Saturday, July 31, 2010

Officially August: Time for Teachers To Panic!

It is officially August (that's because I am up until 1am typing this!).  It is now time for all teachers to panic!  PANIC! There is really only about 2.5 weeks left of your summer break.  If you taught summer school like I did and attended a 3 credit, one week intensive class you really haven't started your summer break yet, but guess what....it is nearly over.  What to do?  Should I start working on prepping for the school year or should I grab my sunscreen and head out to enjoy what's left?  Looks like I will do a bit of both.

I am teaching a few new things this year (new to me that is!).  One of these courses is Video Production.  It is not being taught from the art side of things, but rather from the Tech Ed side of things.  How is that different you might ask?  Well if I got to teach it as an art class we'd be doing experimental videos with recording unusual soundtracks and collage found and recycled film and video and studying the works of 1980s music video to present and looking at avant garde films too.  That's not what the course is about however.  Instead it is my task to teach the technical side of video production, how to use the cameras and how video production as a career in TV and broadcasting works.  This can be creative too, but there will be challenges.  The class sizes are large, but the video equipment is limited (26:3 ratio, not good).  The software is sweet, but confusing sometimes and isn't what I learned video on (iMovie 09 instead of iMovie HD). The lack of a sound booth means we will have to improvise to get quality sound (the library,  the bathroom, the closet).  I am ready for the challenge, but may also start to stress out and lose sleep.

I will be teaching Fashion this year too.  I haven't taught the course in several years.  It is a fun class, but very heavy on the paperwork.  It is my goal to reduce the paper and make it more interactive and 21st century.  This will require creativity, research and a lot of work on my part.  It is also a non-art class that I will be teaching for the Family and Consumer Ed department.  It isn't a Fashion Design class, but rather Fashion Analysis, where students learn about the industry of Fashion, the names of the different parts of clothing (is that a bishop sleeve or a cap sleeve?) and also about the trends in terms of color, designs and more.  Again it can be interesting, but again it requires a lot of PANIC!!

Lastly, I get to teach art.  Yes that is really what I do, but due to the large number of students who decided to take Mandarin Chinese and Sports Management instead of art I will be teaching in 3 departments instead of one.  I am not complaining since I know I am lucky to have a job.  It will just be a challenge after last year, which was a DREAM year for me.  I got to teach full time art in the media areas that I love Digital Photography, Animation, Drawing 1 and 2, Painting 1 and 2 and AP Art.  It will be challenging to have to spread myself thinner, when I am already intensely busy with the art department.  Teaching art is what I'm passionate about.  I LOVE IT!  This year also for the first time I will be the department chair.  This includes more responsibility and more demands on my time.

So now that it's August I think instead of PANIC I will go to the beach and lay in the sun and celebrate my birthday and relax...at least for a day or 2 more.

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