My First Week

 I've learned sometimes things are the same even though you're in a different career. I've had a lot of ridiculous professional development-style classes before school even started. I'm not a rah-rah-rah kind of guy. In fact I needed that valuable time and if I had been hired a week before I'd have been able to learn that in my printing lab all but four printers don't work or need serious maintenance. 

So...that's how this started. 

It also has had only one small blip so far, a mild trouble maker kept pushing the wrong button. A brief loud voice later and he chilled out and then transferred out. Since then this job has been a fun job almost. I mean other than the ridiculous stuff I don't care about. 

I've got two classes making their own board games. I don't know how to teach what the other teacher was teaching. He just had a course set up to teach via YouTube. While it is a necessary and usually really efficient way to learn the basics, he kept it up with more and more of them on worthless projects the kids would have to leave at school ultimately.

Nahhhh son, That's not what I do. I got a damn master's degree because I liked the creative aspects of commercials and was interested in how certain types of stimulus triggers a buying response. Basically I broke down complex situations into simple bites. 

Bite one. Get rid of old curriculum after I figured out old boy there was lazy. His courses were designed for him to stay behind the desk. So that had to go. I wanted to see their progress and challenge what they were doing in an engaging way. 

So for the start of the class we are doing tutorials until they catch onto how Blender works. Then after that I am going to guide them into making things they want to make and then teaching them how to make it into a .stl file and we will print it and they can paint it. They will have two things out of this course. 

    Uuuuummm...(a) maybe? They'll have tangible proof they can make something.

    (b) They will be reminded all year long they can use the skill they are learning now and turn it into a marketable skill, in which they can create and sell their own works. Because I'll remind them. I want them to be able to learn something in high school that is only limited by their creativity but can be lucrative for them if they really work at it. 

Bite C. The Game Design course is my favorite course really. Teach it twice. I ditched the old "sit behind the desk" curriculum and made up my own. We are treating this like a business in the early stages. We will have a working prototype by end of semester and then play test, balance, and prepare for market in the second semester. And perhaps, yes we might be able to market it. To be figured out at a later date. This was the trouble maker's class and I had a hard time getting through to anyone but a few. Then boom, the clouds parted, the angels sang, and we had a really good time ever since! Everyone has bought in!

Basically because of the same situation as the design class. We are in reality making templates and developing skills to use and edit those templates into a proud creation of their own that they can market and maybe make some extra money off of or maybe invent a new genre of game altogether! I want them to be prepared for the workforce and maybe have a bit more opportunity in their lives. 

The print lab is a wreck. I've got 4 reliable printers. So I spent my entire year's budget on five brand new printers like I have. They are so simple so we will be able to focus on making stuff instead of failed prints. And that's about it. I got some wash stations and some resin and isopropyl alcohol. Whole budget is gone now for the year. 

But we'll have really good printers now and hopefully if any money comes in or is donated to the program or something I want to add in ten more. As old as this equipment is in the lab now, the new resin printers can cut that time a dozen times over for one print. So we won't need as many as the lab has. And then I really don't have a marketing idea for this class other than the same in the other two classes. Learn the technology and find a niche you can market. It's not rocket surgery. 

So to boil it down, so far if the year keeps going like this, I might return for a second year.

I'll keep you informed.