Today was the last day of senior project. I spent my day finishing my slides and paper. I also then went through all my write ups and my slides to make sure I was satisfied with how they turned out and do any final edits. I feel ready for express fest tomorrow and I'm thankful for all I learned these past 2 weeks.
Todays hours: 3
Total hours: 80
Today was another writing and presentation day. I finished transferring some of my writing to the slides, and did the write up for the student interview. I made sure all my writeups were complete except one (which I'll do tomorrow) and same with my slides. I added some images to the end of each write up and made a credits slide. All I have left to do tomorrow is finish a bit of the last write up, finish the corresponding slide, and finish my essay!
Todays hours: 4
Total hours: 77
This second week of senior project, I had a lot more writing to do than the first week, as well as beginning my essay and final slides, and non-project things on my plate as well. Through all of this, I learned how to budget and evenly distribute my time while still getting things done and getting my hours in. I definitely struggled at first with just sitting and writing, because I get distracted very easily, but I eventually was able to hunker down and focus. I also struggled to work on days I had other commitments or appointments, but since that was a few days this week I pretty quickly realized I didn’t have a choice and I had to put the work in. While I did struggle with my focus levels this week, I did enjoy what I was doing. I felt super productive and like a real journalist which was really cool. I also got to conduct a pretty lengthy interview on Tuesday, and I really enjoyed my time with them. They were super friendly people and I had such great conversations with them. Honestly, everything this week occurred as I expected it to. I knew from past experiences that I get easily distracted when writing, but I also knew how much I enjoyed writing and creating slideshows. With a minor in English at SLU next year, I’m definitely going to be doing a lot of writing, so it's good to learn how to manage my focus levels before I start that. Also learning how to get work done while balancing other mandatory things is going to be very important in college and I tapped into that this week. My interview this week really helped me to achieve my project goal of getting to know the people of Falmouth. The interview was with people that had worked in Falmouth since 1958 and lived there since 1980 so they’ve seen a lot there. They had a lot of valuable information and life stories for me which I really appreciated. (i couldn't get this to paste double space but it was a page on docs)
Today was another chill work day. No more interviews, although I'm still waiting for Katherine to get back to me. If she does, I'll do the write up and add her to the slides on Monday but if not I have plenty of content already. I worked at home all day today and basically did the same thing I've been doing the past few days. My focus levels were completely out the window so I had to keep taking 20 min breaks but I did end up working for a while and getting a lot done. I got my writeups and my slides as closed to finish as possible so I wouldn't have a lot to do on those on Monday and I could focus on my essay. Today I also completed my outline brainstorm thing for my essay so it's easier for me to write.
Todays hours: 5
Total hours: 73
I started in the morning by listening to all my interviews which took surprisingly long. When I was done listening, I added to my notes for each interview. I spent a while on that as well before I took a break for an appt. After, I added to my final slides for the rest of the day. Overall it was a pretty chill day but I had some long periods of work and got a lot done and that felt good.
Todays hours: 7
Total hours: 68
With a bit of a late start to my day, I begun my morning with my essay. Today was the first day I've worked on it and I'm going to try to stay ahead on it. I spent a good chunk of time working on the essay, mostly on organization for it but some writing too. After that, I devoted the rest of the day to my final slides. I added in a lot of images and some intro slides. The addition of both those things really improved my slideshow. I also added in some text from my doc of all my interviews. Towards the end, my slideshow was really beginning to come together, but there's still more I need to add it it. I also still need to interview Katherine, but I'm planning to do that over the phone tomorrow.
Todays hours: 7
Total hours: 61
I spent my worktime this morning continuing writeups of last week's interviews. I did that for a few hours before heading to Boston for an appt. When I got home around 4, I worked on writing for yesterday's interview. I also spent a lot of time on my final slideshow today and I'm pretty content with how it looks now. I'm still waiting for my interview with the Fal high student but that should be sometime soon.
Todays hours: 6
Total hours: 54
I started the day off by organizing my notes and questions in preparation to meet the Johnsons. I continued to be in contact with the student I plan to interview sometime this week. I met the Johnsons at their house at 1 and interviewed them. I ended up being there a while, they were super friendly and sweet and had a really cute cat. When I got home, I listened to my recording of my interview with them and organized my notes a little better. I also began work on the write up and their piece in my final product. Overall it was a pretty good day and I definitely have a lot more content to work with now.
Todays hours: 7
Total hours: 48
Today I did a lot of online work on my project. I spent most of my time continuing the write up of the interviews. I also started work on my final presentation, including format and titles. I got in contact with 2 people to interview this week to get that planned in advance. I really just had a long period of work time and I got a lot done because of it so that felt good. Tomorrow I'll be doing a few interviews so I'm excited for that.
Todays hours: 6
Total hours: 41
5/14:
My first week of senior project taught me a lot about my topic and time management. I learned how to be more comfortable with interviewing people, and that I didn’t need to get nervous about it. I learned how to manage my organization better outside of a school environment, both literally and figuratively. I also learned sometimes things will get in the way and you just have to work around them. Once I got past the nerves, I really enjoyed interviewing people. I felt I had some really productive conversations with people and found myself having fun without even realizing it. I also love writing so I had fun doing the write ups on the interviews. I had expected some people to say no to interviews, but I didn’t expect people to say yes and then change their mind so I was taken a bit by surprise when that happened. I also didn't realize I had so many appointments this week and that I would be sick one day so I really had to figure out how to keep getting hours while also dealing with that. I also didn’t think I would be nervous before interviews, as I’ve done a few in the past. Other than that, everything was as I expected. I expected to enjoy the writing and interviewing, and that I would be very time consumed, and that all was true. This week's activities have benefited me in multiple ways. I was able to step more into a field that I'm interested in and was fulfilled by doing so. On a larger scale, I definitely got more comfortable in public and talking to random people, which is something I've struggled with for a long time. What I've participated in this week has helped me achieve my goals of becoming more experienced in journalism and interviewing people, and I can’t wait for next week!
