A few weeks ago, when Mrs. Sieberg found out that I was working on this intensive and would be available today, she asked me to help out with today’s Lower School Concert. I took this as an opportunity to use today as an observation day: attempting to experience the feeling of being present at a Lower School Concert, and taking notes on how the concert feels so that I can later write about this experience in narrative form.
Lower School music at Maumee Valley is one of the seven areas of focus in my project. Rather than doing an interview, I will be able to write this section of my project based on observation and my own personal experiences. My observation includes watching Lower School students perform in the morning dress rehearsal and the concert. On other hand, my personal experiences will be drawn upon my time in Mrs. Sieberg’s Lower School music class, as well as my many years working with her in Lower School String Ensemble and Upper School String Ensemble.
Today was a different challenge: I have to capture the energy of the concert in my notes. The feel of sitting in on the concert is intangible and difficult to describe. These notes will help me on my next writing day when I begin spinning this into a narrative. This will likewise be difficult: capturing and projecting the energy of the concert into the final draft of my narrative.
These were some of the notes I took:
-The entire concert is so full of energy from start to finish, enthusiasm
-Mrs. Sieberg works so tirelessly to make this possible
-Students are engaged, enjoying the concert as much as the audience is
-Smiling faces
-Two and three part choir, with melody, harmony, and descant
Overall, my day watching the concert and helping Mrs. Sieberg was a fun experience, and was a much needed break from a full day of just writing.
Friday, May 19, 2017
Thursday, May 18, 2017
5-18-2017: Narrative Writing 101
To articulate a simple idea: easy. To call upon one’s mastery of language perfected over years of school in order to tell a story: a little more difficult. This is the bulk of my project: taking everything that I know about a subject area, synthesizing it with information obtained from interviews, and supplementing it with research where applicable. Today was just the first of several writing days of my intensive.
I continued working on my introductory story on Mr. Boehm and completed the better part of the first draft on the narrative of the integration of technology in the Middle School, using direct quotes from my interview with Ms. Grefe.
The writing process took longer than I had expected because of how I like to work. While some individuals like writing what they can and choose to incorporate missing facts, quotes, and other information in the editing stage, I prefer searching for information I need as I write. This meant that I stopped several times in an hour because I needed to double check the proper capitalization for a certain title, verify the exact years, or make sure that I used correct terminology.
Something that took a long time is deciding upon which quotes to use. Quotes needed to be seamlessly integrated within the narrative, and had to be transcribed exactly from the audio recording. Additionally, each quote took some time to find within the audio recording.
But one thing is for sure: I am definitely enjoying writing. Although it is a slow, painstaking process, it feels good to have accomplished what I had worked on today. I am working hard to make my narratives engaging and understanding to the reader, and I feel that I am doing a good job of this so far. I had originally felt that I should have gotten more done today, but I now realize that today was in fact very productive, and I am pleased that all of the time I have spent has only yielded high quality work.
I continued working on my introductory story on Mr. Boehm and completed the better part of the first draft on the narrative of the integration of technology in the Middle School, using direct quotes from my interview with Ms. Grefe.
The writing process took longer than I had expected because of how I like to work. While some individuals like writing what they can and choose to incorporate missing facts, quotes, and other information in the editing stage, I prefer searching for information I need as I write. This meant that I stopped several times in an hour because I needed to double check the proper capitalization for a certain title, verify the exact years, or make sure that I used correct terminology.
Something that took a long time is deciding upon which quotes to use. Quotes needed to be seamlessly integrated within the narrative, and had to be transcribed exactly from the audio recording. Additionally, each quote took some time to find within the audio recording.
But one thing is for sure: I am definitely enjoying writing. Although it is a slow, painstaking process, it feels good to have accomplished what I had worked on today. I am working hard to make my narratives engaging and understanding to the reader, and I feel that I am doing a good job of this so far. I had originally felt that I should have gotten more done today, but I now realize that today was in fact very productive, and I am pleased that all of the time I have spent has only yielded high quality work.
Wednesday, May 17, 2017
5-17-2017: Interview Plans
Today, I spent the morning preparing for several of my upcoming interviews, while the afternoon was spent doing my first two interviews: one with Mr. Thomas Cambisios, and one with Ms. Kelsy Grefe.
Because of time, both the limited time on my end as well as my wish to respect the time of my interview subject, it is best to go into the interview with an interview plan. I already have some experience with this: in my Cultural Anthropology class, we had a long-term ethnography project in which students interviewed an individual from a culture different than their own. A major part of this project involved preliminary research on the informant’s culture, as well as an interview plan that lists questions in different areas of culture. For this project on the history of Maumee Valley, those two components from my ethnography project are analogous to background research on the time period and an interview plan that outlines the questions I will ask about the subject’s own experiences and events.
