Research Journal #2: Why My Project Is Important

I'm getting better at interviewing people. I went to the library and the park to interview people yesterday and to Olde Town today. Each location gave me a different experience. When I was at the library people were brief, and didn't really want to talk to me because they were reading or working. I was only able to interview three people there before running out. The park was fun. I interviewed some kids, which was a really fun experience. The kids were very honest about what they were seeing around them and were more opinionated than I expected them to be. Olde town was probably the worst place I could have chosen to interview people. I only talked to two people there, because everyone else was either scared of me or didn't want to talk to me. I think I will spend some time writing down their transcripts and work on my people skills. 

I found an article that might help with my situation. "How to Conduct an Effective Job Interview" is a guide for employers to make their future employees feel comfortable. Although I am not interviewing people for a job, I think some of the pointers will help me better understand how I can make people feel comfortable and safe when I am interviewing them. The article advised people to have their questions prepared before the interview, make them feel less stresfull (especially since they are talking to a stranger), involve only a few people, and get straight to the point. I wish I had read this before. I will definitely use these tactics when interviewing people in the future.

I'm making it sound like this is the worst experience ever, but I'm having fun. I've always wanted to do a project like this, and the UGP is the perfect opportunity for me. I think it's important to get these stories and try to understand these different people and backgrounds because students like these will show up in my future classrooms. It's important to understand that each student has their own story outside of school, and recognizing those stories will make it easier for teachers to teach them. 

I wanted to get a diverse crowd because that is what the future classroom will look like. I also want to use this factor to my advantage, and assign diverse texts for my classroom to read. This way students will get to see multiple cultures/races shown represented in their classroom. I really liked reading "Understanding Diversity in a Global Context" because Durand voiced a lot of my personal beliefs. She talked about encouraging diverse young adult novels in the curriculum so that students can see different cultures represented. Even though one book cannot carry the weight of the entire culture's expirience, it is still important to include diverse books.