It can't be that time already!

I had the most puzzled face when I read the email regarding reporting grades for the first marking period. What? Really? Has it been 9 weeks already? I could have sworn we were only here for 5 weeks at the most. Needless to say this school year is zipping by.

My afternoon class has finally merged and once again we have a fantastic working atmosphere. I am very proud of their commitment to learning the material. They are a very mature group who use one another to promote creative thought while accepting each others differences. They communicate extremely effectively for their age group. The morning students are also coming into their own as a class. Regarding early critiques, they are the best class I’ve ever had. First year students normally take (at least) 3 marking periods to become comfortable enough to effectively critique each others work. But not this class, by the second critique they were off and running. I am very impressed with their ability to be considerate and constructive.

The first year students are concentrating on understanding the basic principles and elements of design. They are primarily using the design process to create final pieces of positive and negative design using radiograph pens. They are focusing on mastering the use of tools to create clean lines, flat black, quality cuts, all while beginning to understand the importance of communicating their ideas with design vocabulary.

My second year students are learning Adobe Illustrator CS5, while my third year students are getting an in depth introduction to Adobe Photoshop CS5. This year CPI has made a great investment in the software we use in our room, and now we are able to work on the most up-to-date Adobe programming in class and at home. YES, I said AT HOME!

Adobe CS5 is the industry standard in design and rather expensive software. For the last 5 years my students have been able to learn these programs in class but were unable to work on these programs outside of CPI. This was a rather large headache for students who were absent as there is very little down time available to play catch-up. With the new online software, a student with internet access at home can remotely access the programs using a log-in & password. This also permits students who finish the assigned work to enjoy “playing” with the programs. This “play” allows for further understanding of the programs while students enjoy working on their personal design ideas. As the instructor I am able to access all the accounts to assess student work. As a precaution students are only able to print from the online software in our classroom.

Because this was a new venture for our class and CPI we had a few bugs to work out in the beginning. It took a few weeks to get things up and running smoothly, but I believe this advance will be extremely beneficial to the students. 

In other news, our class is looking forward to competing in The 2011 Pennsylvania Computer Fair. My afternoon students worked individually to create logos for the 2012 event. We spent almost three weeks producing logos that were critiqued in class. We had 6 designs which were chosen by myself and the students to advance. These logos will be further processed and when we return from break they will be critiqued again. One design will be selected as the entry to The Pennsylvania Computer Fair for the Logo Design category. We also plan on submitting entries to the Graphic Design category, Text-Based Desktop Publishing category and the Digital Movie category. For more information on the computer fair you can visit www.pacomputerfair.org.

Oh, I hope to update this blog more regularly from now on.

Enjoy your Holiday Break.
Yana Boyd