Teacher Testimonials

ACME’s educators are partners in the success of the program.  ACME’s goal is to not only focus on outcomes for students, but to support educators in being able to deliver excellent results.

Following are recent testimonials from our community:

“Becoming a part of the ACME community has opened up a tremendous amount of quality educational opportunities for all the students involved in our ROP media programs. ACME has been the main component in my curriculum for the past 5 years. The lessons are designed in a very clear manner, so as to make instruction easy for the students to understand. Several of my students are studying animation and other media careers at several of the local junior colleges and universities. This is a great achievement for my school, because Hare High School is an alternative high school that deals with at-risk students. Our students are on campus, because they need credit assistance an assortment of other issues. To get them to see the importance of higher education is a great achievement, and if I can do it with animation – why not?”

Gloria Wargo
Instructor Hare Continuation High School
Garden Grove, California

“Our mission is to implement new ideas that push the envelope on teaching and engaging students, creating an environment where students want to learn, want to attend school, want to graduate and attend college. Our partnership with ACME has allowed OCAP to involve over 50 teachers, 35 middle and high schools, four community colleges and 3000 plus students each year in animation classes. The ACME components, including training, competitions, online and OnAir instruction and mentoring opportunities have not only increased student involvement in their animation classes but also in other core content areas.”

Vivian Goldschmidt
Projection Director
Orange County Animation Project (OCAP)
Orange County Department of Education

“Partnering with the ACME Network over the past five years, I have been thrilled to see hundreds of our students venture beyond our classroom walls and make strategic contact with college programs and industry leaders like DreamWorks through our mutual participation in the ACME teleconferences and website. This kind of direct access is a tremendous help in keeping our career and technical education program relevant and vibrant. Many of our students have made life-changing decisions and gained admission to art and animation programs at colleges like Cal ARTS, Chapman University, Cal State Fullerton, and BYU.”

Kent Baker
Visual Arts Instructor
Capistrano Valley High School
Mission Viejo, CA

“The ACME lesson plans are wonderful and my students enjoy looking at other students’ work on the website. We just set up an articulation with CSUF’s (Dr. Lamb) animation department who I was introduced to through ACME. Dr. Lamp is very complimentary of ACME. We have 3 animation courses with about 150 students. The kids love to animate and they are in the animation lab before school, during lunch, and after school. For many of them animation is their favorite part of the day.”

Audra Ross
El Dorado High School Art/Animation Teacher
Placentia, CA

“The ACME Network has provided me with curricular tools necessary to provide a strong foundation for students. One of the most valuable things I’ve received from ACME is the connection to animators working in the industry. This has helped me to inform students of the realities they would face in industry.

The online resources at ACME are an essential part of the program. The information that students have access to is amazing. And, the online competitions that students enter through the year are a great way to enhance their cooperative learning experience.”

Barbara Pieper
Instructor, Art in Animation
Sonora High School North Orange County ROP

“ACME offers my students real opportunities for them to realize and enjoy successful experiences as they take ownership of their own educational process. The interaction they have on ACME with the world outside of East LA are real-life, personally applicable experiences that positively reinforce good learning practices.

Because they have practical, working access through broadband to ACME, they are able to communicate online with a cyber community of individuals that range from peers to professionals. The interactions, the praise and positive feedback that they can get on ACME motivates them to not only “do the work” and “show the work” but also to give and get feedback about the work. In other words, they want to learnabout the art and scientific principles of animation. They want to learn and practice the computer skills that help them exhibit their animation exercises and experiments. They want to learn to interact constructively and professional with others. While they’re at all this, they are improving their reading and writing communications and do it all with enthusiasm. They wouldn’t have this if they weren’t able to effectively access and interact with ACME community in (practically) real-time with broadband. That interaction has been and continues to be the crucial impetus that gives my students tangible and immediate reasons and rewards for learning, practicing, and applying the skills and knowledge that are available to them in a modern, technology based classroom. These are skills and practices they can continue to use for the rest of their lives.

In short, ACME is an incredibly effective catalyst for generating a desire in students to take possession of their education by giving them a direction in which to focus and apply acquired knowledge and skills in order to achieve their personal goals.”

Robert Moreau
Animation Instructor
Roosevelt High School