So my Zoodango friends, it's been about 3 months since my last post. Nearly an eternity on the web. Where to begin...

Since my first quarter teaching saga... I only had to flunk 3 of my students. I picked up a Wed Design/Dream Weaver class at Bellevue Community College.

Juggling 3 jobs this quarter has been pretty hairy. I still freelance in Fremont at the TPN studios for Silverstein, Thomas, Rice & Associates, teach at Green River Community College and now at Bellevue Community College. At some point I need to get one of those HOT lane "Good to Go" passes... Thank god my old 1996 Honda still gets 30+ miles/gal.

We had a death this past month in the family... And a grand 90th. brithday bash. A few weddings of dear friends.

One of my yorkies even had a litter of pups.

Like you -- I'm at times frayed between work and personal lives, but here on Zoodango we can share all those trails, tribulations... tips and tricks of the trade to stay sane.

So I'm back and will try my best not to go 3 moths without a post.

Today I had a fantastic guest speaker, the new Creative Dierctor from Primier Media (South Sound Magazine & 425 Magazine) - http://www.premiermedia.net in to speak with my class. For the most part I'm pleased with the interaction levels of my students in critique and our guest speaker presentations.

I run a pretty relaxed class, if students feel they can work better at home, I excuse them if they come & talk to me about leaving after my lectures on our work/lab days. Leaving class on a guest speaker or critque day is not acceptable.

In class today I had a habitual leave early student & not check-in and leave halfway through class and come back at the very end our our project critique w/our special guest. He asked me if he could do critique, I told him no, he missed his chance.

This student is failing, but still sort of shows up. I've talked to him about dropping or doing a Pass/Fail. His work hasn't grown nor do I feel a real effort.

Anyone have tips on mitigating my feelings of "Arrrgh!" ???

Oh, an update -- "Joe's" been doing much better in class. He participates and has been offering good construtive critique in class.

Today in my Intro to Graphic Design class at Green River, I made my students view Helvetica the movie - http://imdb.com/title/tt0847817/. Leading up to the documentary I presented Art periods (Realism to Pop Art) and Design perioids (Arts & Crafts Movement to Modernism). Many of my students found my art & design lectures interesting and a relief from my Adobe CS demos -- but I knew it'd be sort of a "so what?" thing until we saw the movie.

As they watched it was soo pleasing to see students begin to connect the style periods as well as their lineage as new designers. I love seeing "ah-ha," moments.

It was like that point in, My Fair Lady, when Professor Higgins (Rex Harrison) hears Eliza Doolittle (Audrey Hepburn) say "The rain in Spain flows mainly on he plain," instead of "the rayne in spayne flows maynely on the playne," sans the Cockney accent.

Have you had the opportunity at work to share a skill and your team/intern/boss finally just got it?

What did it feel like for you (satisfaction, relief, competion)?

For the most part, teaching at a community college has been wonderful. I do have instances where I really just want to hit my head on the whiteboard though.

I'm a pretty relaxed instructor. I hated tyranny in Art School so I split my class 1/2 lecture, 1/2 lab. The lab is your's to use or not; I do expect people to pay attention to demos and lecutures on type, art history and formal design elements (line, color, shape, etc.)

Today I had two students - both good firends ask me for recommendations to a Technical Art School. I told one student "Steve" yes, because he was always prompt, courteous and paid attention in class. His friend however, is another story.

Let's call this student "Joe." Joe has 2 unexcused absences has slept through most of parts of 2 of my classes and has walked out of class to have a conversation on his cell.

So, Joe was shocked when I told him "no, I'm not comfortable at this time to write you a letter. I need more effort from you in class. Your work has been good, but it's the other things that need work: sleeping, cell habits, etc."

Was that too harsh?

I did tell Joe that if I saw improvement on class particpation and courteousness I'd reconsider.