Field notes

Notes:

Today, since it is raining, recess is inside. About half of the class is making airplanes out of legos, while others are playing with playdough or magnetic blocks. I sat down at a table with playdough and started rolling it into balls to build a snowman. Kevin and Robby were making balls and flat discs, and we talked about what foods we like and what we don’t like. They asked me to come play with blocks with them, and we went to build a castle out of blocks. 

Notes:

Three years in the education program and I’m still not really sure how to do field notes. I’m not a big fan of the column format, either. Anyway, February 26 was my first day of my placement at the Center for Creative Works. Very easy to get to, but the places where the sidewalks disappear into car dealership parking lots were slightly terrifying to deal with. But I found the place all right. I signed in, gave my papers to the placement coordinator, and conveniently at that moment the sculpture instructor came upstairs to pick up a box of paints. I introduced myself and followed him downstairs. Immediately, I was surrounded by a lot of people introducing themselves and wanting to shake my hand. I had remembered this from my orientation last week as well.

This week was the first one I spent at the center with the participants, having spent the past three weeks in the labs at Haverford making art with bacteria. We began by checking out the wood shop again, and participants guided us around the space to—with the help of the woodshop teacher, Sarah*—demonstrate all of the different tools available to us. Many of these were basic saws or sanders that she had adapted to make them more generally accessible (for instance, a sander that would have originally required a lot of dexterous finger movements was now attached to a stationary bike. Participants could work together to sand a piece of wood, with one pedaling the bike, and another holding the wood still against the moving sander).