Saturday, August 18, 2007




It has been several weeks now since the school year ended and I have relocated to Florence, Kentucky. It's nice here, but so far I haven't found employment. So I have been looking for creative ways to constructively fill my time. I have chosen to get back into painting / art. Here's a look at a work I started in late June. I don't get to work on it very often and, now that I am working part time at the local art college, it sits on the easel and "mocks me!" (Had to work in that cliche')

But I will get back to it eventually. Painting is fun, it is a distraction (plus, a person can listen to music, the radio or have the TV on in the background for complete immersion.)

That's it for now. Bye bye.

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

School is starting

Here it is, the middle of August and the students are getting ready to go back to school. Here in Kentucky, where I live now, everyone's back tomorrow! Guess I'll be watching the yellow bus go by with no place for me.

Saturday, August 04, 2007

It's been a while

It certainly HAS been a while since last posting. But it's nice to see that you're still here reading along. Hope to have more to say soon!

Thursday, May 25, 2006

Seniors Pack Their Bags...

The seniors at Jerome have one day left! One more day to show up at school and try to contain thier enthusiasm. One day to clear-out the lockers, pay overdue-book fines, have lunch with their friends (and try to sneak out early)! For now it might be just an early beginning of Summer break... but in a few days it will hit 'em! High school is over!

But wait! College is coming! Live at university is ten times better than high-school. It will take a little getting used-to, the independence, sleeping-in (when you shouldn't), missing meals, having to do laundry. But it's SO much fun!

Good luck to the class of 2006!

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

We Won!!!

A noteworthy thing happened last week. I received a mailing telling me that my students' website has won a bronze Telly Award! Tellly awards are marks of excellence for people in the marketing, video, web, advertising world and I'm proud to say that the students have come through once again!
I mentioned in an earlier posting that they had gone to a lot of trouble to develop a site where they could post their videos online and it seems the Telly people think we're worthy of note. The Telly people have a basic scoring system so awards are based on merit more than as a competition. When I mentioned to students that their site had won I had to admit I though they probably were cited for their video work (because the rest of the site is pretty much simply photos of them and descriptions of their shows.)
So, if you have a moment take another look at the site, check-out the student's video work and keep an eye out for updates or changes as they are available.
Here's the link:

Jerome

Nearly time to say so-long!


Time is ticking away! I cannot believe it is already mid-May! Our days are counting-down to zero and it won't be long until we'll have to say so-long for the summer! And for the first time I will have seniors leaving, never to return! When I worked in the video industry it was common to have co-workers disappear, one at a time, moving on to other opportunities but it was never like this! Somewhere along the line our relationships have changed.... although technically we still are 'teacher-and-students,' the linds have blurred and I now think of these people as friends and colleagues. At the end of May I'll be saying goodbye to more than twenty friends that I've come to know over the past two years! How sad will that be?!
Hopefully these friends will drop by for occasional visits or send e-mail... or maybe DVDs of thier creations. I will miss them terribly... but I know they will do well!
What about you? Did you stay in touch with a teacher (or professor) after you left school? How did you feel when you went back or saw that teacher later in life?

Thursday, May 04, 2006

Jerome Film Fest


Last night, Jerome video students hosted the second annual "Film Fest." There was a great turnout-more than 250 students! (They ran out of tickets and had to improvise ways to allow more people to attend.) There were a few last minute entries and as a result, the event ran VERY long! Certainly, next year we will have to invent ways to weed-out the less-than-great videos and prevent them from being added to the program.

The young ladies shown here were getting restless waiting to see if they had won an award. This happened to a LOT of people, they had to sit through too many videos. With such a huge number of student-produced "films," it seems likely that there are likely to be a few 'dogs.'

Perhaps by cutting the number of entries we can avoid the crowd getting restless for having to view questionable material, and keep the program moving along by presenting the best our school has to offer. We should make this a TRUE showcase for the broadcast and video students.

My colleagues and I are creating a list of criteria for determining whether a video is (or is not) school appropriate. Any ideas?

Monday, May 01, 2006

Still going well

The Video Production students continue to accel! Today our JNN (Jerome News Network) group managed to pull together the taping of their on-set segments. They seemed to be lacking leadership but with a significant amount of prodding from the instructor-team they managed to get their taping completed. It won't be the most flashy version of a newscast that they've ever done, but then the managed to get it finished with very little intervention.

Meanwhile, students have now turned in EVERYTHING that's allowable in the Film Fest event. One producer was there up until the very last minute trying to get things ready.

We are very excited about our upcoming "48 Hours" opportunity for the Level 2 students. They will form groups of their own choosing, any number of participants may be involved (no rules). They will recieve on Friday afternoon a list of three items: genre, prop and phrase. From the moment they recieve their assignment they will have forty-eight hours (until the end of the day Sunday) to shoot footage. Then, working only during class time, the students will use Final Cut Pro and any other means at their disposal, to prepare a video or mini-movie that they think is the best they can possibly do. Eventually we'll have a meeting with the video students at Coffman High who are completing the same project. It will be interesting to see what we end up with.

Meanwhile, we instructors are gearing-up for the next Level-1 assignment which rolls the Music Video and Final (history) project all into one time period. We are reviewing rubrics, assignment sheets and expectations. We should have something ready for the students by the end of the week. I will try to remember to post it here.