The Aftermath of April 2

I am feeling great about leaving today. I feel that we have gotten a lot of things accomplished and have been very productive. I am not of much help to the rest of the group at this point. It’s mostly just Adrienne editing the videos and audio. So we all must hail to her. But I will be completing our website for What’s the Story? DCF group and finalizing that so we can be an official website. Yay! I will probably add some information about what we are doing and how we are doing it, pictures and some stuff about us! I probably won’t need much from anybody but myself, just time. My schedule is about to really hectic with Lacrosse starting on Monday and it being close to Spring break. I’m excited for our retreat, and happy to get a final product!

Thanks so much!

Lydia

Marianna- April 2nd meet-up reflection

I think that we made some very decent progress today.  We should be able to continue to be able to make strides on our project until the due date.  I would like to have made more progress so far, but am steadily working towards my goal.  Also, over the course of this class, I think that the progress that my group has made, either on working with each other (we can be rather difficult at times) or simply striving to meet deadlines that we have set for each other.   We have been quite successful at communication during the class, as well as with keeping each other updated on our progress.

In these weeks leading up to the ending date for our project, I will keep updating our webpage along with Lydia.  I will also start to contact people who might be interested in featuring our video on their webpages or T.V. channels.  The more people that we can get to watch it, the better chance we have of making a difference.

While it is always nice to have support from our teachers, I think that we will be able to finish the project, working as we have been all along.  There shouldn’t be a need for extra help from our mentors.  As long as we can still manage our own time I think that we should be able to finish in our own way.  From myself, I just need to remember to keep my group updated on my progress so that I don’t get lost off of track.

Adrienne-April 2nd Meet-up Reflection

                I feel like today’s gathering was productive, both in terms of accomplishing objectives and communicating ideas and plans. We were able to figure out some technical issues and record our narration. Then we planned out actions for the interim before our final over-night. I think that we are mostly clear on what our goals are from now until May 6^th.

                Moving forward, I will put together our documentary using PowerDirector.  I’ll need my group members to supply me with visual representations of statistics, which I’ll insert into specific points of the film. We’ve already figured out which pieces of media will be inserted where,  so all that’s left to do is arrange them and transition between them.

                I’m not sure that I need much of anything, other than time. My time will be dependent on my school workload, but I’m rarely completely swamped so I will absolutely have enough time to complete it. I need to focus and set aside a chunk of time at least every other day to just work on the project.  I don’t think the finished product will take more than ten hours of work, so doing it in pieces should be easily accomplished. I feel that my task is manageable, and I feel adequately prepared to continue working.

What Will The Story Be?

               When this project truly comes to fruition and becomes a reality it is my sincerest ambition to make a change in the lives of foster children as well as in the lives of the DCF workers. While I do want to reach out to the general populace and inform them of this subject that they know so little about, I know that simply doing that will not invoke real change. Instead I would like to target the legislators and people in the government who decide the budget of the DCF. If they see that not just those involved with the system, but also those outside of it can see the issues and truly want change, they would consider increasing the DCF's funding. Were this to happen, more case workers could be hired which would reduce the stress and improve working conditions, and they in turn could provide more help to more children and provide more support to the parents. With this audience in mind hard facts fall by the wayside compared to stories from those close to the story, this is because those who make the decisions in government have already seen the facts and that has not spurred action, but perhaps a cord could be hit with interviews. By representing the physical, emotional, and psychological damage people in the system endure we could really send a message.
               Recently I made a life-changing presentation, and I learned a few things on reaching an audience. Some people who presented had extremely interesting topics, but they just read out facts and it made it so nobody could care less Instead you need to do as others did and play peoples emotions, pain, sadness, shock, and rage, these emotions grab the audiences interest and really make them care. With this in mind I would start the documentary with stories from foster families/children, hitting the pain/sadness chord of the audience. Then I would do the critical and most impressive statistics to bring about a shock value. I would then buckle down into interviews with professionals talking about the foster system, talking about their experiences and the current issues in the system, making the audience want to change change something. I would finish off with a look at the future and what could be if people take action. While this is a serious documentary, it still needs to be a movie, and like all good movies, the audience has to be engaged, so we do have to edit the information to target them accordingly.
               In terms of why I am doing this, it is simply because of the Laura Sobel story, I heard it on NPR and wanted to learn more. As to why I stuck with it and why it became my topic for this class, it is simply frustration. Frustration with the portrayal of the DCF in the media, frustration with the working conditions of case workers, and frustration at the hardships that foster children and their families have to go through. This is a massive issue that effects the most important people in our society, the children, yet we still spend huge amounts of money on shovels and rakes and implements of destruction (the military, i just had to use that phrase!) and neglect this vital part of society. This is what truly pushed me to do this. It is of the utmost importance that we get our priorities in order and start to take care of what is truly important.

Marianna- What IS the story?

    The story that I hope to tell should bring to light some of the issues that most people are unaware of and inspire them to take action to solve them.  The general public might be aware that there is an issue with the foster care system in Vermont but they will usually not know the whole story behind what is happening.  Another one of the audiences we might target is potential foster families.  The number of children in the system can not be fixed without a larger number of parents willing to take them in.  Of course these are just some of the audiences that we might target.

     Our documentary might begin with what could be considered a brief overview on how everything works within the system.  After this we might be able to give quick sections with different interview and photos, each focusing on a different layer of the system, such as the lack of social workers and foster parents, to the drug problem that is putting so many infants into foster care.  We could end it with telling our audience about what is being done already and what they could do to help.  However, I think that this is something that my group will discuss much more in-depth at our next meeting.  I can not wait to see how it actually unfolds.

    I think that a few of the changes that we could ask our audience to make is to maybe consider fostering kids.  There is a severe lack of people willing to foster children and without them nothing can be fixed. One of the things that people could do to help is to give more support to the social workers who give their entire lives to giving these kids the best possible future they can have.  Another thing that people could work together on is setting up drug and alcohol awareness workshops to help prevent teens and young adults from making the mistakes that will put their future or current kids into the system.  The last thing that pops into my head is trying to give families better access to treatment so that they can try to keep their kids safe.  That is one of the reasons we need more foster parents.  If we focused a little more on the parents care as well as the kids, there would be less of a need for people to take them in.
 
     The biggest  purpose I have for telling this story is the struggles that I have seen firsthand some of these kids go through, even years after having been in the system.  When this topic came up at our first meeting, I knew that it was what I wanted to do, so that I could try and help make a difference in more people lives.  At the start of this class I just wanted to change the inner working of the system, now I would like to get more kids into homes that actually care about them and their future.










 

 

Lydia- #5- Whats the ACTUAL Story?

Hi my loyal blog readers. Hope you all had a great holiday vacation and a happy New Year. I certainly did!

There’s no reason to say that my target would be the people at DCF because that's not logical. All those people already know its a problem. That’s why I think the target would be the people, everyone. When I talk to older friends of my parents they realize that there is a problem within the DCF but they only know the outer layer. They only think about the social workers who go crazy and are suicidal after working with the DCF because of what their job requires. But there's a lot more to that, and if that's all people really think about when they think DCF then that's the real problem. That’s where everyone comes in. This project isn’t based on pointing blame it's based on getting the knowledge of the problem out there. People need to know it’s a problem before anything else. While getting the problem out I would like people to understand the message of this project. I want the message of this project to be “help” I want people to see and understand that there is more of a problem then everyone is letting on. That the DCF needs help whether or not they want to admit it. I think that the audience can do a lot just by knowing that there is a problem, so I think after the problem is out there I really want them to go with it. See what they can do at their sons or daughters school, see if anything needs to be done at VT DCF and simply help out. I think that after everyone knows the whole story the can’t help but feel bad and want to help.

That’s why I am doing this. I felt bad after hearing those few presentations about DCF. And I really wanted to see a change. I not only felt bad for the children who have to go through all of this and experience these things, I also felt bad for the social workers. I could never imagine having to do a job like that. The constant stress, pain and sorrow feeling for the children, and being overworked. I don’t know how anyone could ever do that. After really thinking about how horrible it must be to experience those things I decided that I really wanted to help out.

I want people to feel like they could relate to this. or atleast picture themselves in their shoes. So I might start with a few pictures or videos of kids. Some of good times and some of bad times so they can understand it’s not always fun and dandy. I would then want to place the videos of interviews with social workers. I want this in the middle so the people who are watching can get both points of view. I want to show not just the struggles of the children but also the struggles and pain that the social workers go through. I would probably end with ways that people can help and more pictures and videos of social workers and kids working together.

Thanks for reading! Have a great day!

Adrienne-So...What IS the Story?

                Throughout this project, I don’t think my ultimate goal has changed all that much. Maybe I became more aware of it, and the details became concrete, but my plan for this project remains the same: I want to educate others on the reality of Vermont’s foster care system and what life is like for the children living in it. I want to shed light on the problems in the foster care system and propose possible solutions. In the end, I’d like to inspire others to help solve these problems by educating them.

                I believe my audience is pretty broad, as foster care is something that’s rather mysterious for those who aren’t involved in it. Everyone knows about it, but few know the specificities of how DCF works or how being a ward of the state affects the life of a child. Because of my possible audience, my team and I will need to be careful not to alienate. Alienation can be caused by placing blame on specific people or groups, so this will definitely be avoided. I want everyone to be intrigued by the project.

                In terms of structure, I think it would be difficult to condense all the information I’d like to gather into a single narrative. Of course I’ll need to confer with my group members at the next meet-up, but I think maybe a couple short films would be better than one longer one. I think one on the problems faced by children in foster care would be good, and then a second one on DCF, it’s function, and the effect of recent history on the organization.  To complete these narratives, I think my team should have a set of interviews from a variety of people in the field, like social workers, foster parents, foster children, and DCF workers.

                For the narrative on foster care, I think that showing differences in life within and outside foster care would be a good springboard. A segue into discussion of various problems could follow, then some proposed solutions could finish it off.  In the second, I think my interview with Alix Gibson will be very helpful. As the director of my local department of DCF, she has several years of experience and a wealth of knowledge on the organization’s history, function, and practice. I think a brief montage of news headlines could begin this video, which would end with a clip about the death of Lara Sobel. After that we could insert part of Mrs. Gibson’s statement about the event, then something about how the public perceives DCF. After that, I think information about DCF’s function and how it operates could be tailed by changes that could be made to help the organization work to it’s best capacity. I’m not as sure about the DCF one as I am about the foster care one, though.

