This week, we really focused on getting our trial run plan up and running for Mr. Medina in New York to review. We also had to get our presentation for Monday done, so we did that first and then concentrated on forming the specifics of our trial run. We kind of knew what they would be from the beginning because we wanted the trial run to be a miniature version of the actual competition, we just needed to put it on paper. So, I spent most of Monday doing just that and formulating a plan of how we were going to actually monitor the progress of the trial run for our research. I think we have a pretty good plan.
Kate focused on working on the first survey, which Mr. Medina will give to the students before the competition begins. We are going to survey the students before, during and after the trial run and also have them do informal weekly check-ins as the trial run progresses. So those are our two main ways of monitoring the progress of the trial run. We haven't heard back from Mr. Median about what we thinks of the trial run, but we've been keeping in close contact with him so far about the trial run, so communication with him has definitely not been a problem.
Because of the way his school's Spring Break works out the trial run will begin April 12 and last three weeks, so it's perfect timing for us because it'll end right a week before finals week. That will be enough time to review all of our research from the trial run and their final products they'll be turning into us. I'm very excited about this! I've spent a lot of time putting this whole thing together and I'm excited to see it materialize. We'll also be working on getting a different type of trial run going with Kim Pettlon's class at Hickman High School going after Spring Break is over. Until then, have a good break everyone!
Friday, March 26, 2010
Friday, March 19, 2010
Another Focus Group
This week, we focused on getting our trial run off the ground and doing another focus group with Hickman High School. Edward Medina is very excited about our trial run and we want to get him our plan by next week at the very latest before we go on Spring Break, so we have some work to do before then. Ryan met with Mike and got some ideas from him on how we should progress with the trial run, so I think we should be in good shape to get this off the ground by next week. Mr. Medina is even going to weave the trial run into his class curriculum, which is great and very generous of him, so hopefully he'll be excited with our plan once we get it to him.
We also went to Hickman High School on Thursday morning to do our second focus group with high school students. This focus group went much better than Rock Bridge's, mainly because the classes we went to were smaller and the students were more focused, which is saying something, since we saw them first thing in the morning. They had some good suggestions about the competition and eased some of our worries about the competition. They thought that high schoolers would like to stick with a topic for an extended period of time and would not get bored and that we should have a list of suggested topics for them to chose from. They said some other things that we will discuss in our presentation on Monday, but if was very helpful.
Kim Pettlon, Hickman's journalism teacher, also offered up her class for a trial run as well, which was kind of a surprise, so she is another journalism teacher we may work with later this semester. So, everything is going well so far and we're working hard on our presentation for Monday.
We also went to Hickman High School on Thursday morning to do our second focus group with high school students. This focus group went much better than Rock Bridge's, mainly because the classes we went to were smaller and the students were more focused, which is saying something, since we saw them first thing in the morning. They had some good suggestions about the competition and eased some of our worries about the competition. They thought that high schoolers would like to stick with a topic for an extended period of time and would not get bored and that we should have a list of suggested topics for them to chose from. They said some other things that we will discuss in our presentation on Monday, but if was very helpful.
Kim Pettlon, Hickman's journalism teacher, also offered up her class for a trial run as well, which was kind of a surprise, so she is another journalism teacher we may work with later this semester. So, everything is going well so far and we're working hard on our presentation for Monday.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Getting Things Done
The big thing we got accomplished this past week was that we went to Rock Bridge High School to conduct the first of the two focus groups with real high school journalism students! We had been trying for about two weeks to get in touch with Rock Bridge's journalism teacher, so I guess my persistence finally paid off because she finally got back to us and let us come into her classroom and talk to her students.
I think it went pretty well. Not as great as I would have wanted, but very well. We brought candy and some gift certificates provided by Mike, so those incentives were good in getting the students talking. We started by just introducing ourselves and having the students introduce themselves and saying why they like working on the newspaper. It may seem simple, but that was probably the most beneficial part of our time there. They said that they really like having ownership in a product that they produced themselves and the atmosphere of a different type of class during the day. They had other thoughts that we'll go into more during out presentation, but those were their general thoughts, which I thought were interesting.
Ryan also put together a Mad Libs, which was his idea, and we collected their responses at the end, so we have a list of the students' favorite media company and other information like that, which will be very helpful for our research. We kind of ran out of time towards the end, so that wasn't good, but I think both we and the students enjoyed us being there. They also asked us some questions about college and the J school at the end, so I think they enjoyed that.
I also got in contact with Hickman High School this week, so they said we can come there next week and do the same thing we did at Rock Bridge with their journalism students, so that's good! I'm very glad that both of these sessions are set up and getting down. They are very helpful!
In other news, I have finished my portion of phone interviews to the teachers who took our survey and Ryan and Kate are in the process of finishing their interviews up, so hopefully those will be done soon. We also hope to set something up with Edward Medina in New York who volunteered his journalism class to do a test run of the competition, so I think we'll tackle that after Spring Break. We also have to do another presentation for the class in about a week, so we have to start that soon. All's is going well so far and I hope we keep on that track. I'm the group leader and I'm really trying to be fair but also lead the group and the competition towards success!
