I am three hours into working on my photoshop collage. I watched the tutorials and did the practice sessions. I am still trying to figure out how to "layer" and how to get my magnetic lasso to do its thing. The only problem is, I don't have the slightest clue how to layer and the only thing I've lassoed in the past three hours is an Oberon. In risking sounding like a country bumpkin, I am at best frustrated at worst about to throw my lap top through a wall. I am a cut-and-dry high school history teacher that is super-interested in integrating media and the like into my classroom. I have time for quick and easy tools that will enhance my daily learning goals (to use a Marzano term). At best in the evening I have between three to four hours of steam after I put my daughter down for the night. Photoshop I am sure is an incredible tool. I am sure it is tons of fun once you get the hang of it. I am sure that the educational process will be improved. But not today and not tonight. I am sure it takes hours and hours to master. Hours I do not have (but wish I did).
It's funny because I sat in an all-day conference yesterday (sidenote to readers: I am a classroom educator...I function best moving, talking, walking and engaging) and sat at a table with my noble colleagues from other subject areas. I dutifully listened for the first four hours to the details about our new evaluation process (Ahhhem...Found out at about four and half hours us chosen ones at the table would be the school "coaches" to explain to our own departments said process). I began to fade at the five hour mark - I had eaten two chicken raps and two oatmeal raisin cookies thanks to the wonderful conference coordinators (I love a free lunch!). By the sixth hour I was on my iPad planning out my next week, next month and then began jotting down (typing) ideas for my kick-off next fall. By the closing remarks I had written my annual send-off poem for my fifth hour American history students. What's funny is that I just tend to do the "fade and smile" - the zone where you are listening and compliant but already moving on to the next project but my colleagues were a different story. They found something to complain about. The new nomenclature, the new system, the brand spanking new online tutorials, and even the powerpoint handbook we received walking through the door were all targets of their ire.
That's not my style. The same teachers that complain and talk over the conference presenter tend to be the very same teachers that bemoan the yahoo in the back of the class who cannot seem to pocket his iPhone or stop talking the cute girl in front of him. And...when teachers complain, they go for the gold. They convince themselves that the conference was of little or no use and that they learned nothing and to go one better, they "insist it will not work". To that end, I just shrug my shoulders at the naysayers and reply, "I think it will all work out in the end." They really hate hearing that.
Photoshop is like that conference and I am like my beleaguered colleagues. The only difference is, although I am complaining now I hope, nay, know it will all work out in the end. (I hope)
More to come.
-BA