                I chose my initial topic because I care about the well-being of children, and I still do. I’ve said it before, but I see children as the embodiment of potential.  A child raised in a bad environment is having their potential squandered by forces out of their control, so it’s up to responsible adults to care for all children in the most nurturing way possible.

I’m working on this project because I believe spreading awareness of the problems that children struggle with will lead to others coming up with solutions and enacting them. I also think that DCF is a better organization than recent headlines make it out to be, it just lacks the resources to perform the best it can. The message I want to convey is two-fold, and rather hard to condense. Firstly, I’d like to educate about DCF’s functioning. I don’t really have an intended “message” about DCF, I just want to educate others. Secondly, I’d like to tell the public “Children in foster care are struggling with x, y, and z, here’s how x, y, and z can be solved, and here’s how those solutions can be carried out by people like you.” 

I have plenty more research to do before the project is done, but I think these goals are feasible. I can’t wait to see what I’ll be able to accomplish with my group by the time May rolls around!

Alex-Reflection on the Learning Process

          There is truly no way to compare the styles of learning found in your traditional high-school setting and those found here in WTS. Passive vs. active learning, group vs. solo environments, heavy guidance vs. initiative and personal drive, these two types of learning are such polar opposites that it is hard for me, a person who has only learned in said traditional school setting to even think of this program as school, it is such a foreign experience that it does not compute. This new system is something that depending on the student may work or fail, but it is something that everyone should experience.
          The benefits of this system to a new student such as myself are clear cut from the start. We have the independence to pursue our interests in the fashion of our choice and to do so on a timeline that we ourselves create. It also teaches life skills that one would not other learn otherwise. In our school every english class is the same, you memorize vocab, you read books and have tests on what you learned, you write the same essays over and over again and while the words change, in the end the sentiment and the learning is nothing different year after year. This is not the fault of the teachers, it is just how the system works but here we are completing interviews, doing research, making videos, making a difference. This class is something different and it is braking the mold. The drawbacks of the class are more subtle and may be more subjective to the individual but to me they are as follows. The lack of daily updates as to what is happening leads to my forgetting what needs to be done as classes with whom I interact with daily out compete WTS for my attention, and reaching out to and meeting up with high powered people with whom I need to interview is frankly a little terrifying. The last be issue to me is that I work best when I can discuss things heavily with people face to face. I am not terribly eloquent in virtual conversations but being able to sit and work on things with someone helps me hugely and this leads to an issue as I am far removed from the rest of my group. I can only hope that I can learn from this in the future.
          As I touched on in the last paragraph I have discovered that I really need face to face interactions with my peers to do work, or at least someone who knows the subject to be a sounding board fro my ideas. Without this I can begin to tailspin and get out of control in my work. Another thing I have found is that I am excellent at research, diving deep into a topic and finding key data, but I am less than stellar at reaching out to people and completing interviews. In terms of how I can apply this to my work for the remainder of the class I can think of no other option other than to "suck it up buttercup." These are not issues that can truly be solved, but simply something that must be dealt with and so be it.
          In the future I will try harder to "keep my eye on the ball" as it were and focus down, and hopefully bang out a few interviews! I think in the future I will also work a little better on keeping track of time, as demonstrated by this blog post I rather messed up on that and let the Christmas break catch me off guard, and oh boy did that end up badly. So from now on I am going to check the dates of important events in advance and make sure that if there are any conflicts that I do my post early instead of letting it catch me off guards end end up late.

Until Next Time!!!

Adrienne-Reflecting on the Process

                My experience with What’s the Story has been vastly different from my typical classroom experience.  In the classroom, students are passive and have no need for personal drive. With this project, initiative is the key; without personal interest, nothing in one’s project is accomplished.

This course is better than traditional learning in some ways. It allows students to pursue their own interests and create their own persuasive pieces in the form of videos. Students can work independently and then come together to combine their work into cohesive, well-rounded pieces, allowing both individual work and group collaboration. Work schedules are entirely up to the individual, which helps to teach self-discipline and focus.

In contrast with these positive aspects, some students may struggle with the skills so much that their project is not up to their personal standards. While this is not a problem for me, I once forgot about a blog post until Sunday evening, when it required me to converse with a few people and combine those conversations and analyze them. Because of this, I spent the next week preparing for both the late post and the one for the following weekend. This self-directed component, while appealing, has shown to lead to forgetfulness on my part. Those who have trouble with shyness and professionalism may have difficulty conducting interviews or even arranging them. The practice this project provides on that front may help reduce those issues, though. I know that I am often shy, and I was concerned about that aspect of the project from the very beginning.  However, the two interviews I’ve conducted so far have proven that worry mostly unfounded; I feel relatively confident that the interviews went well.

Through this project, I’ve learned that I’m able to take initiative and arrange interviews. However, since this project is only half-done I know I still have plenty to learn about myself.  I’ll try going into further interviews with a bit more confidence. Thankfully I’ve become more adept at remembering my blog deadlines, so I don’t think that that’s a problem I need to be overly concerned about. But I remember during the meet-up in Starksboro I had trouble being patient with the unexpected collaboration. Whether my impatience was due to fatigue or my introverted nature, I know I need to be more patient in next month’s meet-up.

