal sculpture.

The style of one of the pieces he was working on looked familiar, which prompted me to ask if he had sold any large ones on campus. He said he had one at Bakersfield  and a few others at campuses around Southern California Universities. I asked if he’d sold any to UC Santa Barbara & he said, “why, yes; several, in fact.”

I whipped out my phone camera and asked if the one I’d photographed the day before was one of them, he chuckled & said, “yup.”

His name is Laughing Horse Robinson & he gave me some great insight about an online Masters program through the Academy Of Art, San Francisco. After hearing more about my background, he said that I’d be an excellent candidate for the program, as well as someone that would be highly sought-after with my combination of computer experience & interest in further study of Art.

So, naturally, I took down his email address & will share the video & other promotional products we develop.

I also got a few minutes of video on him, along with several other tours we’ve taken this week. I’m planning on editing them together this summer & making a video of our adventures this week, as a promotional tool for next year’s recruits.

Another experience I had today at CSU Bakersfield was with our tour guide, Tyree Boyd-Pates. I filmed nearly an hour of his frenetic, extremely entertaining tour (best one of the week by far). After finding out he is a senior & graduating in five weeks, in the field of Public Relations & Communication, I suggested he send me his resume & that I could make a call to Southwest Strategies about a possible internship there this summer.

I told him I couldn’t promise him anything, other than the fact I would call & see what the possibilities were.

To say he was excited, would be the biggest understatement of the week.

So I’ve discovered another calling this week: these college road trips are right up my alley. Due to the blessed gift of gab & my ease at meeting people, the school counselor who invited me to spend the latter half of this week with all these students said this was one of the most successful trips she’s ever been on.

We’ll be back late tomorrow afternoon, after spending the night in Valencia. On the way back we’ve got two more campuses to hit: Cal Poly Pomona and UC Riverside.

The adventure continues!

My purpose for creating these images, joining the competition, if you will, is manifold, not the least of which is to keep in the habit of producing art, keeping my skills up-to-date. One of the other motivating factors, however, is to continue to challenge my students, modeling for them another way to showcase their artwork. This not only helps me maintain credibility, but also markets my work as well.

Not to mention, getting my name “out there” to potentially get some freelance work for the summer, when I’ll have all that “free time” on my hands.

I also added a page to my site called, “Illustration,” as one of the parameters of submitting illustrations for Illustration Friday.

I figured out a really cool way to get notes and lectures to students who are absent, (or not paying attention in class); I have recorded and uploaded lectures in the past with my portable digital Dictaphone, taken and uploaded photos of my whiteboards, and linked them to a blog, but this new way uses the iMac’s built-in features to record the sound, so I don’t have to download the mp3 from the digital voice recorder.

There’s a cool program called, “Garage Band™,” that comes with iLife, a Macintosh media productivity tool, which also includes, iTunes™, iWeb™, iMovie™ and iDVD™. With the built-in microphone I recorded my lecture from within Garage Band and exported the lesson (using the “Share” menu) directly to iTunes.

I coped the iTunes mp3 file to the desktop for easy location and uploaded it to my ftp site, then connected the link to the class blog.

Now students can not only listen to the lecture when they miss class, but can also be reminded or review the lesson later. This is also helpful for students who missed class, ELL students and even Special Education, as, if they were present for the lecture and copied the notes into their notebooks, they will be able to review all the material for that day, getting input in Audio, Visual and Tactile sensations.

The even bigger consideration for doing the process this way is that I had the lecture and photos uploaded before class ended.

After sharing this with Derek Morris, my Principal at Kearny High Educational Complex, School of Science, Connections & Technology (or SCT for short), he suggested I create a series of these lecture/whiteboard notes as modules that can be purchased and downloaded via an eCommerce site.

