Bailey MeCey

As the course moves along, this week’s goal was to continue with the next step of production. The goal for the production portion of the project is to collect the interviews, write the blogs, and collect any necessary visual media to help tell the story.

Before I continue, I wanted to take a moment to look back on the previous week and explain the process for reaching out to the schools. I am fortunate enough to have a variety of schools near me that employ a non-traditional model. After researching schools, I contacted four schools, two Montessori and two Waldorf. These schools are highly rated and employ the models I hope to cover. I work at a school that uses the ERP model, so I contacted those I hope to interview. The schools that I heard back from were Elm City Montessori School and Housatonic Valley Waldorf School.

These schools are either in the greater New Haven area or, in the case of New Beginnings Family Academy, further down the coast in Bridgeport. For Elm City Montessori School, I spoke with the school principal and the instructional coach. For Housatonic Valley Waldorf School, I talked with a teacher who has taught grades 1-8. Lastly, I spoke with the lead social worker at New Beginnings Family Academy that manages the ERP model.

While I would have loved to hear back from more, I’m happy with the collection of schools and staff I have. There is a good variety in the staff, from the teacher, instructional coach, and lead social worker. I hope they will each provide their background and opinion on the project. I sent each of them the questions, with some slight variety given the school. I wanted the questions not to feel too different, so they all feel like part of a collection. The questions cover their experiences with the respective model, why they think it addresses the needs of students today and their opinion on the state of the traditional educational model.

At the moment, I’m still waiting to hear back with answers for the interviews, but I hope to have them before the Thanksgiving break. That will give me enough time to take their replies and write the blogs. I began writing the first draft of the Montessori blog, bringing in my research to expand on the model’s background. It was difficult not having the interview answers to go off of, but it’s heading in the right direction.

As I waited to hear back on the interviews, I explored how I wanted to do the visuals for the project. After speaking to both Elm City Montessori School and Housatonic Valley Waldorf School, they said I could come to take photos. Looking ahead, I plan to schedule with them for the week of November 29 to go in to take pictures. Given COVID is still an issue in schools, I plan to only be in the classroom for a few minutes. For New Beginnings Family Academy, the lead social worker is hosting an ERP workshop in class this week so that I can get photos of her.

With the plan for the photos set, I took time to research the best options for creating web graphics. After reading How To Create Cool Graphics For Your Website, Melissa Love highlights how graphic design should reinforce “your brand and showcase you and your work stylishly and professionally.” I wanted the focus of my graphics to be sleek and straightforward. While the pictures will have a sleek style, I also wanted to incorporate some color. After researching methods for using color, I had the idea of having each educational model have its color. The color helps differentiate each piece of content and reinforces the different aspects of the models.

In Psychology of color for your brand, the article explains color psychology and how colors help reinforce your brand. For each model, they will have a color to emphasize their model’s goals. For Elm City Montessori School, I selected a green to highlight freshness and positivity. For Housatonic Valley Waldorf School, I used a deep purple to connect with creativity and spirituality. For New Beginnings Family Academy, I selected a blue to highlight calmness and trust.

Also, to connect the color with other aspects of the project, I created a frame for photos using color. I plan to edit the photos and have them in the frames to highlight the color. The graphics help to make the project feel more professional and cohesive.

With the interview answers coming in soon, I hope to use my time off for Thanksgiving to do some deep work and write more blogs.