The primary purposes of the interview plan are to ensure that the researcher’s goals are clearly outlined, and also to keep the interview on track. The latter is especially important; it is OK if subjects go off topic, but if the researcher doesn’t leave the interview meeting the goals, then the interview will have been for nothing. The interview plan is supposed to help with this. I also briefly consulted with Mr. Graham, who has experience with oral histories, who gave me the tip that I needed to ask open-ended questions in order to get my interview subjects to tell stories and talk at length about their experiences and memories. This, he said, would make the job of writing in narrative form easier for me.
Consequently, because I had done a good job with my interview plans, my interviews today went very well. The next step will be to write about the overall feel from the interviews, find direct quotes, and begin drafting some of the narrative portions of my project.
Because of time, both the limited time on my end as well as my wish to respect the time of my interview subject, it is best to go into the interview with an interview plan. I already have some experience with this: in my Cultural Anthropology class, we had a long-term ethnography project in which students interviewed an individual from a culture different than their own. A major part of this project involved preliminary research on the informant’s culture, as well as an interview plan that lists questions in different areas of culture. For this project on the history of Maumee Valley, those two components from my ethnography project are analogous to background research on the time period and an interview plan that outlines the questions I will ask about the subject’s own experiences and events.
The primary purposes of the interview plan are to ensure that the researcher’s goals are clearly outlined, and also to keep the interview on track. The latter is especially important; it is OK if subjects go off topic, but if the researcher doesn’t leave the interview meeting the goals, then the interview will have been for nothing. The interview plan is supposed to help with this. I also briefly consulted with Mr. Graham, who has experience with oral histories, who gave me the tip that I needed to ask open-ended questions in order to get my interview subjects to tell stories and talk at length about their experiences and memories. This, he said, would make the job of writing in narrative form easier for me.
Consequently, because I had done a good job with my interview plans, my interviews today went very well. The next step will be to write about the overall feel from the interviews, find direct quotes, and begin drafting some of the narrative portions of my project.
Tuesday, May 16, 2017
5-16-2017: Preliminary Research and Planning
Today was my first day working on my intensive independent study, and it primarily involved preliminary research and planning for the first steps of my project.
One of the most important ways in which I will be collecting information is to conduct interviews with individuals who have been involved with the school over the past decade or so. I have been in the process of identifying suitable interview subjects who can help me provide insight, stories, and their views on my project’s areas of focus. Today, I spent time contacting people to schedule these interviews, and I have had several responses so far.
I spent the better part of the day trying to find information on Mr. Boehm’s early years as Head of School, as well as some of the projects that took place during this time. Resources I have used so far include articles from the Toledo Blade, as well as a school magazine written by Ann Stranahan in celebration of the school’s 125th anniversary. I then began writing a sort of “prologue” or introduction for my project that sets the scene for the beginning of the Boehm years; I hope to get a draft of this done tomorrow.
Today’s work was supplemented by a meeting with my independent study sponsor, Larry Anning. During my meeting, we discussed more about my plans, as well as the work I have completed so far. We addressed specific concerns regarding the format of my final project, especially with respect to certain sensitive matters. Although I have only begun to scratch the tip of the iceberg, we both agree that I am on track for a good independent study.
I will admit: it was difficult at times today to stay focused. However, as my plans are becoming clearer with interviews, meeting times, events, and work days all scheduled out, I am certain that quality work and a sense of satisfaction will help propel me forward and add momentum over the course of the next three weeks.
One of the most important ways in which I will be collecting information is to conduct interviews with individuals who have been involved with the school over the past decade or so. I have been in the process of identifying suitable interview subjects who can help me provide insight, stories, and their views on my project’s areas of focus. Today, I spent time contacting people to schedule these interviews, and I have had several responses so far.
I spent the better part of the day trying to find information on Mr. Boehm’s early years as Head of School, as well as some of the projects that took place during this time. Resources I have used so far include articles from the Toledo Blade, as well as a school magazine written by Ann Stranahan in celebration of the school’s 125th anniversary. I then began writing a sort of “prologue” or introduction for my project that sets the scene for the beginning of the Boehm years; I hope to get a draft of this done tomorrow.
Today’s work was supplemented by a meeting with my independent study sponsor, Larry Anning. During my meeting, we discussed more about my plans, as well as the work I have completed so far. We addressed specific concerns regarding the format of my final project, especially with respect to certain sensitive matters. Although I have only begun to scratch the tip of the iceberg, we both agree that I am on track for a good independent study.
I will admit: it was difficult at times today to stay focused. However, as my plans are becoming clearer with interviews, meeting times, events, and work days all scheduled out, I am certain that quality work and a sense of satisfaction will help propel me forward and add momentum over the course of the next three weeks.
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