Hmmmm… that Masters in Educational Technology might not be necessary after all…

j

Though the drawing exercises I had my students working on for the last half of the first quarter and the first three weeks of this one are relative, there is an entire curriculum mapped out for the class I’ve been teaching this semester — and I am only now getting to it. Part of the challenge when I had students working on drawing skills, is that I only began teaching them 20 – 30 minutes a day, 3 – 4 days a week. The other part is, the program I had them on (drawing skills) had a goal in mind, and we met that goal.

However, as I said, I did have a huge binder of curriculum, specifically designed and piloted in another academy on our campus, which I got from the other campus and am just now implementing. This, in addition to adding some of the features of the Digital Arts & Mixed Media courseware I began teaching the school year with — which is getting students set up on the computers — is sort of turning these students into guinea pigs for the curriculum all over again.

Oh, don’t get me wrong, there is learning going on, and the skills they’re getting are transferrable and relevant, it just seems like I’m flying by the seat of my pants half the time.

We had our first collaborative assignment these past two days, and for the most part, it went well. Unfortunately, all the drawing skills I taught them the first half of the semester seemed to have been completely ignored, as, rather than giving students something to draw (copy), they were required to come up with ideas out of their heads, which, I had been warned, seems to be a difficult concept for this generation to grasp.

Most of what I seem to be grading these days is primarily on participation, following directions, and actually listening to my instruction.
I’m still modeling the behavior for students, but even that seems beyond some of their comprehension.

The amazing thing is, several of my brightest students have informed me that mine is their toughest class!

I know! Amazing, right? I think it’s primarily because they’re being asked to think in a more abstract way than they’re used to, as well as not being spoon-fed, cookie-cutter assignments. It might be too much to expect from them.

It does seem to be an interesting experiment in exploration, and that, I believe, is an acceptable adventure for students to grasp at this point in their high school year (most of my students are in the 10th grade).

I’ll let you know how they progress, and even post some of their images, as time allows.

Yesterday, when i was writing negative notes in my journal, such a word seemed to pop into my psyche: “Diarytribe.” When I mentioned this to my mom, she thought up another: “Diarrheatribe.” So I looked up several similar-sounding words on Dictionary.com and combined them into the new definitions below:

di·a·ry /ˈdaɪəri/  [dahy-uh-ree] 
–noun, plural -ries. 
1. a daily record, usually private, esp. of the writer’s own experiences, observations, feelings, attitudes, etc.
2. a book for keeping such a record.
3. a book or pad containing pages marked and arranged in calendar order, in which to note appointments and the like.
—————————————-
di·a·tribe /ˈdaɪəˌtraɪb/ [dahy-uh-trahyb] 
 
–noun
a bitter, sharply abusive denunciation, attack, or criticism: repeated diatribes against the senator.
—————————————-
di·ar·rhe·a /ˌdaɪəˈriə/  [dahy-uh-ree-uh]
 
–noun Pathology .
an intestinal disorder characterized by abnormal frequency and fluidity of fecal evacuations.
—————————————-
di·et /ˈdaɪɪt/ [dahy-it]
noun, verb, -et·ed, -et·ing,  adjective 

–noun
1. food and drink considered in terms of its qualities, composition, and its effects on health: Milk is a wholesome article of diet.
2. a particular selection of food, esp. as designed or prescribed to improve a person’s physical condition or to prevent or treat a disease: a diet low in sugar.
3. such a selection or a limitation on the amount a person eats for reducing weight: No pie for me, I’m on a diet.
4. the foods eaten, as by a particular person or group: The native diet consists of fish and fruit.
5. food or feed habitually eaten or provided: The rabbits were fed a diet of carrots and lettuce.
6. anything that is habitually provided or partaken of: Television has given us a steady diet of game shows and soap operas.

–verb (used with object)
7. to regulate the food of, esp. in order to improve the physical condition.
8. to feed.

–verb (used without object)
9. to select or limit the food one eats to improve one’s physical condition or to lose weight: I’ve dieted all month and lost only one pound.
10. to eat or feed according to the requirements of a diet.

