Weekly Photo Challenge - this week's theme is framing. Research this theme by web searching the terms framing and photography. Photography School's website has some decent samples of  what others have done. Your job is to take your own photo using the concept of framing and submit it to the instructor by this coming Friday - October 1st, 2010. Last week's  theme entries can be found in the Student Sample Work page of our site. If you haven't submitted your circles entry please do so immediately.

Underclass Portrait Makeup and Retakes - this week we'll be trying to tie up all loose ends from last week's work. Congratulations to everyone who helped with taking portraits and managing the database we have created. Both parts were done with great care and expertise. You folks rock - these are the best portraits we've ever done and your dedication showed up  big!

Firstly - this week begins the big push to get a good portrait of every student attending CAT Pickering. Make sure that we are critiquing each image we shoot and don't hesitate to take more than one shot if necessary.
Second - I want to make sure all of you get a chance to take photos throughout the school year and I don't necessarily want them to always be taken with the yearbook in mind. This week we're going to start having a picture of the week assignment that follows a particular theme. This week's theme is circles. Every graphics student is responsible for taking one good presentable image that uses circles in its composition. For ideas, look at the entries in the Photography School website.

Training Magazine surveyed over 1,000 workers on their feelings about their jobs and the results were interesting. Here is a segment of their findings:

No Retirement--Ever?

Nearly two-thirds of working Americans seriously doubt they'll be able to ever retire, and while they are satisfied with their work, many fear taking time off from their jobs and feel disconnected from their companies, according to the StrategyOne Labor Day Public Opinion Survey of 1,043 Americans, including 613 who work either full- or part-time. Results include:

The vast majority of 613 employed Americans who were surveyed describe themselves as satisfied with their jobs (82 percent) and report they get satisfaction from their work (80 percent).  About three out of four (72 percent) also said they enjoy where they work and look forward to coming to work every day.

An equally high percentages of workers said they feel respected by their bosses (83 percent) and feel their boss respects their work (82 percent). Co-workers also got high marks, with three out of four Americans (74 percent) saying their colleagues are among the best things about where they work.

Some 64 percent believe that realistically they won't ever be able to stop working and retire.

Almost half (46 percent) of workers have had their wages or salaries reduced over the last couple of years, and a similar segment are concerned about losing their jobs (44 percent) or having their hours cut back (48 percent).

About four in 10 workers (37 percent) described themselves as underemployed and said they are not working as many hours as they would like because there is not enough work available at their current jobs.  A similar percentage of workers (40 percent) said their bosses expect them to work extra hours without raises or additional compensation.

The vast majority of the workforce (78 percent) described itself as working to live--compared to 22 percent who said work is their top priority in life.

One-quarter of workers (26 percent) said they fear being fired if they take a day off, although nearly half strongly disagreed with that suggestion.

Almost 82 percent of workers said they communicate well with their bosses, but 44 percent said their companies put corporate "values" on the wall that are mostly meaningless to them.

What are your thoughts on this survey? What numbers surprise you? Do you think any of the findings may be  incorrect or maybe misleading? Do you see any of these statistics changing with your generation - how so?

Google email, docs and sites is now available for you to use. This collection of tools is really quite useful as it will allow you to collaborate on notes, contacting your teachers and just helping you stay organized this year. Here are the details for accessing your Google CAT Pickering accounts:

Students access the Google Site by pointing their browser to the appropriate link:

http://mail.students.cciu.org
http://calendar.students.cciu.org
http://docs.students.cciu.org

They will log in following this standard:

Username:    FirstnameLastname
[note: use the names as they appear in PowerSchool with no spaces]

Password: same password that students use to log into their laptops, PowerSchool and Moodle. 

If you're having a tough time trying to get something to work on your computer, I just found an awesome tool that will help you explain your dilemma to me. It's called Show Me What's Wrong and it allows you to make a recording of your computer so you can ask someone's advice on a problem. Below is a screen capture that will launch the site: