The Summer quarter at the Art Institute is starting on Monday. What classes am I teaching?

• Portfolio I – working 1 on 1 with a student on her porfolio. She is about to get her AAS in Web Design & Interactive Media and we need her to be ready for the world!
• Intro to Scripting – xHTML, CSS and JavaScript
  • For some reason my last class got to JS but didnt’ go as for as I’d like to go. I need to manage my teaching better. I need to be better at JS and by teaching it, I really get a much better grasp on it.
  • I feel much better about this class, this will be my 3rd time teaching it and I each quarter I keep finding more interesting projects to try and incorporate.
• Intermediate Scripting – Dreamweaver
  • Last quarter I brought in an actual client, and students created a website for her. The each designed a mock site, and the client chose the ones she liked best.  The client was “The Suzy Guides”, the author creates walking travel books. It guides your through several big cities around the world. What’s awesome is that she gets to do these walks as her job! The audience for these books are people who have already seen the big monuments and are looking for something more in-depth about the city. Right now she has Beijing and Paris, but is adding NYC and London. Anyway, this is the site the client chose. Right now it is on my webspace from school. Once I have the store open I can move it over to her host. While I would have done things differently, the client loves it and so that makes me really happy. She is also hiring the designer to continue to work on the site, which I also love. I do think they did a pretty good job for just learning Dreamwewaver. Don’t worry, you don’t have to point mistake (like the thumbnails and large image, I know).
• Digital Imaging – Photoshop
  • I really love this class. I love Photoshop, it’s so fun to use (at least to me). And I hope my passion for it is spread to the students. Last quarter we had a great class. Students were great and we brought in a local band to be the client. Students created posters for the band and really created some awesome projects. I saw some work students from other classes did (with no client) and I must admit, my class surpassed them! (Okay, so I may be biased!)
  • Right now I have 3 big projects that they must complete throughout the 11 weeks (we move in quarters).
    1. The first is to create an original movie poster. So they have to think of a movie concept and then create the poster to sell it. Students seem to enjoy this one (especially when it’s their movie idea).
    2. The second project is to create a book cover for their favorite book. This one doesn’t go so well. Apparently most students don’t like to read. For the students who love to read I get excited grins and excellent work, but everyone else is kinda blah about it. I really want to think of some other project. Any ideas?
    3. The final project is bringing in a client – a local band usually. The client will decide on what they want, perhaps a poster for a specific gig or a generic poster for use at any show. Students seem to really dig this and the two bands I’ve used so far have gotten them really excited. I really like this one too.
  • Things I don’t really want to do for a project are like CD covers, or DVD covers. Other classes do this and while I don’t think students mind, I do want to make them think of other things. I wouldn’t do magazine layouts or packaging since that should really be done in Illustrator. Someone suggested doing treasure maps. That’s an interesting idea, but not really popping in my mind. If you have any suggestions, let me know!
• Usability Testing(?)
  • I didn’t really want to teach this class, but due to interviewees not showing up, I think I may have to. I took a whole class on Usability Testing in grad school and that is what I plan to teach. I read a lot of Jakob Nielson and his usability testing and findings. There were others, but he really sticks out in my brain to look to, so I purchased an updated version of one of the books I have. I remember hating Usability Testing. The thing is, it’s one of the higher paying jobs in web, people don’t want to spend time doing it, and when their site isn’t up to par, they have to hire someone to go back and figure out what is wrong – that’s where the big bucks comes in. I disliked it but now I kind of enjoy it. It just saves so much wasted time when problems are found before a site is coded. It’s really the smart thing to do. Anyway, I was hoping to find someone who actually did more than my beginning usability testing for my sites and for my past employers, but that doesn’t look like it will happen. Even this guy from Dell says he can’t do it…and I think he kind of part of his job! But come on, class starts on Tuesday and there is no syllabus for it, yeah I am not eager to try and throw the first day together either. We’ll see if I teach it or not (although I am planning to prepare, just in case).

So those are the course I will be teaching, my plate will be full. I must admit, I have some great co-workers who I have just really enjoy being around. Okay, not all are great, but the ones who are, are supa great

"Herzog" - Saul Bellow

Currently, the Faculty Book Club is ready “Herzog” by Saul Bellow. Sadly, I am way behind. I am only about 1/3 of the way through. What’s funny is that I talked to two of my coworkers…and they haven’t finished it either. Our meeting is on Sunday! Oh well, it is an interesting book, I guess. I think I haven’t read to the more action part. Right now he is sort of a loser. It is an easy read though, just if you have time to site and read it.