Capstone Work to Date

Here's a list of my activities with the Burr and Burton students I have been working with with Garrett McCarey for his current Service Learning project. I have been attending and helping out with these sessions as to gauge the types of things that could be improved upon for my summer intensive.

MARCH

6th:

Activities - Went over camera in a simplistic way to make sure that they knew the important buttons, things to check, etc. We also covered a handout entitled "7 Deadly Camera Sins". Students were then asked to explain why each item listed on the handout wouldn't be a good thing to do as a photographer/journalist. We also covered the basics of the tripod that GNAT-TV uses. This was a pretty straight forward workshop on the "how to's"...and the students were encouraged to try out the camera and play with the buttons.

Thoughts - I would have liked to have seen framing and composition covered a little more in this session. Instead of handing the kids the camera and saying "go for it...try it out"...I would have liked to see a more structured approach. I think having fun and playing around is ok...but felt as though there were a few points that were missing a little depth (ie. rule of thirds, etc).

13th:

Activities - Students in this Service Program were to choose another service activity (ie. brothers and sisters, painting the local library, habitat for humanity) that their peers were working on and document the groups doing their service activity. The end product was to be a compilation of the service activities with commentary, etc. The meeting on this day was to touch base with the students involved in our service project and make sure that they had contacted the person in charge of their particular service program. We planned a few interviews as a result of the check-in.

Thoughts - While I liked the idea of making the students responsible for finding the contacts for these projects...I felt like you were setting the project for bumps in the road and failure. The students had so much on their plates that making contact with teachers they don't see at all in their day was asking a bit much. At the college level I could see students being in charge of their contacts...but in this setting students didn't follow through and it put the project on hold until they finished their end of the communication. I think dealing with kids at this age, setting things up for them is the smoothest plan.

20th:

Activities - Interview with Jen Hyatt, director of service learning. One student interviewed, one student was the photographer for the interview, and the other 3 took turns shooting the interviewer and the photographer (as to document their service learning project) for B-roll. Students learned the concepts of moving around to capture action and made sure that the interviewee felt comfortable. Students were asked to draft 10 interview questions for Ms. Hyatt and she was able to look at them prior to the taped interview.

Thoughts - While it was a good idea to have students come prepared with questions, some questions were missed along the way, so Garrett and I asked questions of Jen that would fill the gaps that the students didn't get to. Looking over the interview questions prior to actually going to the interview would have been a better approach to refine the questions that the students were looking to ask. It would have also given the students a chance to understand that their questions needed a little more depth.

APRIL

3rd:

Activities - Because the students weren't able to set up any interviews for their projects at this point, students interviewed themselves regarding their service learning project. We did 6 interviews...covering various learning projects that the students took part in last term and talked about their experience in the current term with GNAT-TV.

Thoughts - This was a frustrating activity. The students were making fun of each other while each other was being interviewed...and the interviewee couldn't focus. They weren't prepared with questions that wouldn't bring forth a yes, no, or short answer so there wasn't a lot of usable material that came out of this. I ended up asking questions of the students to ensure that there would be some material to use in the editing process. In the future, if you're going to do something like this, I think there is a need for separation of the students...and better preparation. I felt like the decision for the activity on this day wasn't thought out very well...and we were just trying to fulfill hour commitments to the program.