DCHS: Shelby's Story and Reflection

Because Shelby was my only partner on Wednesday, we were able to do a nice re-record of his story. I suggested a few places to adjust dynamics in the track and a few ways of framing, and he was was very receptive to those. I think, though, at the end of the day this is where he will be satisfied with leaving the piece. Like some other of my classmates, I was a bit distracted by the background noise, and it didn't bother my student at all!

I think Shelby and I will be able to work as a team on Monday to show Janajia and Unique the next few steps of the process.

Some more reflections:

These past two work days were a little hectic, and I think that was because we transitioned from recording and creating material to editing material. My group is naturally excitable and expressive, and learning software just isn’t as engaging as brainstorming and recording stories. On Wednesday, Unique came late to the class, and I had to leave Shelby and Janajia alone while we got her caught up, and for the first time it was hard to keep the two of them on track and focused. My whole group is naturally very outgoing and chatty. It’s definitely helping me learn about guidance and teaching. I found myself really trying to use the tidbits of advice from early in the semester, especially the ones about keeping on target. What helped was letting them know the plans for next sessions. It was easier after I told them that next time we’d be recording as well as editing their own work.

I think that day informed Shelby’s view of editing, making him view it as something detached from our previous work. I hope that by giving him the individual attention and having him hear his own voice, he’ll help me get the rest of the group enthusiastic. I remember I was talking to him about sound editing for movies, and panning sounds back and forth in stereo was a feature you can use in Garageband. The discussion got pretty animated, and it was nice to have the individual time like that. Because of the group of three my attention was stretched a bit that Wednesday, and it was nice to just have time to get to know each other's interests. I'm going to ask him on Monday about keeping this audio work alive in school in some kind of club format.