–adjective
11. suitable for consumption with a weight-reduction diet; dietetic: diet soft drinks.
—————————————-
What do all these have in common?
neologisms, mixing them together, to make new (nearly) sensible definitions

Diarytribe – negative journal entries, criticizing oneself over stupid errors
Dietribe – bitter, critical attack or complaint about one’s food consumption
Diarrheatribe - somewhat redundant, as fluidity of fecal evacuations, though in terse, never ending verbal communication

What does all this have to do with Thanksgiving? Nothing. Just playing around in my head and in my journal, while visiting my folks in Prescott Valley, Arizona.

But you have a happy Thanksgiving anyway, eh?

The main reason no updates have been forthcoming is that I switched positions a few weeks ago at Kearny High SCT (Science Connections & Technology) from Digital Arts & Mixed Media, to Visual Art & Design. What’s the difference you ask? D.A.M.M. (hate the acronym) is primarily computer graphic design whereas VAD is Drawing and Painting.

The irony?
I was hired this past summer, originally, by Horizon Christian Academy, to do, you guessed it, Drawing & Painting. I was very excited to get into a Graphics program, but my Principal told me early on that he actually wanted me to eventually teach a Drawing & Painting class; I honestly didn’t think it would happen this quickly, especially since I worked for over 5 weeks preparing the lessons and the classroom for the Digital Art class.

Having said that, it’s taken me a few weeks to get acclimated to teaching “analog” art again. I do have a greater benefit in the Drawing portion of the class than I did in Digital Art though, which is that when I performed my Student Teaching from February to June of 2009, I was able to learn every step of the process from my Master Teacher, Keith Opstad (see earlier blog entries from that experience).

The only challenge I need to overcome now is that of ordering supplies, so these students can have the same rich experience those of Westview High School did last year.

As I get opportunity, I’ll post some of my students’ work on this site.

Until then, as Tigger would say, “TTFN!”

Some of my students are still pushing the boundaries (and my patience), to see how tough I’m going to be; many of them are going to have a rude awakening when they discover that I take into consideration Citizenship as a significant portion of the marks they earn. I’ll be giving them the grade they earn for their work, and a nasty attitude, including defiant disrespectful responses to my stated expectations will become crucial.

On a more positive note, I had an epiphany the other day that went something like this:
I was making some notes about a Cartooning club that I want to start after school (even though it might be a bit ambitious at this point, as I’ve already got so much going on right now); the thought occurred to me, “I finally get to get paid to study Cartooning!”

The irony is that, as a child, the cliche at our house was, “make sure to get the Sunday Comics before Jay does, because he’ll end up studying them all day.” As is true of most cliches, I did use to spend hours studying and redrawing my favorite comic strips — the difference now is, I get to study them and teach what I discover.

One other vivid memory, as pertains to Cartooning, is the first time I overheard a Cartoonist named, Paul Gringle, at a meeting of the SCCS (Southern California Cartoonist Society), discussing observations about a comic strip, with another, younger Cartoonist; I’ll never forget thinking, “This is where I belong — with a room full of other folks who study Cartooning the way i used to when I was a kid!”

I was only partly right at the time; today I can honestly say, “I am now where I belong: on campus, teaching (somewhat) eager young minds.” What I get to teach them is up to me; what I pray they learn is on them.

Though the first day was a little sketchy (yes, pun intended), it got better each day.
I began my new class with a derivation of the previous teacher’s introductory exercise, (He had his students play  Pictionary the first week of classes, as a fun way to ascertain drawing skills, and to get to know personalities in class). The way I changed his lesson involved students drawing in Photoshop on a laptop, with the image projected up on the screen in the front of the classroom.

The process went like this:

I broke the classes up into 5 teams of 6 students; they had to come up with a team name and a team captain. Some of the team names were pretty outrageous; one group of hispanic students called themselves, “The Mexicans,” and then called me racist every time I called out their team to draw. They finally changed the name to “Coronas,” which I then teased them mercilessly for naming themselves after a beer. They of course informed me that “Corona” means “crown.” (oops)

I had them one member from a group come sit at the laptop and wash their hands with either a wet wipe or sanitizer gel (telling them I didn’t want them passing on germs to each other, and that I don’t want to catch a cold from them, since they’re using my laptop).