Continuing through this project, I plan to conduct more interviews. In the following meet-ups, I’ll need to be more relaxed and patient with my group members. Other than that issue, I think the remainder of my project will be successful. I’m looking forward to the next meet-up and seeing what my other group members have accomplished!

Marianna-Reflection on the learning process

    This course is very different from any of the other ones that I have taken, either online, self taught or at the high school, I have always had someone there to check in more regularly than this class can provide.  Even with people watching over my shoulder, I have become a very independent learner, so the larger teamwork aspect of this class, while something that I do have some experience with, took some getting used to.  I think that this is very good for me, I have advanced in many skills that might not have been my strongest points.  One of the biggest differences is the notifications just a few days before the assignments are due.  This has made it difficult for me to get them done on time, but I think that I have coped fairly well.
    I think that some of the benefits of this kind of course are getting to learn how to work with a group that does not see each other very regularly. Also working with the deadlines and working out your own interviews and meeting times can be great practice for the real world. You just don't get that kind of experience in regular school. The drawbacks for me are not being able to have regular updates on my progress and grades.  This usually helps me to know when I need to step up my work, and with this class I do not have that ability.
    I already had an idea of how my learning style works.  However this class has solidified that my brain needs to see and hear things in order to remember them.  Another thing that was brought more into the light was that without lists and deadlines I get so off track that it gets very difficult to catch up with my school work or personal life.
    I think that I will apply what I have learned about myself and learning in the form of lists and post-it notes.  In order to stay with the class for the rest of the time,  I will really have to apply myself and start making more deadlines.  I will also have to put myself out there in my group more.  
    In order to keep on track with the rest of the class I will have to continue to make lists of what needs to happen, and I will try my hardest to add the deadline component to my work.  Among the different things that I will have to do differently, I will have to try and stay in contact with the other people in my group more efficiently than I have been.

Lydia Charbonneau- Reflection on Learning Process

Hello to my lovely blog readers! I'm surely enjoying this holiday break, what about you guys? 

I really enjoy this type of learning. In my school we are forced to do what the teachers have assigned, whether we like it or not. But in What’s the Story? there's a little more freedom. And I think that's where kids would benefit from. At my school kids have little freedom. That's what makes it so hard to learn. Especially if a kid doesn't enjoy the subject being forced upon them. Kids learn different ways. There is no “normal” way of understanding, they all are different. I know this because for me certain subjects are harder than others for me to grasp. Like math for an instance. But that's why I like this way of teaching better. The teachers and helpers at What's the Story really want to help you and take your time understanding. At my school it's a little harder with 24 kids each period, twice a day. And that's another benefit. Since there aren't a lot of students in What's the Story, all individuals can receive the time and help that they need in order to understand better. For example in the beginning Lauren, Colleen, Bob, and just about everyone wanted to help me understand better since I was the youngest. And that really helped me a lot because I didn't feel excluded from the older kids. So thank you all for doing that for me. ❤️  But believe it or not, there are some drawbacks that could occur with this type of learning. When kids are given too much freedom they might abuse it. And this could very well happen in What's the Story. For example, we have two weeks to complete a blog post, that's a lot of time to write 400-500 words. And that leaves a lot of open room for errors. But at my school we have a given date. No what if’s, ands, or buts about it. Honestly, that's really the only drawback I can think about. 

I have grown a lot with What's the Story.  And I'm not just talking about height (because I haven't grown at all) I'm talking about writing. Ever since I began What's the Story I have seen writing and everything in a different sense. For example, when we get the constructive criticism after writing these posts, I don't only try to apply them to just next week's post, I try to apply it to my school work. And this experience has helped discover who I really am as a learner. I am someone who has different strengths and weaknesses. Writing I like to think is a strength (I could be wrong) and math is a weakness. But I am also someone who likes to go fast. I don't enjoy reading directions. And when I go fast I don't always really grasp what I need to grasp, and this is why I have trouble understanding things. That's who I am as a learner. And with knowing these things about myself as a learner, I want to try to really slow down and take my time when I'm reading something or writing. I think that I will not only use these things that I have learned about myself as a learner, in the rest of this course but I will also use it in the classroom. 

I really want to succeed. Not just because everyone says I need to but because I want to. I want to get into a good college. I want to get a good job. I want a successful life. And in order to do so I need to change do things and continue to do some things. I am really going to try harder to slow down and take my time. Not just rush through everything. I also am going to try to really pay attention. Sometimes when someone is talking about something that might not be really interesting to me, I will just space out and think about something else. But I am going to really try hard to not do that. But on a positive note, I think that there are some things that I do well that I need to just continue doing. For one, I am good at just talking. And I do it a lot. That's what makes it easier for me to have a casual and informal conversation on and off the paper. Not to toot my own horn, but I think also am very good at just answering questions. For some people it's hard to really understand the question and develop an answer to it. But for me it's really easy and I can answer in all sorts of ways. I can answer in a one page essay or one sentence. And I think that if I change those few things and continue with those few things, I will become extremely better! 

Have a great rest of you're break guys! And Happy New Year!!!!!!

