My Personal Blog

The first full week of school is coming to a close, and with a minimal amount of issues.

What was completed? An introduction to Communications is laid to rest and the hands-on training is just beginning. The students that I have display a great amount of energy and enthusiasm. Observing that is always interesing - to see how their anticipation for the upcoming projects interracts (even collides) with their learning of technical skills is always a good time.

Production Printing students students are on their way to learning and refnining the skill set needed in order to properly do their job. It will take some time. Next week, we get the machine fired up in order to get them working.

Graphic Design class is also going through some preliminary runs before they really get cracking on the assignments at hand. So far, all looks good. I think I have real talent in this class this semester.

I've also picked up four former students as either aides or independent studies. They're good workers who are dependable and who's output quality is excellent. So, I have a good crew working with me.

My seniors have taken off. It is quite the bitter-sweet experience, watching them evolve past the point of my influence and instruction. I really feel like I got to know them in a most positive light and hope that they feel the same.

Watching them and their pursuits helps, I think, to keep us grounded. Students are such a mixture of emotions, hopes, dreams, fears, over confidence, and inadequacies all rolled into one. While the teacher strives to maintain a consistent and constant frame of professional mindset and structure, they are focused on this maelstrom that formulates around them - this crazy storm that can go from good to bad, and back again, turning on a dime. It is an emotional rush. It is the growth, breakdown, and re-grouping of not only their roller-coaster like emotional flux, but also of our emotional and mental stability.

Aside from all that, it is a show worth watching. It is a quest worth taking. The students are worth getting to know and guiding. In fact, they're more than that. They're the promise of our own intellectual evolution.

I hope they understand that.

I hope they use what we've given them - somewhere, somehow, to their advantage. 

Fare thee well, Class of 2009.

It was great working with you.