Posts Tagged ‘student’

Finding The Design Program That Best Suits Your Needs

August 20th, 2011

Do you consider yourself a creative person, with a knack for creative design? Are you contemplating a career in design? If so, you should know that there are dozens of Design Schools that offer a variety of certificate, Associates, and Bachelors degree programs that concentrate on some of the most innovative areas of creative design. If you are not sure what your area of pursuit should be, consider some of the design careers listed in this article.

If you are a visionary who enjoys coming up with ideas and bringing them to fruition, industrial design might appeal to you. The industrial design process combines several factors, like creativity, technical information, historic and current ideological influences, and production that bring to life product designs that can have significant cultural influence. Industrial designers can secure such diverse careers as product, furniture, automotive, or toy designer.

Graphic design typically appeals to the person who likes to draw and enjoys making sense out of abstract images. As a student of graphic design, you would develop technical and aesthetic skills in drawing, design, composition, and color. Hands on learning include using industry-related technology and software. Graphic design skills are in constant demand due to the competitive world of advertising, publishing, and communications. A degree in graphic design can yield jobs like assistant designer, graphic designer, and layout artist.

For those who can walk into a room, bare or furnished, and create a totally new layout in their head would probably do very well in interior design. Students pursuing a career in interior design can look forward to developing through individual design process and studying architecture, drafting, lighting, and drawing. Careers as an interior designer can include residential planners, design consultants, and project managers.

Do you find television commercials just as entertaining as some of your favorite programs? Advertising may be your area of expertise. As a student of advertising, you would learn both the creative and business side of the commercial realm. This includes copywriting, art direction, and account supervision. As a result, you could pursue a profession as an assistant art director, copywriter, or account manager.

Doodling on a pad won’t get you recognized as an in-demand illustrator. You might want to consider developing your skills in the illustration degree program. In this degree program students learn technical skills while developing their individual expressive style. Curriculum can focus on drawing, painting, and photography. Their degree can garner jobs like book illustrator, graphic novelist, storyboard artists, 2-D artist, and art director. » Read more: Finding The Design Program That Best Suits Your Needs

A Change of Mindset

August 10th, 2011

I spent the majority of last week at the PLC at Work Institute, hosted by Rick and Becky DuFour. Now, I already knew or thought I knew what a PLC was and how an effective PLC run school can impact student achievement, but I was wrong.

I wasn’t wrong in my understanding that when teachers work together collaboratively they can identify problem areas and share best practices. I also wasn’t wrong in my belief that teachers should come out of their mindset of each classroom being an independent fiefdom. No, I was wrong on a much deeper level and I was hurting my students without ever realizing it.

I was up until last week one of those teachers who believed that I was teaching my students responsibility when I refused to accept any of their work late. I could not have been farther from the truth. In reality, I was telling my students that they didn’t have to do the work I assigned because there was always an easy way out, a 0. I was also dooming some of them to almost instant failure of my class if they got a 0 on a big assignment.

Oh, I told myself that since I used standards based weighting, no one assignment could impact a grade too heavily. I also told myself that in the real world, if I didn’t do MY work on time, I wouldn’t have a job. You see, I had blinded myself to the reality that there are times as a teacher I don’t get my own work done on time and my principal doesn’t tell me, “James, no worries, you didn’t get it done so I’ll just put a letter in your file and we will move on.”

You see teachers, while it makes sense to take off points for late work (after all if your kids didn’t mow the lawn you’d make them still do it even if it was during the time they wanted to be with friends), it makes NO sense to completely eliminate all chances of getting the work done. It dooms our kids to failure and teachers them not responsibility, but laziness.

School starts for me in two weeks and you can rest assured that if I took one thing from the PLC institute, I will not teach my students how to be lazy. » Read more: A Change of Mindset