Post 12-13-15

While reading Michael Moore’s 13 rules for making documentary films I learned a lot.I will use all of this while creating my movie but I want to take this time to share only some. I found the most important one to me was to make it funny. I can relate to this because I know that I personally like my funnier teachers better than serious ones. When they add a joke or a hint of sarcasm here and there I automatically like the class and the teacher better. But it’s important to know what sort of things you can’t make funny. You can’t be talking about rape or murder and make a stupid Jeffrey Dahmer joke, it’s just not right. There are also things you can make funny, like the 2016 presidential race. There’s Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders, and Hillary Clinton. What's not funny about that? Another tip I found to be really important is that short is better. People don’t want to be listening/watching something for 8 hours.(unless it’s Star Wars) Try to pack all of your information in a small time slot. You don’t want to bore your audience by having them watch for a long time. You know that saying “short is sweet but long isn't a treat”. Next tip that I found to be important is show why people aren’t talking about the subject. Why it’s not in the media, why it’s not being talked about. I didn’t really think about this tip until I really realized what it was saying. It is basically saying “why are people afraid to bring it up”. And as I get older I start to realize that there is a lot of things out there that people neglect to talk about. They keep it a secret or leave out the details. And your viewers want to know why. In social media all you hear about is celebrities and other public features. No one talks about things that might be important to your audience. It’s like when there’s a car accident the news they don't give every detail. Final tip that I thought was really important was exactly what I have been doing this whole blog post. Make it personal. Don’t make it all about you but tie some stuff back to yourself. This way the audience will try to relate to your topic. The more the audience can relate, the more they understand and enjoy the film. I really enjoyed reading this article. I learned a lot from it.

Moore, Michael. "Michael Moore's 13 Rules for Making Documentary Films." Indiewire. Michael Moore, 10 Sept. 2014. Web. 13 Dec. 2015.

I think that there could be a few different messages for our story but I think that only one really makes sense and stands out. I think that the message/ story of the DCF project would be that it’s an actual problem. And make people aware of these problems within the foster care system. On our last visit Alex brought up a good point while checking out the Vermont DCF website. Alex noticed and brought up that there may be a reason why there was no place to give or get contact information. I found that to be interesting and weird at the same time. We all came to the conclusion of “maybe they don’t want us knowing or contacting them”. And that made me think that maybe they are hiding something. Maybe they aren’t giving us all the details. Another reason why I think we should have our message be that it’s an actual problem is because people don’t talk about it nor know about it. I started to talk to my friends and some high school friends and they had no idea about the DCF system and that there was a problem. Clearly teens and kids don’t even know what DCF is and that there is even a problem. Last reason why I think our message/story should be that it’s an actual problem is because if people don’t know or believe that it’s a problem then there is no way to solve it. You can’t solve something without help. And if people don’t know its a problem then they aren’t going to help. That’s why I think our message/story should be that it is an actual problem.

Alex-Filming Techniques & Aesthetics; Citing Evidence/Thesis

This speaks to the quality of the teaching we have had here in this program, but in watching Vimeo's “10 Steps for Shooting Your First DIY Interview,” in realized that we had already learned everything they were saying! The only real piece I got out of that video was that it is a good idea to "ask your subject if there is anything they would like to add" at the end of the interview. This makes a ton of sense to me, as the interviewee will at this point know what types of information you are angling for and will doubtlessly have a few pieces of information that you had no idea ever existed and that would be valuable towards your project. I found Michael Moore's article  well... a bit crass but nevertheless extremely informative. One of the most intriguing and helpful pieces in his article was how to use your viewers emotion to your advantage. Emotions play a huge role in your documentary, in his words, “They don't care whether you make them cry, whether you make them laugh, whether you even challenge them to think -- but damn it, they don't want to be lectured, they don't want to see our invisible wagging finger popping out of the screen. They want to be entertained.” You could be making groundbreaking revelations, but if they come through dry as bones they will never matter to the audience. Emotions directly correlate to memory, that's reason you can always remember those embarrassing moments, those explosive fights, those moments of hilarity, it’s because emotion will always have a place in your long term memory. With thin knowledge in hand you can create a story that encapture the viewers. While Michael Emphasizes the value of laughter, it is not appropriate for this subject, but another emotion he mentioned is, anger. Anger is never forgotten, anger spurs action. “Depressed is a passive emotion. Anger is active. Anger will mean that maybe 5 percent, 10 percent of that audience will get up and say, "I gotta do something. I'm going to tell others about this. I'm going to go look up more about this on the Internet. I'm gonna join a group and fight this!" This subject is perfect to trigger anger in others, humans are hardwired to care about the young and so to hear the shocking issues plaguing the children in our story will bring up the anger and therefore cause others to take action. As a parting thought, “take the audience someplace they haven't been. Show them something they've never seen.” This issue is mentioned again and again on the radio and TV, but you know what? they are beating the same ideas to death, if we bring new and unheard information to the eyes of the viewers, we will be able to truly capture their attention.

