RES 5040: Teacher as Researcher (spring 09)

The first two weeks of data collection have really been a challenge. It’s been pretty difficult to remove myself from my normal role in the classroom. I am observing, but I find myself trying to keep things moving instead of letting the production take its course. This class has also been stricken by illness, absences and special school events. A minor flu epidemic has worked its way through the class and at any one time, one-fourth of the students have been absent. This led me to postpone my first round of individual interviews until next week. There have also been programs related to high school scheduling for next year, including a period-long presentation by the high school JROTC. While our productions have continued in spite of all of these things, it has made it difficult to collect the amount of data I intended to have by this time. A normal shooting schedule for a weekly show involves a day of preparation on Monday, filming of anchor spots on Tuesday, filming sports on Wednesday, voice-overs and extra studio work on Thursday and interviews and special reports outside the studio Tuesday through Thursday.

From a positive standpoint, I have been able to collect student journals and I have gotten some interesting pieces of information. The students are motivated by the degree of autonomy that they have been given and they have a great deal of confidence in their own ability. Also, it is interesting to note that the most recent program was very popular with the class and in fact in Lisa’s journal she identified it as her second favorite show (out of 9) this year. Lisa felt that the staff actually worked together pretty well, and was particularly well planned. Layla also liked the show a great deal, but felt that some of the show was rushed because of too much talking by the staff early in the production week. Karen also indicated that the show was very good, but that the degree of stress was elevated at the end of the week. Christine, who along with Whitney, was responsible for the majority of the scripting and theme for the show stated in her journal that “we could have done better, if we had been better prepared when we started filming.” The shooting schedule for this week was rearranged because Christine, Layla & Whitney were attending a Student Government Convention on a normal shooting day.

I have noticed some interesting trends so far. In this class the students have the opportunity to select their weekly responsibilities based on a checklist that lists all of the production duties, and for the most recent show Hurley, the only boy in the class was the show’s director. Normally, Hurley has trouble with organization and is the class-clown, but he seemed to take his job very seriously and kept up with all of his responsibilities. He did have some difficulty keeping the other staff members on schedule and seemed a little intimidated by the rest of the staff. I hope that when I have the opportunity to interview him individually I will be able to get his perspective on the dynamics in the classroom. The students who handled the filming of interviews outside the classroom were very effective and completed their assignments with almost no outside assistance.

Considering the circumstances, I feel pretty good about the information I have been able to gather so far, but I certainly hope to have a much calmer and more data-filled next couple of weeks.

Jeff Kitchen