I can't believe it's been 3 months since my last post. Life has been a whirlwind!

I finished my 1st year of teaching. It was a total stress the first semester because I was "student teaching" and under constant observation, then I got my feet under me for the second semester.

I don't know if it's a 1st-year teacher thing, but I really grew to care for my students... I've been a bit melancholy the last week without seeing them.

I'm going to miss them over the summer and the seniors FOREVER! It's bittersweet to see them moving on to bigger and better things while leaving our school behind. Hopefully I made some small difference in their lives.

Here's a pic of my empty desk, it was NEVER this clean the whole year...

Here's how we ran our "departmental meetings:"

Here's a picture of me at the "teacher appreciation lunch" this last Wednesday at the El Dorado casino buffet:

Too much happened during the year to really do it all justice here, but I re-did the school website (design and code - including an admin panel), graduated college with my teaching degree (I had to do my own homework while creating homework for my students), made a bunch of PR videos and managed the school's PR in-general, I made over 40 videos for my teaching YouTube channel, taught around 80 students every day (subjects: computer literacy, graphic design, digital game development, oh yeah... and AP ART!), organized a bunch of school events, organized field trips, and even designed a yearbook at the last minute (last 2 weeks of school...). All of that with lots of help from lots of people.

The stats don't really paint the picture though (see poem below), there were daily laughs, trials, sorrows, and joys along the way. Compared with my normal "work from home" gig, it was, honestly, emotionally draining. I wouldn't trade the experience for anything though.

Will I continue teaching next year? Tentative answer is "yes" but I've got some stuff simmering this summer with my own game development interests that may turn into something long-term.

Tonight I hope the Golden State Warriors finish off the Cavs, but until then, here are a couple poems I wrote and a video of my classroom's unofficial mascot:

Stats:

while true

Chancho:

Spirits of

Departing students

Tap on glass

One more class?

They ask

Or spread these wings

& fly

To the next branch?

 There it is. How have your last 3 months been?

I'm on Spring Break from school (last week and the coming week) and am helping my friend start a little side-business...

He did a Kickstarter (<-- don't click that link until you've answered the questions below) a while back to sell Aluminum Settlers of Catan pieces that were anodized to your choice of color. They turned out awesome!

They are quite hefty and substantial in your hand and look great in-game.

Anyway, I need YOUR input:

How much would you pay for a base set of these (4 cities, 5 settlements, 15 roads, and a robber) made of aluminum and anodized?

How much would you pay for a "Seafarers" expansion set (4 cities, 5 settlements, 15 roads, a robber, 15 boats, and a pirate) also made of aluminum and anodized?

Just give me your honest opinion on price point!

If you're not sure what "anodizing" is, watch this sweet video:

For Pi Day (March 14), I taught a bunch of high-school kids about using Trigonometry for video games! I think there were some lights going on! (We also ate Costco pies). Watch these videos to learn for yerself!

I'm still amazed at how these kids can crank out the answers to equations, but don't know anything about practical applications of Trig...

When did Trig "gel" in your brain?

Not much new to report except that I'm still teaching - I got my official teaching license approved this week so I'm now LEGIT!

As part of my continuing efforts to record ALL THE KNOWLEDGE in my brain and share it with the world, I made a video about the totally unintuitive yet surprisingly genius Adobe Flash/Adobe Animate drawing tools and how I use them in my personal art approach:

I'd recommend watching it in DOUBLE SPEED!

In other news I was thinking about the personality test I took a while back and I remember a bunch of Newgrounds people taking the same test and posting their results (https://www.16personalities.com/) - so I went back through all my news posts looking for the conversation, but I couldn't find it :\

However, it was interesting to review my old posts and, as I've said before, I'm really grateful Newgrounds has its blog system to keep a record of my past thoughts and concerns pains and successes. Also, kudos to my "past self" for being so consistent in posting updates. Time really flies and sometimes it's easy to lose track of where we've been. Remembering the past in detail helps us take bearing on where we want to go next.

EDIT: I found the post! http://bomtoons.newgrounds.com/news/post/950980

The post is about starting my own game studio... I feel far from that now... but the end of the comments mentions my idea to start a school with GAMES as the curriculum for all the subjects... so I'm a little bit on that track now... maybe I AM working toward my long term goals and not just settling!

This will get buried due to valentine's day, yet here I go!

I've been making Game Development tutorials for my high school students using FLASH! Why would I use FLASH? Because it's still the fastest "0 ---> Game" software out there.

The latest series is about making a PLATFORMER style game!

Check out this video about wall jumping:

How different my life might have been if I'd had a class like this in my highschool...

I'd like to teach an "Advanced Game Dev" class next year where we look at other programs and do some mobile dev.

What do you think of this kind of video?

Hi folks, as you know, I teach graphic design and game development at a local high-school. What you might NOT know is that the school asked me to be the "Public Relations Coordinator" also - So I get to help make my school look good with media-related stuff like social media posts, videos, website (currently under construction), etc.

It's been fun so far because it helps scratch my creative itch and has given me opportunities to learn and grow in some new areas. By no means am I very good at this yet, but here's a mini-documentary video I recorded and edited together this weekend for the middle-school branch of our charter school:

I can always count on Newgrounders to give me constructive feedback, so what do you think?

Much <3!

@Luis and I made a mini game for Pixel Day! Play S.M.O.L. here: http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/687705

We wanted to make it a lot bigger and better, but the deadline krept up... I'm still proud of it and would like to expand on the concept some day!

Happy Pixel Day and thanks to @tomfulp and Newgrounds for organizing opportunities like this!

New Year, new goals, long vacation, Steam sale, mobile port, pixel day, back to the grind, etc. What do you think?

The Angry Video Game Nerd's channel just posted the final installment in their playthrough of Abobo's Big Adventure. I was sincerely laughing out loud along with them when they got to the ending. It gives me a deep feeling of gratification to see the game connecting with people who "get" it. The expressions on their faces at the end say it all. Thanks @mockery, @poxpower, and @TomFulp for helping make this game a reality:

At 24:45 I'm going to tell myself that we touched the AVGN's heart so deeply he actually cried...

Hey, I finally graduated! Only 18 years after my high school graduation... :-/

In other good news, the Angry Video Game Nerd finally got around to playing Abobo's Big Adventure! It makes me smile constantly to see other people enjoying Abobo and getting (most of) the jokes:

I agree with some of the comments that he should have hired us to make his Steam game... ;-)