My interviews today went very well. As I have said before, it will be difficult for me to sift through the audio recordings and take what I need, but I have some time next week during which I will be able to do this. However, I have noticed improvement in how I take notes during my interviews: including timestamps throughout my notes allows me to more easily find and jump to different parts of the recording, in other words, getting stuff faster.
Also, reevaluating my progress, I am thinking that I might need to cut a section of my project. Originally, I was going to write a comprehensive section on the Maumee Valley strategic plan written between 2005 and 2008 and compare it the new strategic plan as outlined in MV2020; at this point, because I do not have a good grasp of the previous strategic plan despite my interviews and efforts to learn about it, I will now only be doing a shorter piece on MV2020. Although it may slightly reduce how comprehensive my project is, it will not affect its overall quality, as it already touches on so many other important parts of the school’s recent history.
After my long days of meetings and interviews, I sat down to write, and I was surprisingly productive. Was it because the material was fresh in my mind, or was it because the impending deadline is adding pressure on me? Not sure.
So, to writing!
Friday, May 26, 2017
Thursday, May 25, 2017
5-25-2017: A State of Productive Unfulfillment
Yesterday was very productive, and I thought that this would carry over into today. It doesn’t feel as much today.
But looking back on what I accomplished, I spent time preparing for the last of my interviews tomorrow, and more importantly added about 700-800 words to two different narratives. Thinking back to other writing days, this was a reasonable amount of work completed. So why did I feel this way? Because I spent a lot of time scrutinizing how I wrote. In other words, my work today was in quality, not quantity.
Today was a little more tiring and difficult to focus, considering all I was doing today was working in small chucks. Was it less interesting? No. Was it less exciting? Not at all. But sitting at home all day on my laptop, just writing and synthesizing information for specific type of paragraph I need to transition between two others? Not easy.
Instead of just sitting down and narrating a story from start to finish in form of a rough draft, I spent a lot of time working on transitions within the stories. These needed to be logical and functional, yet not cause my reader to lose interest.
At any rate, after I finished the first draft of my narrative on the Lower School music program, I went back and began editing and revising, I am pleased with its current status. After much more extensive work on it, the Upper School Winterim/Intensive narrative is closer to being finished. I also began working on the piece about Upper School athletics. I am exciting to get a break from writing tomorrow with my upcoming interviews!
But looking back on what I accomplished, I spent time preparing for the last of my interviews tomorrow, and more importantly added about 700-800 words to two different narratives. Thinking back to other writing days, this was a reasonable amount of work completed. So why did I feel this way? Because I spent a lot of time scrutinizing how I wrote. In other words, my work today was in quality, not quantity.
Today was a little more tiring and difficult to focus, considering all I was doing today was working in small chucks. Was it less interesting? No. Was it less exciting? Not at all. But sitting at home all day on my laptop, just writing and synthesizing information for specific type of paragraph I need to transition between two others? Not easy.
Instead of just sitting down and narrating a story from start to finish in form of a rough draft, I spent a lot of time working on transitions within the stories. These needed to be logical and functional, yet not cause my reader to lose interest.
At any rate, after I finished the first draft of my narrative on the Lower School music program, I went back and began editing and revising, I am pleased with its current status. After much more extensive work on it, the Upper School Winterim/Intensive narrative is closer to being finished. I also began working on the piece about Upper School athletics. I am exciting to get a break from writing tomorrow with my upcoming interviews!
Wednesday, May 24, 2017
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.
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.
Tuesday, May 23, 2017
5-23-2017: One Person, Many Views and Perspectives
Today, I had an interview with Mrs. Spurgeon, covering a whole variety of subject areas, including the international student program, the different versions of the strategic plans, Upper School athletics, and Under One Roof.
Mrs. Spurgeon was a unique interview subject because she has been involved in so many different capacities at Maumee Valley: administrator, varsity athletics coach, MV parent of two alumni, parent of two alumni who had participated in two different sports, past president of the Maumee Valley Parent Association, and host parent for international students almost every year for the past nine years. Because of Mrs. Spurgeon’s extensive involvement at Maumee Valley, she was able to provide me with multiple perspectives and detailed explanations.
Although I gained a lot from my interview, it was still somewhat difficult for me to wrap my head around some of what Mrs. Spurgeon talked to me about. The bulk of my time today was spent talking about the strategic plan and Under One Roof. I was not at Maumee Valley during the beginnings of Under One Roof, and neither topic is frequently discussed, so I really didn’t know much about these topics prior to my interview today. Add on the fact that I am not familiar with business, and a lot of what we spoke about today had to do with this. The good thing is that I have other individuals who will be talking about Under One Roof and the strategic plan, and learning about these important events in Maumee Valley’s history through different lenses will hopefully allow me to better understand them.
I can already predict that this section of my project will be more difficult for me in the sense of figuring out how to structure it, but one thing for sure: My interview with Mrs. Spurgeon today was absolutely wonderful, and I will be able to use many of her direct quotes in my narrative.
