5-24-2017: Narrative Writing 102

I am very happy with the progress on my project, and I feel like I am becoming more productive the more I write. Pretty much all of today was spent as a writing day, and I worked mainly on my pieces about Winterim’s transition to intensives and the Lower School Music Program. Everything is coming along nicely, and today was otherwise very similar to my writing day last Thursday. One thing that I have said before and I will say again: writing in narrative form is a very special craft, and takes time.



Here is some of what I got done today on my narrative on Winterim and intensive classes (please note that this is still just a draft):

Thomas Cambisios knows this [Winterims and intensives] well. English teacher at Maumee Valley beginning 1990, with a three year break between 2000 and 2003 when he served as Head of Upper School, he taught countless creative Winterims up to 2015, and since the beginning of the 2016 school year, he has taught two intensive classes, both in the humanities.

He walked across from his desk over to open the doors of the right cabinets, revealing a shelf filled with binders from past Winterim classes he had taught over several decades. One of Mr. Cambisios’s favorite Winterims was Forensic Science, which he taught with Ken Meinecke, former Upper School science teacher. “He and I worked together; he would handle the science part, and I would handle the literature, so we would bring in some stories related to forensic science, murder mysteries, and handle it from different points of view.”

Not only was this class outside the norm of a typical class inside the Maumee Valley classroom, but it was an interdisciplinary class in a time before this was common. The two main academic components of science and literature were supplemented with engaging labs, guest speakers, and many hands-on activities throughout the three weeks.

“Students always liked it,” he said.



Given that it is now the end of the seventh day of the intensive, which is the halfway point, it seems appropriate to do a quick reflection on my progress. Thinking through the work I have completed so far, a large chuck of my time has been dedicated to conducting interviews, with leftover time used for observation and writing. I have almost five hours of interview audio, some of which has been reviewed; my intention is only to review the parts I need for my narrative, which are mainly the direct quotes (my notes will help me with this). Time was also spent observing the Lower School Concert and its rehearsal, as well as some the intensive activities that took place on-campus. The rest of my time was spent writing, and as of now, rough drafts for four of my pieces (three longer narratives plus the introduction) are almost complete, and I have five more pieces to write (four narratives on the themes in addition to a brief conclusion), none of which I have yet begun.

With four or five more days during which I will just have time to write, I think I am currently in a good position to finish in time, with extra time to spend working with statistics, formatting my final project, and compiling a list of resources for readers interested in learning more beyond my narrative.