I have to say that I am very happy with my decision to pursue a teaching job at the Art Institute. I’ve taught two courses for the past two weeks. It’s going very well so far.

My coworkers are easy to get along with. The support staff is very supportive.

My students are very engaged in the lessons. A couple of them sneak in online games and texting, but even they are keeping up with everything going on in class. A few ask some really great questions and show some real promise as designers.

The school seems to provide free pizza and drinks on a regular basis. Last Wednesday there was a presentation by the president of the school and a few of the staff members. They brought in so many pizzas that there were still stacks of them when I left an hour later. The school is growing, and has all kinds of plans for events and community-building. Love it.

My experience at AI is so go that I’d jump at the chance at a full load (4) classes if they offered it next quarter. My lack of a Masters may be an obstacle. If all continues to go well, I’ll have to finish up my Masters in teaching.

Business is slow for Blue Lobster Art, but may pick up after persistent marketing and networking efforts over the next few months. Money may be tight through the end of the year, but things are looking up!

I’m winding down my high school teaching career this week. My final day of teaching high school classes, perhaps for good, is this Friday. I taught high school full time for the past three years. If you want to know why I am deciding to leave this glamorous and rewarding career, check out my recent posts below.

The good, great, fantastic news is that I get to go back to teaching college kids (and adults) in July. I got a part-time teaching position at the Art Institute, where I will have two web design classes. Each class is four hours long, once per week, for an eleven-week quarter. I could perhaps have taught there full-time, but I want to keep my schedule open for all the freelance design work I hope to pull in.

My other good news is that I have decided to create a new side business for myself (in addition to Blue Lobster Art and Design). Some of my tutorials at BluLob have been very popular. However, I’ve been kind of all-over-the-map with what I create. For the past year or so I’ve been thinking about writing a Photoshop tutorial book geared toward the classroom. So, instead of cranking out a new tutorial a couple of times a week in random order, I’m getting organized. I want to create a comprehensive curriculum and have it all online. This new effort will appear in due time at 60Lessons.com.

Here’s the synopsis:

Art and design lessons tailored for the classroom:

• 45-minute daily lessons
• 10 lessons per unit
• 60 lessons per course
• Instructor guides
• Unit reviews
• Unit projects with rubrics
• Unit quizzes

Subjects:

• Photoshop
• Illustrator
• Dreamweaver
• HTML and XHTML
• CSS
• design principles
• drawing
• and more!

My slogan is Daily Doses of Smart™.

I hope to build the site to

• offer 60 lessons for beginning, intermediate, and advanced levels
• invite guest teachers
• cater to people learning on their own as well, perhaps providing paid coaching
• eventually provide a social networking/community setting

Some of the 60Lessons.com materials will be free, and others will be available at affordable prices. Banner ads alone do not pay the bills, I have found.

I’ve put together a rough outline for the three levels of Photoshop courses. I’d love to have your feedback on this venture. Is the 60Lessons.com concept of interest to you? What would you want to see offered?

I finally spent some quality time designing a new logo for Blue Lobster Art & Design. Today, I incorporated it into the site design:

Here’s a blog entry about my creation of this lobster drawing in Illustrator.

Create a Tiki God in Photoshop

I hope your business is still thriving in these shaky economic times.

You were a treasured client of mine before I went into teaching full time. The school I have dedicated nearly every waking hour to for the past year and a half is laying me off. I am therefore considering returning to working for myself. If so, I would be available for design work part time until June, and then full time after that. I have kept up all of my Web and design skills; in fact, I am teaching those subjects at the high school. You can see my graphic design students’ work here.

I am considering rebranding myself as Blue Lobster Art & Design. I would offer portraits and other art products in addition to Web & graphic design.

You can help me decide whether this is a smart move (leaving teaching for a return to self-employment). Do you foresee any design projects you might steer my way if I became available again? Do you know anyone else who might be interested in an honest, dedicated, and effective designer?

Thank you very much for any feedback you can give.

Fondly,

Dawn Pedersen
Blue Lobster Art & Design (maybe)