SAN BENITO — Paul Hernandez, San Benito CISD’s animation and commercial photography instructor, began to pull a wide roll of photographic paper out at an angle.
With each tug and pull, Hernandez began to carefully load the paper into the printer while making adjustments to ensure it was inserted straight.
With the printer materials in place, Hernandez pulled up a class photo of medical students from the district’s Career and Technical Education program and clicked through an array of steps on the computer.
Within seconds, the large-scale printer in his classroom registered the command and began to steadily swipe back and forth as each stroke of ink continued to set rich pigmented color onto the paper.
After reaching the end of the paper, the printer slowly pushed it down toward the printer’s tray.
As Hernandez began to pull it out of the printer, he analyzed and nodded his head.
He knew he had successfully completed a test print.
Wednesday, Hernandez completed a setup and maintenance training for the district’s two new professional printers at San Benito High School, which will be incorporated in the CTE department’s video production and media classes.
The Epson SureColor S40600 printer, the larger of the two printers, cost $10,495 and the Epson SureColor P9000 Standard Edition printer cost $3,995.
The printers will be able to produce wide format photographic images with visually clear and sharp images and longer print permanency on paper, adhesive vinyl output, banners, and thick poster boards.
The classroom impact
Hernandez said he plans to use the smaller printer for classroom use such as with his photography class’ photo project portfolios as well as for SkillsUSA competitions.
“There are printed pieces that need to be presented whether it’s in project or during the SkillsUSA Competition and that printer’s going to come in handy because we printed them somewhere else before,” he explained. “Now, everything is going to be done in-house instead.”
The larger printer can be used for creating school banners, motivational posters and other items that promote school events.
Hernandez said he plans to incorporate lessons on how to use the printers into the curriculum next school year.
“It’s fairly simple although it is a process so there are certain steps you need to go through to get the printouts done.” he explained. “We’ll get started first thing once we can shoot photos and get our portfolios going. Then, we can start printing and putting those into an actual physical portfolio.”
Workforce ready
The district’s CTE department plans to create collaboration opportunities next year between students, the Chamber of Commerce and local businesses.
The idea is, local businesses will present their projects and the students will design and create them at minimal cost while utilizing the printers.
“The students are going to gain a lot of hands-on knowledge and work in an atmosphere with printers,” said CTE Director Rolando Guerra. “The good thing is our students will be able to work with customers and gain a real world experience.”
