24 October, 2017

Another term 4 as a secondary teacher and it’s been a full year. I finally matched my project-based courses with student driven assessment and found some balance in it. A few changes sorted for next year and things should really start to take shape. My students are allowed to bitch, moan, get excited about something, give up, not give up and a generally be human but they have found that I am not ever going to engage if they talk about exams, credits, getting a job, or the latest iPhone.

It’s been a year of learning new things. Things I have wanted to try for a while now but never had the resources to do. Things like learning to airbrush (with actual real life paint), keep a tropical fish tank, have a workshop with CNC tools in it, and make an arcade machine. It’s been a lot of fun and as long as I don’t show too many adults what I’m doing things seem to go okay. I fully understand why workshops are so compelling now and painting flames with an airbrush is wonderfully therapeutic. It is also the first time in a long time that I have felt no compunction about doing something as a hobby rather than forcing it into a commerical design outcome. My workshop has become about art rather than design and I’m finding it’s a nice balance. I also get to listen to music out there … from my phone … through a bluetooth speaker. I’m now old enough to think that is both very cool and a little bit surprising considering I still have a box of tapes and CDs kicking around somewhere.

Looking forward to a gentle term 4 and a summer holiday filled with building stuff, punk music, hammocks and home brew. Roll on 2017.