Digimom’s DigiCom Blog

The school year has flown by. Now that spring break is ending we have eight weeks of school that are going to fly by. I have already been very busy with interviews of new students for next year because we have had three Open House nights since January to get an early start on the process. By the looks of things, the major is going to double in size. I hope the school district will be prepared to deal with getting another teacher, a classroom, and lots more computers, etc.

We have some very busy weeks ahead of us. Juniors will design a poster to advertise Southern Portraits & Accentson Tuesday and Wednesday. They were given the assignment before vacation by a 2004 graduate of AAST and DC. Elken Grate has his own work on display in that gallery located in the Village Square Shopping Center in Myrtle Beach. The juniors are to have all their ideas, images, etc. ready to go so they can use the four hours of their double & single blocks to create their poster. Elken will return on Thursday, to hold a design critique session with the juniors completed posters. This is when they get to feel what it is like in the real world, with a real client, and a time limit for their work.

Friday is our AAST EXPO 09 from 10am – 2pm. The local community has been invited to attend. As you know from your invitation and the information on the school website, every major will have some type of activity going on along with some of the academic classes. This is the day AAST showcases to the public what we are all about! I hope that each and everyone of you has saved a portion of the day to come and see us show off. DC will have a table set up with copies of the school newspaper available, the AAST Literary Magazine for the cost of $1, and the opportunity for our visitors to order custom made business cards, note cards, and posters. We have an entire notebook of examples designed by the DC students.

Seniors will be finished with the product part of their senior mastery projects this Friday. They will spend the rest of April preparing their panel notebooks, all of their presentation materials including invitations, and their portfolios. They will have eight days in May to PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE, their senior mastery presentation before the real deal is upon them. That is a lot of “stuff” to accomplish in the next four weeks! Hopefully, they have given you their presentation day and time, as they choose those right after sharing their completed personal portfolio covers on April 1st.

Please check the AAST and DC calendars on the school website for all upcoming events because they seem to be endless at this time of year. Students that need to stay after school, can stay everyday except on Fridays. I am there doing interviews every afternoon. I also stay in the classroom at lunch on all days except Wednesday, when I have lunch duty. For the early birds, I get to school between 7:30 and 7:40 am everyday.

Digital Communications will become Interactive Media next school year. There will be changes to the curriculum which I will share as soon as they have been finalized. An important change that concerns seniors for next year is that one of the three credits for the major is for completing an internship, so students should plan ahead with finding a site and working out any transportation issues there may be. If you are interested in the story behind this change you will need to come sit down with me for a spell.

My goal of adding to this blog weekly hasn’t worked to well yet, but I am going to try to get back on track as there is a lot of 2009 left. We have been very busy in the DC classroom. We have had sophomore’s visiting from several base schools. We have had two open houses for prospective student, a Pancake Dinner, Amalia won a Gold ADDY even after being judged against college students, the new redesigned Academy Post (TAP) came out last week, and we had our third advisory board meeting last Monday.

Juniors will begin learning HTML this week. Thursday is our second junior shadowing day of this school year. Students that did not make arrangements for a shadowing experience will search three colleges that have majors related to DC.

Seniors are beginning to feel the effects of time management as due dates for everything “senior mastery” are looming. Portfolio covers for their personal “Show Off” book are due on or before April 1, 2009. Product work should be close to completed at this time also. Much of April will be used for students to prepare all presentation display items, a digital portfolio, their presentation, and the panel booklets.

Things to Remember:
AAF-CC Meeting at the Dunes Club is March 19th (cost $20)
Registration forms for rising seniors are due Friday, March 20th
End of third quarter is March 25th – 2 1/2 hour early dismissal
Open House for prospective students and parents March 26th, 5:30 – 7:00 PM
Adobe Users Group Meeting at Socastee Public Library March 26th, 6:00 PM (free)
Third Quarter Report cards issued on March 31st
Spring Break April 4 – 13
AAST EXPO is April 17th
DC Advisory Board Meeting is April 20th
Create South – FREE Conference – April 25th

There are so many things going on at AAST right now that my head is spinning, so I assume our students’  heads must be spinning also.  I hope that all students are eating healthy, exercising regularly, and getting the sleep they need because all of these things are important for our bodies and minds to function at their highest levels. Please check the school calendar as well as the DC calendar regularly to help your student keep up with all the events.

All juniors at AAST are working on the “junior research paper”. Rough drafts are due to English teachers and major teachers this Friday, February 13, 2009. This is a major school wide grade assignment and an important skill that all students need. The DC juniors are also working on the Doodle4Google contest project. The project is due Tuesday, February 17, 2009.  This is also an extra credit opportunity for the seniors.

Seniors are or should be working hard on more advance skills to incorporate into their senior mastery projects. We have some amazing web sites being designed, some complex illustrations being drawn, a brand new design for the Academy Post, film making being explored, an AAST majors promotional book being designed, etc.  The seniors have also come up with unique ideas for their personal (Show Off Book) portfolio designs. I am excited to see the finished portfolios. 

It seems that sending progress reports home every Friday has helped many students improve their work habits and therefore their grades. I will continue to keep parents informed this way, in hopes that students will learn great work habits and time management skills before entering college or their careers after high school.

I worry about the seniors who seem to have “senrioritis” already! (Read about senioritis on wikipedia) Senior mastery work is completely individual, so students are expected to come to class to work on new skills, product work, literacy requirements, learning logs, portfolios, etc.

Ask your student what extra credit design project they are working on right now. Check the “Design Opportunities” and “Extra Credit” pages of the DC Website to see all of the choices and opportunities I have found for your future designer?

Today the juniors learned what it means to be flexible. The plan for our double block this morning was to read Graphic Design chapter 3 together with discussion and note taking.

After a meeting for major teachers and English teachers yesterday after school about the “junior research paper” I realized that it was important to take the juniors to the media center for a review of research resources. I need the review also so I can help them with this important paper that will count toward the major grade also. Our scheduled time was for 10:05 am, right after our break.

So school started, with the bell, pledge, moment of silence, and morning announcements. Juniors got organized while I took attendance and entered it into the computer. We began reading, discussing, and note taking only to be interrupted after about 30 minutes by Ms. Aglietti. One of the guidance counselors from NMBHS needed to speak to NMBHS juniors. It would just take five minutes for each (15 minutes)! it actually took almost an hour. The reading of chapter 3 went on hold and juniors had time to work on incomplete work, technical reading, or organizing information for Thursday’s presentations! Sadly some juniors wasted that time away . . . but others learned some new Flash techniques, something new about a career related to the major, finished the technical reading assignment due last Friday, etc.

It was break time when the NMBHS guidance counselor was done in our classroom, so we all went to listen to Ms. Tomko’s professional tips on resources for research right after break. She showed us some excellent examples about how to get information related to our major! Ms. Tomko also helped individual students with topic decisions, key words to type in, and best places to research for specific topics.

Research paper rough drafts are due to me and to English teachers February 13th and final drafts are due March 6th!

JILL, 19, from Michigan, wants to go to university to read political science. There is just one problem: she keeps failing the mathematics requirement. “I am an exceptional student in all other subjects, so my consistent failure at math made me feel very stupid,” she says. In fact, she stopped going to her college mathematics class after a while because, she says, “I couldn’t take the daily reminder of what an idiot I was.”

Read full article.

We were invited last fall to participate in the University of South Carolina’s Ad Bowl Poll. The School of Journalism & Mass Communications major has held this event annually, and this is the sixth one. Digital Communications students and parents also may vote after the Super Bowl. Here is the Ad Bowl Poll page!

Here is another interesting link. The top 15 technology commercials since 1976! I remember the 1984 Macintosh commercial. And then of course the 1999 one “HAL 2000″! Enjoy these, there are some really awesome ones!

Second semester is barely underway and I have already seen renewed motivation in many students. The seniors will have their personal “Show-Off Book” portfolio design approved this week. I can hardly wait to hear what new creative ideas they have come up with after all these months of planning. Juniors are job shadowing this week also, so there is a lot of excitement in the air about actually going to a “real” business.

Congratulations to Amalia Willett. She will be awarded a GOLD ADDY on February 7, 2009 at the 2009 ADDY Awards Gala.

10 points extra credit for students who comment on this topic. What fiction book(s) are you reading right now? Why did you choose the and what is it about? If you come back when you are done with the book to share a review you can earn another 10 points extra credit. If you can get your parents to share what they are reading, you can earn some more points! Students have to share first before they can earn points for parents sharing! HAPPY READING!

As far as class time goes this is a very short week. I hope everyone had time to watch some of the presidential inauguration. It was an amazing day in the history of the United States. Our country has come a long way, but we still have a long road ahead of us!

Report cards will be issued on Friday, January 23, 2009.

Last week both classes had mid-term exam presentations. The seniors made me proud as everyone of them had a powerpoint ready and did their best at presenting. There are just a few that need to work hard at improving their presentation skills. The junior book report presentations were informal, but once again, there were some students who need to work on getting more comfortable talking to the class and getting prepared a head of time about what they want to say!

There are 13 juniors that will be taking advantage of the opportunity to do some job shadowing next week. Nine juniors have chosen not to take advantage of this wonderful opportunity. I will be adapting the shadowing assignment into a smaller project because not all students are participating. Those students not shadowing will have a career research project to work on in place of the shadowing project. I plan to give all juniors another shadowing opportunity around the beginning of March. Plan ahead!

Both junior and senior classes are working on technical reading during third quarter for their literacy requirement for the major. They are required to have a topic by this Friday. There will be some variety to the weekly assignments this quarter, which means they won’t always be using a book to read about their topic!

Seniors are required to have their “Personal Show-Off” Portfolio design plan approved by Ms. D. by January 30th.

Remember to check the DC calendar and DC curriculum pages so you know what we are working on!

I hope the new semester will bring new motivation to DC students and help them achieve the grades they are capable of when they put forth their best effort. If a DC students comes to class everyday to learn and work, he or she will undoubtedly earn a high B or an A easily! It’s all about personal effort and self motivation!

I wish everyone a fantastic second semester!

Seniors will do their Mid-Year “Mini Senior Mastery” Presentations tomorrow afternoon, January 14th!

Juniors will do their Mid-Year “Fiction Book Report Project” Presentations Thursday morning, January 15th!

You are welcome to come join us.