Today was another chill day as I haven't been able to go out and get more interviews yet. I spent a lot of time specifying what I want my final piece of work to look like, and how I can accomplish that. I also continued the write ups of the interviews I already have. Hopefully early next week i'll be able to do more interviews.
Todays hours: 4
Total hours: 35
Today was a pretty difficult day to work through since I was sick to my stomach all day, but I still managed to get 5 hours in. It was a really lowkey day, I basically was just trying to find anything to do that wouldn't require too much movement. I ended up continuing my research and watching interview videos to prepare for early next week. I also kept working on the writing for the interviews I already conducted.
Todays hours: 5
Total hours: 31
Today was a pretty chill but productive day. When I began working in the morning I made a mind-map in my notebook of how the rest of project was going to look, including what I wanted to make once I had all my interviews done. After that was finished I kept working on writing for the interviews I already did. I took a break for a bit and when I came back I emailed some people to try and set up some pre-planned interviews. After that I kept writing, and I ended the day feeling pretty organized. As I've refined some things to accomodate my crutches situation, I've decided to specify Cape Cod to just my hometown and the surrounding area, Falmouth. I think it could be interesting to see if I can find any unknown or hidden stories even though I've grown up there.
Todays hours: 7
Total hours: 26
My day was again flooded with non-project related appointments and phone calls, and I even ended up back on crutches again for the third time for my injury. That being said, I had trouble getting in hours today, but I still tried my best. At 3pm I began brainstorming and listing ways I could continue my project without walking around towns, and got in touch with my mentor and Kelly. At 5, I listened to my recorded interviews from yesterday, and added to my written notes for them. I also worked more to identify common themes between the interviews, which was super interesting. Overall not a huge day but I was as productive as I could be.
Todays hours: 5
Total hours: 19
Today was both a huge success and failure. I had a late start to my morning as I was swamped with doctors appointments and a long drive, but I finally arrived in Woods Hole. I'm glad my first handful of interview spots were places I'm very familiar with. It certainly made it a lot easier to comfortably walk around and find people to interview. Not only was Woods Hole 10 times quieter than usual but I was definitely hesitant to "bother" people at first. That all went away when I stopped an older couple. They were on their way to an appointment, but I was able to get a solid amount of time talking with them. Unfortunately, they didn't give me much figurative information that I was looking for, rather just complaints about the traffic in the area. It was still good to break the ice and my nerves and talk to them. After I talked to them, I walked down to where all the ferries dock and leave from. I figured there would be enough people down there, and I lucked out. I talked to Jeff for a long time, and he finally gave me some answers I was more looking for. I spent so long engaged in conversation with him I didn't even realize how much time had passed. I was very happy with my interview with him though. And I was lucky both interviewees had let me voice record them, which will make writing later so much easier. I then drove 5 minutes to Main St, a large retail and restaurant street in downtown Falmouth. This is another area I'm very comfortable in, and it's usually swamped with people and you have to park a 10 minute walk away. Today though, this wasn't the case, which was somewhat unfortunate as I was still looking for people to talk to. I walked around outside for a while but struggled to find anyone who wasn't busy or on the phone. I decided to get a bit more creative and begun to enter businesses. My first interviewee was a middle aged woman business owner, and I was very excited to talk to her. I was all prepared until all of a sudden she shut down and changed her mind. I was confused and a bit frustrated, but I made sure not to express it and thanked her for her time anyway. After that, I spent more time walking around, struggling to have productive time with anyone. I finally stopped to pet a friendly looking chocolate lab tied to a bench. I was just happy to be getting some puppy time when a small woman came outside and talked to the dog. She was the owner, and she worked in the store the dog was tied outside of. I figured I might as well ask, she seemed friendly enough. She said yes and we entered a small overcrowded store I'd actually never been in before. She was not a fan of my request to record her, which was okay because I just took more detailed written notes. I quickly found she was not a huge people person, which was part of her reasoning for the lack of recording. However, she was super easy to talk to and gave me great answers. Some of the customers in the store even chimed in sharing information which was really helpful for getting many different perspectives. My former frustrations disappeared following my conversation with Melanie and the customers, I was reminded of the kindness I came looking for. Although I had struggles today, I was able to successfully begin to identify some of the themes I was looking for, and got 3 interviews done. I planned to do some writing today, but my struggle to engage in actual conversations with people prevented me from having time to do so. I'll definitely being doing a lot of organizing and writing tomorrow, but I'm really excited for that!
Todays hours: 7
Total hours: 14
When I woke up this morning, I immediately contacted my mentor (AM Hansen) with my plan for the day: Including some research and drafting of questions. For my first work time (10am-12pm) after contacting AM, I created and began working on an organization document for my project and read a handful of articles and stories about how to conduct a successful interview and how to be prepared. I took a break and then began working again at 1pm, this time for a much longer time period, to 5pm. I spent this time writing and brainstorming questions for my interviews. I also planned out which days I was going to which places, and how many people I wanted to interview per location. I continued reading articles and watching videos on successful interviews, which were very helpful to writing my questions and overall organizing my project. Tonight, I plan to work again from 8pm to 9pm polishing off my questions and making sure I'm prepared for tomorrow. After my work today, I feel much more comfortable and prepared to be successful with this project. I'm really excited for my first interviews tomorrow!
Todays hours: 7
Total hours: 7
