ACID Spring Day 1 - 1/9/10

I started off the afternoon with asking the students how their winter break was. We then settled in and walked through my example portfolio. I gave them the text to my resume to get them started.

AJ came in and talked to the students about our expectations of them and how their performance hasn't been up to par. The mood slipped to a slight sullenness.

After AJ finished laying out our fair expectations, I talked to them and got them on their way to finishing their portfolios. I went around the room and helped the students make sure all their links were consistent, worked and were relevant. Other problems I saw a lot were image resizing and making the pages look neater.

Bronson had an issue with accidentally turning his computer off today that made it hard for him to finish in time. I don't know what exactly was up with Garrett but he did not accomplish as much. Most of what he accomplished came toward the end of the day when I called him out for not doing much for 2 1/2 hours. 4 out of the 6 students were working pretty diligently.

Marleny's Photoshop Page:

Garrett's Resume:

-Tony

Today we allowed the students to work on their Behind the Wheel projects, after a short review with the Jeopardy Game! The students did particularly well, with David answering a lot of questions correctly. Jose asked some good questions after the game, giving Chris the chance to go over some of the basics, like layers and how to use filters.

Once that was finished, the students went to work. This was their last Saturday session to complete their projects, and it was clear they understood that. They all worked hard, ignoring their break time for the most part and asking for help when they needed it, from both the instructors and each other. Diana's splash page came out very nice:



She shows good use of color and photos in this, and she was able to integrate all the pages into a nice uniform concept. When I saw this I told her I could imagine it rotating around a central axis, moving each picture to the foreground as the mouse moved over them, and she said that was exactly what she wanted.

David made a website for his mom, who is a DJ for a local station. He even used a photo of her:



Like Diana’s site, this has a uniform concept that makes good use of color and artwork that is relevant to the subject matter. He’s thinking about making it into a real site, which I told him was a great idea.

All in all, it was a very successful final session for the Photoshop class. The students worked very hard in this unit, and had to learn a number of difficult concepts. They stepped up to the challenge, and learned a lot that they’ll be able to use in future projects. Way to go, everyone!!!

Session VII: Finishing the BTW and Road Test!!

Since the Luncheon is next weekend, Chou gave the students three different ways of presenting their work:
1. One person represents all of the Illustrator students
2. Everyone works together to present their work
3. Each student introduces their own

Upon hearing their choices, Doundup immediately nominates Jon. And when Cristina felt that it would be nice to see all of the students take part in the presentation saying that it would be "fair," Bronson replies, "No. That wouldn't be fair." Though he knew that it was, he just didn't feel like going up in front of a lot of students to present his projects.

After giving the students information, they immediately started working on their BTWs.
Because Tenzin's session's image looked just like Gumby, she (along with Michelle) started creating an "original cartoon" website. Doundup's constant sneaking to watch anime inspired his website. Ninah and Alli finished their BTWs early with the brushes/art and city skyline (respectively) website. Jaylah's website included some of her favorite celebrities. Krystal worked on a buddha themed "OMMMM" website. Garret worked on with Nike while Taylor worked on with a shoes theme. Madeline "thought outside of the box" and created an image where a man was spewing out knowledge such as HTML out of his mouth. Like Alli, Jon created a a skyline/city - Chicago themed website. Bronson couldn't think of something so he kept tapping some beats. When a music website was suggested, he finally put forth effort in his work. It turned out quite nice.

The students went to work knowing that the time to showcase their work to parents and other important figures is closing in on them.

After their breaks (which came later because working distracted everyone), they did their Road Tests and then were let out early because PTE employees were going to use their room at 3:00PM.

Session VI: Review and P-Day II

Today consisted of more review for the sophomores... but a Jeopardy kind of review!

Which didn't really excite the students all that much, but they participated nonetheless.

Similarly, the set of twins in the sophomore class answered the majority of the questions (just like how the twins in the junior class answered all of the questions in the Excel class). Because they were the only two talking, Chou and Cristina enforced a new rule which states that any one person cannot answer two consecutive questions in a row. And when they did, the points didn't count. This gave the other students a chance to think about and search Illustrator for the answers. As a result, the teams ended up with a tie game!

