San Diego Union T-Tribune - Friday, October 22, 1999
(Page B-2 )

Smithsonian picks Grossmont High class | It wants materials of animation course

EL CAJON -- To say that Grossmont High teacher Don Henderson was surprised to receive a letter from the Smithsonian Institution might be understating it a bit.

Inside the gold-embossed envelope was an announcement informing him that the course description and materials from his computer animation class will be part of the national museum's permanent research collection.

"It was unbelievable and pretty amazing to be recognized in that way," said Henderson, 30.

Steven Jobs, chief executive of Apple Computers, nominated Henderson for the honor after the teacher was chosen as one of 48 in the nation to receive the Apple Distinguished Educator Award last year.

Henderson and the other nominees, or laureates, for next year's Permanent Research Collection on Information Technology will be feted in Washington, D.C., in April by technology gurus from MCI WorldCom, Sun Microsystems, Intel, Science Applications International Corp. and the like. Their case studies are set to go online -- at http://innovate.si.edu -- in June.

Last year, 472 projects were archived in 10 categories -- education, business, finance, science, medicine, transportation, manufacturing, agriculture, government and the arts. Nearly 3,000 have been chosen since the program began 12 years ago.

The joint project of the Smithsonian and Computerworld magazine provides a virtual snapshot of the technology industry for researchers, said Simone Ross, director of the collection. It will be online for those who want to look back on the millennium.

While Henderson is on the national radar, it was business as usual in the technology laboratory at Grossmont High yesterday.

Students used Apple MacIntosh graphics work stations to design their own robots, which they were learning how to animate.

"Today's assignment is to create the walk cycle on your own," Henderson told them as class began. "The walk can be personalized. You can make it droopy, or more mechanical."

Then, he went into heel strike, squash and pass and talked about the y-root connected to the z-forward and i-handler. The 32 boys and two girls all seemed to get it.

What followed was the rapid flurry of mouse clicks and students announcing that their robot could move.

"I got it to work," Rey Contreras, 17, said with obvious pride.

And it wasn't easy, with 91 separate inanimate body parts to get moving in a coordinated pattern.

Henderson has been teaching students computerized 3-D design and animation since 1997. The class could help them land jobs as special-effects artists, Web page designers, animators, video-production specialists, graphic designers, game designers and desktop publishers.

Some said they plan to go to college first, but a few former students, with no additional training other than what they learned in high school, now make between $40,000 and $75,000 a year as animators.

Employers say they can't train workers fast enough to do all the jobs that are out there and growing daily. One company grew from 30 to 100 animators in less than three months, Henderson said.

Mingo Palachios, 17, a senior in Henderson's advanced class, said he has produced 15-minute movies for his church youth group and worked on graphics for a T-shirt company.

"He's the man," Mingo said of Henderson. "He makes things happen."

The students are so advanced that they have been asked to test a software program for design flaws before it goes on the mass market. The product is so super-secret in the competitive world of computer games and animation that they have to sign confidentiality agreements to do the beta test.

Henderson's students also learn about movie production.

Jolin Putrus and Chris Croucher, both 17, created a 30-second public service announcement on child abuse two years ago that was honored at the Southwest regional award ceremony held in San Diego for the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

The Grossmont technology lab cost about $500,000 to equip and was funded mostly through company donations and the county Regional Occupation Program. Henderson teaches ROP classes at night, when adults get free job training. He also teaches six classes at Grossmont, instead of the usual class load of five, because so many students want to take animation
courses.

Warren Williams, the Grossmont district's assistant superintendent of technology, does wonder whether the district will lose Henderson one day because the teacher could earn more money outside the classroom.

But there seems little likelihood of that, at least in the near future.

"I love what I do here," Henderson said. "There's not even a question about that."