They then choose a card from the Pictionary box, and drew it in Photoshop while their teammates try to guess what it was. Every so often someone would draw a few lines and someone would guess correctly, so I would halt the game and ask how they figured it out. Then I would mention the significance of Pictionary, and how logo design is similarly developed, using the fewest amount of strokes or information to communicate an idea or brand.

I then had them save the file as a .png  file. I’m teaching them keyboard shortcuts, so they hit [Ctrl]+[Shift]=[S] to save the file in a folder I set up for each period with their first name, Student ID# and the Pictionary clue, so I’m also teaching them file-naming conventions and folder hierarchy).

Then they do [Ctrl]+[A] to select all on the screen and [backspace] to delete the image they’ve just drawn and saved as a .PNG, clearing the screen for the next team.

The next part of their turn is to go to the iMac workstation and take a photo of themselves, saving it in the folder for their period, naming the file their first name and ID#, so I can get to know all their names and match them to the faces quicker).

Finally, I created a template in InDesign that uses one of the ice-breakers from an orientation meeting last week with the Director of CCTE, (College, Career and Technical Education, who funds 34% of my class), along with boxes for their portrait, Pictionary image, a monogram exercise in Adobe Illustrator, and a place for a short paragraph of themselves. It will ultimately have their birthdate, name, a list of questions about likes and dislikes, a paragraph they have to add themselves, telling me something unique about themselves. Then they’ll export a PDF from InDesign that I’ll keep on my server, which we will later compare to their first efforts in our classroom.

The idea was that by week’s end they would have had an introduction to Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and Acrobat, as well as an electronic “keepsake” of their first week in class. Unfortunately, with the glitches this past Tuesday, I’m a day behind. My seat-of-the-pants Tuesday lesson was to get them to play around in Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and Acrobat, so that this coming Monday, we can put it all together.

I got the idea of altering the lesson after querying several other SCT teachers about what they do on their first day, as well as from a few of the teachers at DMD (Digital Media Design), most specifically a younger teacher named Scott Hebeisen, who said he tries to use these four CS3 programs in every project he does. DMD is another Academy at our school, Kearny High School Complex.

All in all, I’m relatively satisfied with how the week turned out. I also created a website for my students at www.KometArt.com (surprised again, that the domain was available), which includes links to a new blog, and an alteration of the Komet logo “bug” used on every campus.

Komet Logo 'bug"

Komet Art logo "bug"

Komets, with the KometArt 'bug'

The first thing I did was redraw the logo and add a computer mouse to it, replacing the “K.” Then I added the bug, replacing the “o” in Komets, to create this logo-type treatment.

Finally, since our Academy, Science, Connections and Technology, or SCT, has green as it’s main color, I chose a pleasant green (PMS 357) and added the text on top, to identify it as

Digital Art SCT

Finally, I created a smaller, square logo to use as an icon on a site called, “Vimeo,” which is similar to YouTube, only for more academic and DIY (Do-It-Yourself – non-commercial) videos.

Square icon graphic

Now comes the tough part: After all the work and getting the room ready for the school year, purchasing supplies, including markers and shelving, as well as a 1.5 TB drive that was on sale at Fry’s Electronics, to back up student work, I was told it is very likely that I’ll be changing to another classroom.

This is not necessarily a bad thing, though, as I’ll have more flexibility to create a fusion of fine art and digital art. I’ll keep you posted as it all unfolds.

But now, on to Lexi’s soccer game!

Where to begin, where to begin, where to begin…

Got a new job. My first full-time teaching gig! I’ve been at school all this week, preparing my room, buying supplies, planning my first day — essentially getting overwhelmed — but, boy, does it feel good to finally start my new career.

Here’s how it went down, and a (relatively) brief synopsis of what’s been going on since my last blog update:

Finished my student teaching in June of 2009 with only one class to complete before receiving my Single Subject Teaching Certificate in Art, and my Masters in Education from National University; the class was in “Mainstreaming,” and I was able to take it online through USD. Received confirmation in October 2009.

Began substitute teaching in the Poway School District, as that’s the only district that actually called me back for an interview (actually began that in April of 2009, while doing my student teaching, as suggested by my Master-Teacher, Keith Opstad, so I could actually get paid for the days he would eventually have to call in a substitute for). I applied at San Diego City Schools, Grossmont Union School District and Mountain Empire School District, where I’d had a long-term substitute position back in 2005, but none of them called for a follow-up interview, as the waiting list to get into the system was massive.

Nonetheless, I was able to average 8 – 15 days a month, from September 2009 through May 2010, substituting pretty much wherever I could (did the whole 9-yards too, from preschool through high school — and let me tell you, with some of the behaviors I witnessed, there was little difference at the extremes on some days).

I was blessed to get quite a lot of work at Poway High School (thank you, Todd Parr and Kathy VanDyke, for all the work you sent my way), primarily due to the fact that I had my Art Credential and 25+ years of experience in the Graphics field. One unfortunate “season” was that I was at the high school when Chelsea King was abducted, as well as the following week when her body was discovered, and her murderer caught; dealing with the anguish on campus that week was difficult, but the student body was amazing, the way they pulled together during that tragedy.

Almost as soon as the school year was over, I signed up for, and became a Census “Enumerator;” (the guy that knocks on the door to get the information from folks who chose not to participate by mailing in their forms). Here’s a cartoon I drew, after hearing this comment from one of the senior trainers (re-worded slightly, to make it sound not so menacing).

After the Census work ended (averaged about 12 – 16 hours a week for six weeks), I was contacted by Chapin Marsh, the principal at Horizon High School; I had given him a resume earlier in the school year, and a position as their Fine Art teacher opened up!

What a blessing (I thought) this would be: teaching at the same place I worshipped every Sunday.

However, a week after I signed the contract to teach Drawing and Painting at Horizon, I got a call from one of my best friends, Derek Morris, asking if I’d signed the contract at Horizon.

After affirming that I had, he replied, “Well, the job over here just opened up, teaching Digital Art & Mixed Media. I need you to apply for the position, but  not until after the posting and bidding process, which will take 10 days or so…”

So, most of the month of July and half of August, I continued working on the classroom at Horizon; I cleaned and organized the storage area, arranged the desks and began putting together the lesson plans I would (eventually) never use, as the difference between the subject matter there, and the job I now hold are like night and day.

Long story short (yeah, as if I could refrain from more typing), I was offered and accepted the position at Kearny High School Complex two weeks ago, and have been in and out of my classroom the past two weeks, trying to figure out curriculum for this new classroom and assignment. Part of the difficulty has been A.) I don’t have a signed contract with the district office yet, so B.) I don’t have login capabilities, nor do I have district email, and C.) my predecessor in the classroom, Joel West, also was denied access after he resigned, so I don’t have a lot of the syllabus and courseware, except for a bunch of his files (most of which don’t have lesson plan outlines, etc. — at least as far as I can tell).

How I came to get this job is even more amazing, in that, Joel is (I’m guessing) in his mid-twenties; when I first came to nearly completing my Certificate last year, I’d visited his classroom, as Derek had always told me I’d work for him some day; it was difficult to fathom how that might occur, though, with such a youngster in the position I wanted.

But Joel is a musician — and a good one at that! In fact, his musical career got going so well this past year that he had to make a decision of whether he could perform, record and go on tour, as well as continue to teach. He decided he could not, and that’s when I got the call.

My plan is to update this blog on at least a weekly basis, as I’m certain that I won’t have a lot of time (or energy) to answer email and respond to Facebook message. So it may well be that a common entry in the “What’s on your mind?” box in Facebook will be…”check out my blog, at http://jaywing.wordpress.com/“

Blessings to you,

Jay