kat's blog

Class was a little frustrating this week.  We were teaching them about editing, but only six students came out of 12.  Only two students had their own audio, and the rest had audio on the equipment that was checked out by the missing students, argh.  So they wound up just editing other people’s sound.  I talked about destructive and non-destructive editing, and had them do one edit just taking out pauses, ums, and sound they didn’t think was interesting.  That first one was a destructive edit.  Then I had them do a second edit that was non-destructive, cutting and pasting out clips into new files, and arranging those in a multitrack.

Class went somewhat well, but had some challenges.  We started with them reviewing the letters they are writing to their city council person and the DOE.  Then we moved into digital editing – they were supposed to be editing their “What’s in a Name” interviews with their parents.  But some of them didn’t have sound, and some of them didn’t have functioning computers, and some of them had edited a bunch and were sort of bored, and some of them hadn’t edited at all before and were struggling!  It was a little crazy.  But they all mostly got into it, and some of the quiet ones got really into. 

Classwas really pretty good this week.  We started by having them answer questions to help them pick a feature topic.  I wrote on a big piece of paper something like:  You will soon start working on a radio feature that will be your project for the rest of the semester.  The topic should be something that interests you, that is personal to you, and has people you can interview.  Here are some questions to help spark your thoughts: -    what is one thing that makes you really angry -    what is one thing in your life that you think is unfair -    what is one thing about you that people wouldn't know from looking at you

Class Aim/Objective/Theme: talk about elections, teaching editing 

Class Aim/Objective/Theme Introduce new semester, work on What's in a Name exercise, introduce concept of self-exploration.<br>Brief Summary including curriculum exercises you did

No class this week - Rachel and I were both sick.  Students played games with a sub. 

Class Aim/Objective/ThemeFINISH THE SCHOOL SECURITY PIECE!Brief Summary including curriculum exercises you did

Class Aim/Objective/Theme- work on life maps- work on editing and picking clipsBrief Summary including curriculum exercises you didOur semester ends next Thursday, and there is a parents' night/performance, so we need to finish our story on school security, and the life maps we have been working on.  Some students had finished their life maps the previous week, so they got to work with me on editing.  The rest were working with Rachel on finishing their life maps. I worked with Jemima, Ellena, and Angela on editing.  Angela is really, really good at editing.  Ellena is pretty good.  They are all really into it.

Class Aim/Objective/Theme - on Wednesday, Rachel had them work on and think about ads and stereotypes.  Thursday we did life mapping. Brief Summary including curriculum exercises you did

AIM: Learn Basic Editing Skills Abduli and I filled in for KAt at Canarsie.  Ten students showed up.  Although most of them were on time, Rachel spoke to them about being on time always and applying school lateness policy in the class. Rachel introduced both Abduli and I.  We showed them how to upload sound into Adobe.  We then split the class into two (Abduli worked with 5, I worked the other 5).  We showed them the basic including how to open a file, how to cut, delete, play and stop, pasting to new track.  My group went through one interview and selected clips from it.

Class Aim/Objective/Theme

Teach storyboarding, picking clips, discuss audience

Brief Summary including curriculum exercises you did

Class this week was great.   Wednesday they watched Josie and the Pussycats, but didn’t finish.  Thursday we worked on picking clips and story-boarding.  Basically we talked about what the main point is that we want to communicate, talked about audiences and who we want to reach with this, and then went over how to pick clips. 

Their main points are they we all agree students should be safe, but that there is no need to be rude and disrespectful to students.  They also questioned why some schools have metal detectors and some don't. 

Class Aim/Objective/Theme

- build interviewing skills

- understand script process

Brief Summary including curriculum exercises you did

- listened to a radio piece I did for FSRN around the closing of schools for pregnant and parenting teens.  They read the script as we listened, and then we talked about how you choose clips and write narration.

- played Taboo

What worked well?

- They got SUPER into Taboo, which was cool, and it really did help them to find creative ways to describe things.  I think the script reading also helped them to understand the next step in our process.

Next Time I'd...

Class Aim/Objective/Theme

We’re working on interviewing.

Brief Summary including curriculum exercises you did

We listened to their interviews they did with students and teachers about the school security issues.   I wrote on the board three questions to guide the listening – what is one thing that you think was really good about the interview, one thing you’d suggest doing differently next time, and one follow up question.  They were really supportive of each other and gave good feedback.  It dragged on for a while though because there was so much tape, so they started to get antsy.  We played the question game, which they love, to get them revved up again.  

Class Aim/Objective/Theme

Brief Summary including curriculum exercises you did

What worked well?

Next Time I'd...

Class Concerns and Questions

Class Aim/Objective/Theme

Brief Summary including curriculum exercises you did

What worked well?

Next Time I'd...

Class Concerns and Questions