With my interests spanning the entirety of this subject, I am open to looking into any/all of the stories, but seeing as two on my compatriots are angling towards the stories of the foster families and the children in the system, I would like to look more at the system itself, how it functions, and the stories of the caseworkers. As Adrienne said in her recent blog post,  “At one point, Vermont’s legislature voted to cut the budget of the DCF, which forced them to cut down their staff. This included social workers, so the cases of those who left the Department were distributed to other social workers. Outside of the DCF, Vermont’s opiate crisis was boosting the number of children removed from their parent’s custody. This put strain on the social workers, who already had too many caseloads.” It is things like this I would like to focus on, the dangers of the job, the stress and the fear for safety. With this in mind, I am very interested to hear the answers Adrienne gets from her interview with St. Albans DCF Director. We all have been contributing potential interview questions on a group email so that everything we want answers on is asked in this interview, and I cannot wait to we the responses.

Moore, Michael. "Michael Moore's 13 Rules for Making Documentary Films." Michael Moore's 13 Rules for Making Documentary Films. Indiewire, 10 Sept. 2014. Web. 13 Dec. 2015.

Hayek, Daniel. "10 Steps to Shooting Your First DIY Interview." Vimeo. Vimeo, 2013. Web. 13 Dec. 2015. <https://vimeo.com/64729691>.

Marianna-Filming Techniques & Aesthetics; Citing Evidence/Thesis

         For this weeks post, I watched most of the footage that was provided for us, as well as read the other articles.  My favorite one was “Michael Moore’s 13 Rules for Making Documentary Films.” .  It highlighted a lot of things that I had not really thought about before.  Not having watched a lot of documentarys, it was very interesting to learn about what he thought about how they should be made.  After reading this article I watched the “10 Steps for Shooting Your First DIY Interview."What really made this great for me is that I could see quite a few of the points that Michael Moore brought up in his article in this short little instruction video.
       In this paragraph I will review  “Michael Moore’s 13 Rules for Making Documentary Films.”   This article was my personal favorite to read.
        One of the things that he talked about that I found most interesting was the use of humor in documentarys.  This was never something that I had ever considered; when I thought of documentarys I thought of a long, boring lecture, there was never any humor involved in these films.
       Thinking back on the videos that were provided, humor played a huge role in these.  Without it, they would have been dull and I would most likely not be writing about them.  And I do understand that sometimes there needs to be a more serious aspect to these topics, it is wonderful to have a laugh at them sometimes.
                         “10 Steps for Shooting Your First DIY Interview” Vimeo Video School.
                                      “Video 101: Shooting Basics” Vimeo Video School.
                     “Michael Moore’s 13 Rules for Making Documentary Films.” Indiewire.com.

         The story that I would like to pursue more is foster parents and foster kids experiences with the foster system.  So far I have only interviewed two people with very different perspectives on this topic.  The first person I had an interview with had experience with the system that she described as not very positive.  However, she was an older lady, and was telling me about experiences that happened up to 40 years ago.  The other lady that I spoke with is a very recent foster and adoptive parent and she says that she has had nothing but positive experiences with them.  Now, these two could not currently have any more different stories.  However, I would like to see a pattern emerge within the story that we are going to be telling about how the foster system has evolved over the years and how it has advanced to what it is today.  I also hope to talk to some social workers who might be able to tell me about what they would still like to see changed with how the process works.
         While this is a side of the story that I would like to do more with, there are many other different paths that this could take that would be fasinating to go down.

Adrienne-Filming Techniques & Aesthetics; Citing Evidence/Thesis

                Regarding Boyechko’s advice on shooting B-roll footage, I found some of it difficult to understand due to lingo. Phrases like “slider shots,” “monopod,” and “white balance” make very little sense to me. Despite this, the article gave me ideas for potential B-roll shots like entrances, buildings, and interviewee’s arrivals. I’m not sure if I should try to get any footage during my interview on Monday because I’ll only have my shoddy iPod camera, but I might make a few attempts.

                I found Michael Moore’s tenets for documentaries to be interesting, especially his advice to use humor. I don’t think I’ll be able to incorporate humor into the project, but I think a more light-hearted tone would come across better. I also found his advice on audience reaction to be particularly poignant: “Depressed is a passive emotion. Anger is active. Anger will mean that maybe 5 percent, 10 percent of that audience will get up and say, "I gotta do something. I'm going to tell others about this. I'm going to go look up more about this on the Internet. I'm gonna join a group and fight this!" To evoke this sort of reaction, I’ll need to present my audience with evidence that change is needed, preferably emotionally-charged evidence, and then a set of individually feasible solutions. I will need to give my audience their own way to “do something.” Moore also warns against assuming your audience is completely ignorant about your topic. This would be particularly obnoxious for me to do, because I only discovered the issue of the DCF through my local news. It’s guaranteed that many others saw the same broadcast or a similar one. While of course it’s important to introduce the topic with clarity, I’ll need to avoid being heavy-handed with my explanations.

Boyechko, Slavik. "How To Shoot B-Roll." Transom. Transom, 29 Jan. 2014. Web. 12 Dec. 2015.

Moore, Michael. "Michael Moore's 13 Rules for Making Documentary Films." Michael Moore's 13 Rules for Making Documentary Films. Indiewire, 10 Sept. 2014. Web. 12 Dec. 2015.

                There are a few stories I’d like to tell and learn about: I’d like to tell the story of what life can be like in foster care, good and bad, the story of how adopting a child from foster care has affected the lives of parents, and how the DCF has found itself in this crisis. My first interview with my Human Services teacher revealed to me a lot about the DCF’s  recent history. Unfortunately I don’t have my notes from that discussion on hand, but I’ll do my best to recount what I know.