However, this tie did not come so easy... The Back team was losing (by a landslide) before we implemented the rule about consecutive answers. When Ninah and Alli couldn't answer anymore, Jon and Garet began to search around Illustrator.. then Taylor and Jamarra, and pretty soon the majority of the class was searching around Illustrator. When it came time for the last question, the Back team was leading by 100 points, and they were to choose the last question. Unfortunately for them, the Front team won the last 100 points and tied with the Back team. They were all winners!!

After the game, Chou showed the students a speed drawing of two girls, a realistic girl who was transformed into an animated version, and an animated version of a girl from scratch.

***

As Cristina introduced a detailed BTW to the students, the students were all questioning what kind of ideas should they use...

Cristina then interjected with the news about the Showcase. When the students found out about going back to the elementary schools, some of them said, "Spongebob.." which led to the reason why SOOO many freshmen last year did a showcase with Spongebob just ... randomly present somewhere. Ninah and Alli said that's because "they told us to."

Doundup had continued on with randomness (which stemmed off Bronson), but was directed towards a more ninja/bloody theme which suited him quite well.

Michelle was interested in (what almost all of the high schoolers are crazy about) New Moon.


While Tenzin played around with a realistic cave that turned out to look just like Gumby, so Cristina showed her who Gumby was and she created eyes that look just like him.






***
The students went back to work while occasionally asking questions until it was time to retake the permit test.

They began their blog and A.J. came and talked to them about the Showcase (again).

Photoshop Session 6

Today's session went surprisingly smooth. The students came in and Paul went over the BTW checklists with them. AJ came in and ran through his example BTW project. The students then had two hours to work on their own project.

After their second break they logged into learn@uw and took their Permit Test. They were given the remaining time to keep working on their projects.

Here is David's Mixtape Project:

Here is Richie's Pacman Fix:

November 7th

Today’s session went very smoothly, with the students getting right into the quiz and then the design setup information. They all had some experience with slicing, dreamweaver, web design, HTML/CSS, etc., which saved a lot of time. Most of the education section turned into a review before we went into the challenges, with Chris showing them a lot of example websites and how they could be broken apart using the 4 Part System. Our challenge was to have the students find three websites and copy them into Photoshop, using the Firefox Aviary add-on, and then to break them up according to which parts are the content/navigation/etc. sections. More than that, however, the students had to look at the themes and layouts of the sites, picking apart things like functionality, organization, and how intuitive the sites were. Next, they came up and showed the sites they found to the rest of the class, explaining how they had broken them down and what they thought worked/didn’t work.

Here’s one of Aaliyah’s websites:


Here’s one of Carrie’s websites:


Because they progressed through everything so smoothly, they were able to spend a lot of time going over old projects and brainstorming ideas for their BTW. They’re all really interested in making their own sites, and should be coming up with some good ideas!

Session V

Envelope distortion (once again -- because the students forgot how to do it)!

The students were amazed at how one could use gradient mesh, "Oh my God, somebody can create a face picture" screamed someone in the back (translation: Oh! So that's how stars create such perfect images)

Another student called out after, "You should make a profile picture for me."

When Chou announced that there was going to be a retake, Bronson asked, "What happens if a student fails every time they take the test?" which sparked a heavy debate on whether trying to pass is more work or just failing.

Doundup argued, "It's easy to fail. Just don't go to class."

"I'm pretty sure that your parents don't want you to skip, so you're going to have to evade them," countered Cristina.

Bronson's imaginary light turned on above his head as he realized what the instructors were trying to say.

Chou took in questions and spat out answers for the next 10 or so minutes until break arrived (where none of the students moved...once again).

During work time, Jaylah walked out of class...without telling us. =(

Anyway, Ninah or Alli (I still can't tell them apart- one set of twins at a time!) created a wonderful skyline which I thought was a great piece for her customized portfolio or a website of some sort.

Bronson couldn't think of a theme, so he started looking at websites. When he started putting together circles, Cristina suggested that he make a caterpillar themed website.

A couple of minutes later, Bronson looked to his right and said, "Why are you copying me?!" Doundup had copied his circle idea (except he mixed it with circles and ovals).

When Cristina asked for the "Circle caterpillar one" and the "Copied one," Doundup corrected her, "Mine wasn't copied, it is an upgrade."


"Nice upgrade," exclaimed Bronson.