Why I Blog

This blog is for me to document my process and reflect on how my semester is going with my classes. But there are other reasons I’m blogging about my lessons and sharing. I made a big change from elementary PreK-5th grade art to high school last year. I think it always seems like it wasn’t that bad when I started 8 years ago in the teaching field. How the mind forgets. How bad could changing grade levels be? The homeroom teachers at my elementary school were always change? Good grief! I was thinking it would be a simple switch. What I didn’t realize is that I’d spent 8 yrs cultivating a relationship with students, parents, teachers, and administrators. I had a reputation I think as being a good teacher. It isn’t anything you can see or touch, but it is worth gold. My students could  come into my classroom and tell you exactly how things are done and what to expect. I was really consistent. In turn they were great for me, and I could trust them to take care of business.

Why switch? Well I’ve been an illustator and graphic designer full time prior to education. I always really liked using software with my artwork. My personal site Nmillerillustration.com  and NMillerDesign. For me teaching high school means I’m doing more of my own design and illustration work. I’d watch students draw constantly and I wanted to go back to doing that and working. It’s harder in elementary I feel like because there is so much more prep work. Lesson plans are shorter in elementary, but I’d have to cut and make templates to help students of varying abilities, etc. Each of my grade levels I had different lessons. I never repeated unless my students wanted to do the same lesson again.

It takes time to rebuild that at any new school. I struggled last year because when I changed to high school teaching Animation and Game Design pathway I didn’t know any of the students. They came from 2 different high schools. The students didn’t even know each other or me. I think I realized you have to get them used to each other and to you. My classes were very long at 2.5 hrs. With that you teach fewer classes but it was the same group every day. No A/B schedule. I was planning like crazy. I’d never taught animation. I don’t come from industry. I played around with it at home video editing and animation. I have a background in Illustration and Graphic Design. I did a lot of learning on the side. Go figure I was the only person that applied for the job.

Thank goodness for Youtube and Lynda.com.  I also tried Pluralsight. I love youtubers Blender GURU & Born CG. I don’t get anything for recommending them. I used them when I was learning animation/game design. I spent most of the time learning Maya, Blender, and Unity. Maya didn’t work out because the computers couldn’t handle it. They have some great tutorials. I don’t recommend them for the coding part of it. I really think when the instructors cover that they always say “We assume you have an advanced knowledge of coding.” Like who really does? Maybe the people working in Silicon Valley making 6 figures. Little me had only taken HTML class in college. To me I get better the more I did it, but it was really memory and explaining it to a newbie difficult for me. C# is used in Unity and Python for Blender. I watched Microsoft’s video tutorials on C# from Bob Tabor 2 times. My brain hurt!

There were challenges that I didn’t realize that it would come with teaching high school. Student by nature when older they are pretty stoic. There isn’t the same interactions. It is harder to gauge feedback on how I’m doing. I have to do end of year surveys etc. Status checks. It like taking polls during election season. I think I do better for the students that really want to learn how or pursue the type of work I’m teaching. By nature I try and be honest and critique work to give them feedback. I think critiques are invaluable.

I learned very quickly that you really have to look at the work that students create. What they share and if they really like it they will come back and work on it. It’s really hard when many of my students lacked the transportation to and from the school. That bus schedule is KING.

I spent the year reaching out to other educators teaching high school animation and game design. My favorite teacher person in the world Reema Zoumut. That woman is an amazing teacher! I would have loved to have student taught with her. She is someone that gave me hope. She didn’t come from industry, but several of her students have gone on to work with companies like Blizzard. She is a giving teacher that spent hours talking me through and sharing resources. She had WAY more teaching experience than me and was so kind. I feel like I got through that 1st year because of her. She teaches at Bolsa Grande High School in high school. She has tons of free lessons and resources.

Here is her Graphic Design instagram
and Animation instagram.

I also reached out to Brain Ericson. He teaches in Utah animation and game design. He has some free short cut lists and then another site that he sells his video tutorials. I did purchase one of his video tutorials and they are short and quick. He was kind enough to allow me to use them with my students on Blender.

One of my local teacher friends Kimberly Larsen at the Effingham County College and Career Academy. She has been teaching over 15 yrs high school and has a background in graphic design. She shared her classroom management tips for a lab, and some of the lessons that cross over to animation.

I got lucky that talked with other teacher pros that were giving in their knowledge. I think I should try and give some of the information back to other people in the same boat. Trying to create something new like an Animation and Game Design pathway is a lot of work. It was new for Georgia that year. Standards are pretty vague. In the sense they aren’t telling you want software to use. Then you look at cost. There is some great paid industry software like ToonBoom. That would have cost $12,000 for use for 3 yrs. If I recall. I was overwhelmed relearning Adobe Animate and then delving into Premiere and After Effects post-production part of it.

This school year I’m at trying things out at a new school. I’m posting semester 2 lessons for those poor souls that are trying to integrate more digital art into their art program. Georgia added standards for the high school visual arts teacher that astound me. Looks like you have to really be a jack-of-all trades.

Even if you don’t have the same set-up modify, modify and make my lesson fit your needs. You might not have Adobe CC, so how can you use the files to change them for your software. Or lack of. In a computer lab technology can be your friend or worse enemy. When it works its great, and when it doesn’t well we all have to try and have patience.

Good luck to all my fellow visual arts teachers and getting their curriculums together. I have empathy and I hope some of the info can lighten the load. Best wishes on your school year.