Weekly Response 5: The Field Experience
This week was not my first week at my field experience locations, but it was the first full week working at both locations, the Science Leadership Academy and the Arts Academy at Benjamin Rush. Both of the locations are high schools, 9-12, in the School District of Philadelphia, but I am working with and observing the 11th and 12th graders. At Rush I am working with Louis Mazza, the Media Arts teacher, and two of his elective courses, Video Journalism and Narrative Filmmaking. Since I am a graduate student I am taking on a second field project which requires me to observe the teaching strategies of two Social Studies teachers, Diana Laufenberg and Douglas Herman, at the Science Leadership Academy. Although I did start working at the schools over two weeks ago, this week seemed to be more influential because I was now passed the introduction phase of the project.
Since Rush runs on a 5 day colored system, my schedule will always be changing and my visits to SLA will be based on what color day it is at Rush. This week I was able to go to Rush 3 days, Monday, Tuesday and Friday, and I went to SLA on Thursday. Probably the most interesting observations that I made this week was that teenage girls love to use their macbook’s Photo Booth application as a mirror. I saw two girls, one at Rush and one at SLA, using Photo Booth to help them do their hair. However, I did also see some great uses of media used in the classrooms. I was actually very surprised at the amount of computers that were in each class and that students were allowed to use them, even in the Social Studies class. In fact, Laufenberg allowed her students to listen to music with their headphones on while writing an essay with primary source documents about immigration to America. Rush also had a lot of computers, but it did lack a full functioning library and Internet database access for the students.
When I started the week at Rush I was unsure how the week would progress because students in the Video Journalism course were trying to pursue stories that involved documenting other teenagers using drugs or alcohol. I was asked to discuss the issues behind publishing these types of stories to the students. After explaining the laws a journalist must abide by and the rights of student journalists, I was able to help the student create a different approach to her telling her story about teens and illegal activities. By the end of class the student had fully constructed a new visual and written story idea that still focused on the same drug related topic but without the legal ramifications of including a teen’s name or face in the story.
Monday and Tuesday I started working one on one with each student/group to check on their pitches for the stories. After speaking with several students I came to realize that they were all relying way too much on google and were approaching their research as if it was for a book report and not a news article. I decided to contact one of my former Journalism professors, Christopher Harper, to see if he had any good sources or ideas for how I can help students with journalism research. Fortunately he teaches this course and sent me over 20 documents with helpful sources and worksheets for the students. I spent most of Friday explaining the different between a news article and research paper as well as how to approach it in terms of research. I also helped Mazza set up the assignment that will be due next week. We decided that each student needs proof of an interview or consent for an interview by the end of next week. I told Mazza that this is a good way to ensure that the students are making progress with their stories and to see whether they need help getting to the production step of the story.
As for my time spent at SLA on Thursday, I was able to see two different American History courses in action. In Laufenberg’s class I watched students work on a timed essay with primary source documents. In Herman’s class I was able to watch students prepare a city budget in small groups with a program offered for free on the Internet. In both of the classes I was able to see how students work with the distractions offered from their macbooks and the Internet. Laufenberg actually allowed her students to listen to music while writing an essay, which was handwritten, not typed. In Herman’s class students were using their cell phones as calculators. This was really surprising to me because I would have gotten in so much trouble in my high school if I had been listening to music or using my cell phone in class. I also learned a lot about curriculum ideas for a Social Studies course as well as some background information about the students’ upcoming benchmark projects.
Overall this week was definitely a success. I was able to get through to a lot of the students at Rush and learned some great strategies for teaching American History at the high school level. However, I am worried about whether some of the Video Journalism students will follow through with their interviews and will be prepared for producing their stories. I am going to the school Tuesday and Wednesday morning, so I am going to keep my fingers crossed and hope for the best.
Thank you for sharing your first week of field experience so deeply. Your description of the two programs is coherent and insightful. You gave the readers a reflection of your experience with the example of the interview assignment at Rush as well the observation at SLA.
The description of the use of photos as a mirror is fascinating. I wish to hear about your fears and expectations regardless your prior knowledge and experience working with you.
Good work!!!!
Yonty