Mrs. Spurgeon was a unique interview subject because she has been involved in so many different capacities at Maumee Valley: administrator, varsity athletics coach, MV parent of two alumni, parent of two alumni who had participated in two different sports, past president of the Maumee Valley Parent Association, and host parent for international students almost every year for the past nine years. Because of Mrs. Spurgeon’s extensive involvement at Maumee Valley, she was able to provide me with multiple perspectives and detailed explanations.
Although I gained a lot from my interview, it was still somewhat difficult for me to wrap my head around some of what Mrs. Spurgeon talked to me about. The bulk of my time today was spent talking about the strategic plan and Under One Roof. I was not at Maumee Valley during the beginnings of Under One Roof, and neither topic is frequently discussed, so I really didn’t know much about these topics prior to my interview today. Add on the fact that I am not familiar with business, and a lot of what we spoke about today had to do with this. The good thing is that I have other individuals who will be talking about Under One Roof and the strategic plan, and learning about these important events in Maumee Valley’s history through different lenses will hopefully allow me to better understand them.
I can already predict that this section of my project will be more difficult for me in the sense of figuring out how to structure it, but one thing for sure: My interview with Mrs. Spurgeon today was absolutely wonderful, and I will be able to use many of her direct quotes in my narrative.
Monday, May 22, 2017
5-22-2017: Interview Subjects
Today was a fun day for me. I drove out to meet Vicki Koelsch, former admissions director, associate admissions director, and Upper School librarian at Maumee Valley. I interviewed her at her house, where we spent over an hour talking about her work at Maumee Valley as it related to one of my seven themes: Maumee Valley’s International Student Program. Talking for her was very natural, and it will be a daunting task when I begin reviewing the audio recording for direct quotes.
These were some of the questions I asked her:
What were the motivations behind the school’s wanting to expand the international student program?
What was your job in this long term project?
What mistakes did the school make in attempting to expand the international student program?
I also asked Mrs. Koelsch to talk about her views of the Lower School music program, to help me with my narrative piece on Mrs. Sieberg and the music program she had worked so hard to build.
After my morning interview with Mrs. Koelsch, I had an afternoon interview with Mr. Fish. Mr. Fish was a different type of interview subject. His responses to my questions, although not of lower quality, tended to be shorter, and it sometimes took a little longer for me to get the types of responses I wanted. This was partly because some of the questions I wrote could have been phrased differently that would have made it more clear what type of response I wanted to elicit, but also because I was interviewing two different types of people.
For example, this is one of the questions I asked: What is the role of Boosters in Upper School athletics?
His answer talked about what the Boosters does, but I had to follow up a few times until I got the answer what I really wanted, which was an understanding of how the role of Boosters played a success in Upper School athletics at Maumee Valley.
I will be reviewing my questions for other upcoming interviews to make sure that they are clear.
Thankfully, all of the interview subjects I have had so far have done a good job of speaking candidly and at length, and not only does this allow me to better understand and feel the stories that they talk about, but this will also make it easier for me to take direct quotes when I begin writing the narrative.
On another note, I found out that two of the interviews I had scheduled needed to be cancelled, and no opportunity was available to reschedule either of them. Although this is frustrating, I understand that asking someone to be interviewed is not only a time commitment, but also an experience that requires getting out of one’s comfort zone, and I need to respect them for whatever reasons that they needed to cancel. On the flip side, I am currently working on finding other interview subjects who can help me give perspectives and stories in place of the individuals whom I had originally planned to interview.
These were some of the questions I asked her:
What were the motivations behind the school’s wanting to expand the international student program?
What was your job in this long term project?
What mistakes did the school make in attempting to expand the international student program?
I also asked Mrs. Koelsch to talk about her views of the Lower School music program, to help me with my narrative piece on Mrs. Sieberg and the music program she had worked so hard to build.
After my morning interview with Mrs. Koelsch, I had an afternoon interview with Mr. Fish. Mr. Fish was a different type of interview subject. His responses to my questions, although not of lower quality, tended to be shorter, and it sometimes took a little longer for me to get the types of responses I wanted. This was partly because some of the questions I wrote could have been phrased differently that would have made it more clear what type of response I wanted to elicit, but also because I was interviewing two different types of people.
For example, this is one of the questions I asked: What is the role of Boosters in Upper School athletics?
His answer talked about what the Boosters does, but I had to follow up a few times until I got the answer what I really wanted, which was an understanding of how the role of Boosters played a success in Upper School athletics at Maumee Valley.
I will be reviewing my questions for other upcoming interviews to make sure that they are clear.
Thankfully, all of the interview subjects I have had so far have done a good job of speaking candidly and at length, and not only does this allow me to better understand and feel the stories that they talk about, but this will also make it easier for me to take direct quotes when I begin writing the narrative.
On another note, I found out that two of the interviews I had scheduled needed to be cancelled, and no opportunity was available to reschedule either of them. Although this is frustrating, I understand that asking someone to be interviewed is not only a time commitment, but also an experience that requires getting out of one’s comfort zone, and I need to respect them for whatever reasons that they needed to cancel. On the flip side, I am currently working on finding other interview subjects who can help me give perspectives and stories in place of the individuals whom I had originally planned to interview.
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