The+Poof

=__Where's the Proof?__=

The motivation for me to be a teacher started back when I was a senior High School. I was enrolled in a class “Hypermedia” with my closes friends. We all enrolled in this course because it was known as a “blow-off” course and an easy A and we figured it would be an easy way to hang out during our last year of high school.

We found out on the first day of class that the teacher who normally taught the course ended up retiring and that there was a new young teacher taking his class over. My friends and I decided to go to stick out the class a weeks to see if the content had changed before going to the counselor to drop the course. So there we were on the first day of class and Mr. Jeff Doles introduced himself and the course. At this time Mr. Doles was only 28 and pretty fresh out of school. I remember Mr. Doles going over the syllabus explaining what he expected from his students. Mr. Doles also said something that was absolutely new to me as a High School teacher. “This is what is expected of you during this course. The way you go about completing these projects is up to you. I will be here as a resource for you but feel free to explore.”

As a student this freedom to work as you please was new but really all Mr. Doles was doing was setting his students up to be ready for a real life career.

For these two semesters that I sat in Mr. Doles class I had the opportunity to work with friends, explore new techniques, and experience what it is like to be mentored & inspired.

Second semester of this class Mr. Doles asked my friends and I to help him capture the senior class in video and pictures for what he was calling the Senior Video Yearbook. We spent most of that semester gathering photos (scanning them into the computer) and taking video footage at various events. We spent class periods, free periods, time after school & weekends, we even spent our finals week working on this project with Mr. Doles.

The cool thing is Mr. Doles was able to take a class of people who were trying to take the easy way out and motivate them to create some really amazing things.

Since this course almost 10 years ago Mr. Doles class has been the talk of the town, the city, and the country. Mr. Doles and his students of [|Studio 238] have received 33 Student Academy Awards including 15 Crystal Pillars. Mr. Doles and his students have also been featured on WGN morning news and had a video which played during [|O.A.R.s] summer tour.

Mr. Doles and his students have worked longer and harder than many high school students. Even though to most these students the work may seem easy and fun the experiences and grades are definitely well earned. Mr. Doles has changed the way Barrington High School views technology. With out him “Hypermedia” would still be the blow off class for seniors.


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