I’ve almost made it to the first of teaching again. It has been 9 yrs ago since my last first year. I’ve learned a lot. I think whenever you change grade levels or content area it is like your first year as a teacher again. I think it is helpful that I taught before because I do a better job of managing things. I know that there are lesson plans, rules, and protocol for each school and district. The change in the content area to Animation and Game Design had so much for me to learn. I had to learn a whole new set of software. It was more on the level of what a high school student needed to learn. I’m glad I stuck with the harder stuff because my gut told me from previous years of teaching to go with what is harder to appeal to the students that want a challenge. I wanted my student to use software that if they searched on a job site they would find job opportunities that required those skills. At first I was intimidated learning all of it but I have a feel for it.

I grew to find certain aspects of game design to be interesting. I don’t play video games. I’m not a gamer. It seems like a faux pas for me to say that. I never grew up with them. It was treated in the household that I grew up in, as a waste of time. I should be reading a book or making something. I had a cousin that had an Atari and a Commodore 64. You can tell my age.

I learned that game design is work/challenge and it has artistry and planning. There is a reason that there different people along the pipeline that specialize in a particular jobs. It’s really hard to know how to do everything involved in creating a game. The 3D modeling alone is time consuming. Then think if you have to animate it, create environments, and scripts to make everything work. It’s a lot. I think by the end of it you appreciate how the parts work together even if you aren’t a gamer. I think my students realized playing a video game is much easier then making one.

Next year I will for certain add more game design content. The students overall liked it. They liked 3D modeling. I’d do more of that as well. I love 3D modeling a lot. I would probably do more with Adobe Animate and After Effects. We just ran out of time and didn’t get to After Effects. Love that program.

It is all a work in progress. Next year I’ll be teaching graphic design and animation/game design. I hope I will get better at teaching it. I think the 2nd semester I did get better at it. We will see. It’s all a learning process. I’m learning that I need to try and not be so hard on myself. It’s the first year all over again even if it is my 9th year of teaching.