I think it went pretty well. Not as great as I would have wanted, but very well. We brought candy and some gift certificates provided by Mike, so those incentives were good in getting the students talking. We started by just introducing ourselves and having the students introduce themselves and saying why they like working on the newspaper. It may seem simple, but that was probably the most beneficial part of our time there. They said that they really like having ownership in a product that they produced themselves and the atmosphere of a different type of class during the day. They had other thoughts that we'll go into more during out presentation, but those were their general thoughts, which I thought were interesting.
Ryan also put together a Mad Libs, which was his idea, and we collected their responses at the end, so we have a list of the students' favorite media company and other information like that, which will be very helpful for our research. We kind of ran out of time towards the end, so that wasn't good, but I think both we and the students enjoyed us being there. They also asked us some questions about college and the J school at the end, so I think they enjoyed that.
I also got in contact with Hickman High School this week, so they said we can come there next week and do the same thing we did at Rock Bridge with their journalism students, so that's good! I'm very glad that both of these sessions are set up and getting down. They are very helpful!
In other news, I have finished my portion of phone interviews to the teachers who took our survey and Ryan and Kate are in the process of finishing their interviews up, so hopefully those will be done soon. We also hope to set something up with Edward Medina in New York who volunteered his journalism class to do a test run of the competition, so I think we'll tackle that after Spring Break. We also have to do another presentation for the class in about a week, so we have to start that soon. All's is going well so far and I hope we keep on that track. I'm the group leader and I'm really trying to be fair but also lead the group and the competition towards success!
Friday, March 5, 2010
Organization
Last week, I was in New York on a media tour with the Magazine Club, so I wasn't able to do much for our capstone project. So, we met on Tuesday to regroup and get a new game plan together. Yes, we've done that before, but this time we did a major refocus. The group decided that communication was our main issue, which I agree, so they appointed me as the group leader. They said they wanted one person in charge of communication, assigning tasks to other group members and meeting with Mike, our client in this case, on a weekly basis to make sure we're on the right track. So that is my new role in the group and I am extremely comfortable with it.
I continued to try and call and e-mail Rock Bridge this week with no success. After today, I'm officially giving up, so I'm going to try and call other high school journalism departments in the area and hopefully one of them will let us talk to their students about our contest. I really don't think we're asking all that much, so hopefully somebody will respond to us before Spring Break. Ryan has been trying to call Hickman High School, so hopefully he has been having more success. We're also trying to contact the student editors of each high school publication, so we'll see if we have any success there.
The three of us also split up calling up the five journalism teachers that did respond to the survey we sent out a few weeks ago. I called Edward Medina because I've been e-mailing back and forth with him for a few weeks now. He is an extremely nice man who had some good suggestions and was reassuring about some of the things we have already decided we want this competition to be. I hope Ryan and Kate have had equal success with their teachers. He also made me an extremely generous offer--he offered up his students to do a test run this semester of our competition. I think it is a great idea and something to think about doing maybe after Spring Break. If we don't get a response from these other high schools in the area then maybe it would be worth doing a conference call with his students to see what they would be interested in. His enthusiasm has made me more enthusiastic about the prospects of the contest.
So, I think we're finally going in the right direction. It's taken us a while to get here, we know that, and we will work hard to make up for the time lost. We have to work on our communication skills and making sure we're all on the same page between the three of us and the faculty, but I think me being the group leader is a good step and I think we're moving the right direction.
I continued to try and call and e-mail Rock Bridge this week with no success. After today, I'm officially giving up, so I'm going to try and call other high school journalism departments in the area and hopefully one of them will let us talk to their students about our contest. I really don't think we're asking all that much, so hopefully somebody will respond to us before Spring Break. Ryan has been trying to call Hickman High School, so hopefully he has been having more success. We're also trying to contact the student editors of each high school publication, so we'll see if we have any success there.
The three of us also split up calling up the five journalism teachers that did respond to the survey we sent out a few weeks ago. I called Edward Medina because I've been e-mailing back and forth with him for a few weeks now. He is an extremely nice man who had some good suggestions and was reassuring about some of the things we have already decided we want this competition to be. I hope Ryan and Kate have had equal success with their teachers. He also made me an extremely generous offer--he offered up his students to do a test run this semester of our competition. I think it is a great idea and something to think about doing maybe after Spring Break. If we don't get a response from these other high schools in the area then maybe it would be worth doing a conference call with his students to see what they would be interested in. His enthusiasm has made me more enthusiastic about the prospects of the contest.
So, I think we're finally going in the right direction. It's taken us a while to get here, we know that, and we will work hard to make up for the time lost. We have to work on our communication skills and making sure we're all on the same page between the three of us and the faculty, but I think me being the group leader is a good step and I think we're moving the right direction.
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