                At one point, Vermont’s legislature voted to cut the budget of the DCF, which forced them to cut down their staff. This included social workers, so the cases of those who left the Department were distributed to other social workers. Outside of the DCF, Vermont’s opiate crisis was boosting the number of children removed from their parent’s custody. This put strain on the social workers, who already had too many caseloads.  

Alex’s blog post from October 11^th cites that the Office of the Child Advocate has conducted research that shows “more than two-thirds of social workers said their job had caused them emotional or mental instability…” It’s clear that social workers operating under such stress cannot do their job as well as they could. To ensure the well-being of Vermont’s children, the conditions under which Vermont’s social workers do their job must change.

Bickart, Alex. "Whats The Story? The Vermont Young People Social Action Team-Alex Bickart." Whats The Story? The Vermont Young People Social Action Team-Alex Bickart. Alex Bickart, 11 Oct. 2015. Web. 12 Dec. 2015.

Wiggin, Sal. Personal interview. 8 Oct. 2015.

Alex Bickart- #2: Interview & Storytelling; Goal Setting

Part 1:  For no particular reason I chose to listen to Brian Reed's presentation on "the craft of storytelling," and boy am I glad I did. This video was as enlightening as it was entertaining and engrossing, though I suppose that if a presentation on how to craft a strong and engaging story wasn't entertaining and engrossing, well it wouldn't be doing its job would it? Anyway, Brian brought to life something that has always been in the back of my head when I write a story or read a book, an unformed thought on what made the story so engaging. With clever anecdotes and fascinating stories from his work with My American Life, he described the four aspects of a quality story, Motion, Reflection, Stakes, and Speaking to Something Larger. Two of the aspects, motion and stakes are designed to keep you hooked. "We are hardwired to tune into motion in a story." Motion in a story tells us that there will be a payoff at a later point, a time when this motion leads to a climatic point, and we cannot help but wonder what that is. The same goes for stakes, "stakes drive a story, they keep you invested. In every book or TV show there is a question driving it forward." These are vital in our production, as there is no point in making project with a poignant and meaningful ending if people get bored and leave before it arrives. While the first two components make for an engaging media product, the second give it depth and purpose. The first is reflection, a.k.a  " the moment we get inside the persons head." This makes the subject of the story a real person, it shows their emotions, it gives us something to relate to and gives us an emotional connection to the story. The last important part is that the story speaks to something larger, that that is speaks to something everyone has experienced, a moral of the story as it were. the first two parts keep the viewer engaged, but its the second two that make it matter to them, its the second two that make people want to make a real change. With such a shocking roller-coaster of a project, we should have no issue keeping the audience engaged, what we need to work on is the connection. The issue with this...issue is that it may be hard to truly relate to it unless you have gone through it yourself. It is the type of long term lasting event that is in its own way unique, and because of this, getting the connection to the audience may be more difficult than it seems.

Part 2: After seeing it in every single one of the newest blog posts, it is ever clearer to me that the media kit and filming interviews is an issue, but we have beat that topic to death, and i think it is time to move on. Something that I saw in Marianna's blog sparked something in me. I saw mention of how we still do not have our personal interests/roles in this project fleshed out, and I came up with a harebrained idea that may or may not be good. With five people in our group compared to the three in most groups, I wondered if it was really a good idea to have five people doing interviews. My thought was that it would be good if we had one person (me...maybe) who was more or a researcher, someone who dug into the cold hard facts online, following leads that way. Someone who compared hard data from state to state, someone who would look at how other countries run their foster systems and how some of their ideas may be used here. Regardless of how many interviews we have, we still need data, and in the process of finding this information, the person would be able to come up with specific and in depth questions for interviews and other members could ask them. This would be helpful because it could make it easier to get the media kits around, as one of the far distant members of the team would not need to find a way to get access to them. The person would still be contributing thoughtful questions to the interview process, just not interviewing themselves. Now this idea may be off the deep end but I would love to see everyone else's thoughts!!!

Alex

Marianna Barrett - #2: Interview & Storytelling; Goal Setting

                   

           For the exploration of a source provided, I chose Brian Reed's video "The Craft of Storytelling."  This was a very interesting video to watch and I think that I learned quite a bit.  He talked about the three things that are essential to a good story, be it a radio show or just a fun story to tell your friends.  These three things are Action, Reflection, and Stakes, without these, a good story becomes nondescript and boring.
           This is some of what I learned from this video.  The first element-Action is the process of the story; it is how the story moves.  The second one- Reflection.  This is where the storyteller can get inside a persons head and really make them care what is going on in the story.  The last one is Stakes.  This is the big question in the story. It is what makes people keep listening to what you are saying.
            I really liked how Brian Reed told us about these elements.  All of the different pieces of shows that he gave us really helped me to understand what he was talking about.  With all of the different points that he made, my favorite was this one about what a story should do- "It should make a larger point about the human experience and about the world"

            My personal goals for the next three weeks are going to be setting up more video interviews with people and figuring out what my next steps should be.  I am having a little bit of trouble contacting people, so far I have only one interview set up and am still not sure if I will be able to video tape it.  However, I do have some sources that should be willing to do so.  For my groups goals, I think that for now we are just focusing on getting footage for our documentary so that we can focus more on other things that need to be done later in the year.
           There are problems that I had that have been figured out though.  One of these was access to the media kit.  Like Alex was talking about in his last post, I was really worried about not having nice enough equipment that I could get from the local high school.  However, I got access to a video camera from the school that should work just fine, if not perfectly.
          I am very excited about how much progress my group is having.  While it might not be as much as we would all like, we are still getting the things that need to be done done.  So while we still have work to do, this should be a very profitable adventure for all of us.

