Paly fieldnotes

Paly Fieldnotes 4/13     Finding Paul

First impressions:      env: ticker-tape scroll, “check out our award-winning videos,” massive open congretation space (no food or drinks–what effect does this have on who comes here?) first amendment prominently displayed,kitchenette office has a trophy case with journalism awards. There are about one hundred chairs arranged in loose rows in the central atrium area before a dais with a podium backed by a curtain which separates the space from a smaller workspace behind. Screens everywhere create a “times square” effect of constantly-running student-produced media. A walkway rings the second floor, providing access to a second story of classrooms. There is an open teaching space staggered between the first and second stories, which apparently can also be used as a production/lighting booth. Stage lights are arranged here and there in bouquets—they are functional but also lend a gritty production-oriented feeling to the space. Even when empty, the whole space feels tense with anticipation of real-world audiences, deadlines, cameras, the smell of newsprint. 

I sit waiting for Paul near a locked pair of exterior doors. Four or five times, students approach the doors, find them locked, but then use their fingertips to pry open one door prefented from closing fully by an obstace

Students gather in the plaza outside from 8:00. The doors are unlocked 8:10, “Doors open, doors open” call goes around. 

During the time before class starts, 

Once class-time gets underway, 

Ed Madison (Oregon; journalism) Esther —> Moonshots in Education