Lydia- "The Life Story Interview"

While I was recovering from eating so much on Turkey Day I read “The Life Story Interview”. I learned a lot from reading this. I learned that interviewing is a lot like writing/reading a novel. Novels have chapters, going from one story to the next. They give details but still leave some things out for the reader's imagination to fill in. They also include the events leading up to the climax.Good and bad events, they don’t just include the positive things they include the negative things too.  So I definitely see the similarities between the two.

I also learned that it is important to focus on the past, present, and the future. To not just dwell in the past, whether it was a good past or not. I found it interesting that while interviewing you should go through the negatives. Like regret, loss, and a challenge that was hard to overcome. I found this to match what we see on tv. Whenever a celebrity gets interviewed they focus mostly on their problems. And after discussing the struggles with their problems they talk about things they had to do to overcome these problems and what the future looks like now that they have overcome it. I found this article to be very informational and helpful. I am glad I read it!

Citation Here:

McAdams, Dan P. "The Life Story Interview :: Foley Center :: Northwestern University." The Life Story Interview :: Foley Center :: Northwestern University. Northwestern University, 2008. Web. 29 Nov. 2015.

Adrienne-Interview & Story-telling Techniques; Goal Setting

                Given the sources available to me, I’ve chosen to look into Dan P. McAdams article on “The Life Story Interview.” While I’m not sure I’ll be looking to record anyone’s life story, a brief skim of the page revealed that some of the sections contain valuable questions I can utilize during my interviews.

                Under Section A, McAdams advises the reader to think of a person’s life as a novel with chapters (McAdams).  If I interview a person who was been in foster care, I could ask them to divide their experience into chapters as well. This could help to divide my videos by subject and theme when I splice together different accounts of similar topics. For example, I could ask three different social workers what their most challenging experiences have been and what has been the most rewarding about their work. Instead of whipping the audience back and forth from question to question, I could put each response to a single question one after another and follow that with a second series of responses. This will combine smaller “chapters” into larger ones.

                This article also lists a series of memories and points in a person’s life I could touch upon, such as high and low points, vivid memories, learning experiences, and turning points (McAdams). Many people are interested in learning about the lives of others and hearing their stories, and combining this sort of information could help me create an engaging piece of media that will also help me to convince my audience. McAdams’ advice on interviews will be very useful for my project.

McAdams, Dan P. "The Life Story Interview." Foley Center for the Study of Lives. School of Education and Social Policy, 2008. Web. 28 Nov. 2015.

                Even before rereading my group members’ blog posts, I know that transferring the media kit from person to person is going to be a challenge. If all five of my group members arrange an interview, that will mean the media kit might transfer hands five times. The five of us don’t live close together at all, and if some of us arrange more than one there might be even more transfers.

                In her last blog post, Marianna mentioned that speaking some people might be difficult because of confidentiality restrictions. I agree that this problem will be difficult to overcome, especially because I’d like to interview minors. However, I think we may be able to supplement our own research with that of others who have looked into this topic in the foster care system in the past. However, Vermont-specific information will probably have to come from us.

                I also like Lydia’s statement that the “first step to fixing a problem is admitting that there is one.” (Charbonneau) Part of my ultimate goal for this project is to raise awareness for this issue and encourage the general population to help resolve it through solutions that my group proposes. With input from experts in the field, I think we might be able to come up with a few actions that the average citizen could feasibly take in order to combat the growing number of Vermont children in the foster care system.

what i think about this topic

 what i learned about the DCF program

The Vermont Department for Children and Families (DCF) provides a large sections of programs and services, including adoption & foster care, child care, child development, child protection, child support disability determination, and 
economic benefits such as 3SquaresVT, fuel assistance, and
Reach Up . there goal is to reduce homelessness, improve 
the safety of families and children, and to provide support to the families and children part of the system and helping it. on the website it says that there vision is for children and families be safe around there staff and help them live up to their potential. well from listening to the news and catching up on the free press for vermont they said that a mother killed a DCf worker and family members for losing custody of her child and putting the child in the system they put the child in the program because they illegitly thought the mom was unstable and needed the daughter to be in safe hands. i know they only did that because the mom had a problem with drugs but to kill family members and a DCF worker is not okay. see the DCF staff want us to trust them and make sure everybody is safe. how are we going to be safe if parents are killing staff to get there child back?. it doesn't work that easy anyways you can't just go killing people, get your child back and think it's okay well it's not. i really want to help out and make sure everybody is satisfied with this program and make sure everybody is safe and secure. while i'm working with this program i think it's good to find the pro's and cons and work out the cons so we only have pro's with this system.