Our first trip to West Adams was productive, although it turned out differently that we expected. Mario is very welcoming and happy to accommodate whatever we plan to do for our documentary. Because his class schedule got rearranged, he was not meeting with students when we arrived. It worked out really well because we got to sit down with him for an hour and talk about the history of the school and what we plan to do.
Mario warned us to be careful with topics like gangs, which can pigeonhole us into an area that does not encompass the student’s lives and the experiences they have at West Adams. We decided that we will start our first meeting with the students – juniors at West Adams – by asking several specific questions in order to see what directions we can take our film. We’re hoping that the students want to be involved in the filming process. As suggested in class, we want to make sure that the students are able to take control of the filming and make a documentary that they can be proud of.
Because we planned to primarily focus on the students, we didn’t expect to learn so much about the history of West Adams. Only four years old, the high school began as a hybrid of LAUSD and it’s own governing board. Because the board makes many of the decisions for the school, West Adams has special opportunities that other schools in the district don’t have. They also have a partnership with Mentor LA that provides students with exciting experiences like bringing a famous chef to the school to work in their culinary arts classes.
Our documentary will very possibly cover the aspect of overcrowding at West Adams. The administration has had to cap the number of students and West Adams is not able to take students for next year’s freshman class. The students who are on the waiting list for West Adams are bused to other schools like Venice High School.
There is also a high turnover rate with teachers. Out of 150 current teachers, only 10 were part of the group that founded West Adams. Because West Adams lacks the space to give each teacher his or her own classroom, they share classrooms and some teachers rotate to as many as four classrooms in one day.
Between West Adams history, its teachers and what I’m sure we’ll learn from its students, we are excited about the many directions we can take our documentary. I can’t wait to meet the students next week.
1 comment:
Hi Stephanie: LOVE these ideas! Talk about the potential for activism--overcrowding has a lot of potential, and I think there was a recent lawsuit over teacher turnover since with the budget cuts many new teachers were laid off, and since new teachers tend to be in inner-city communities, these communities were much more adversely affected.
Remember that you can check out our flip cameras to give to the students (making sure obviously that the students are accountable for the camera) to have them take more control of the process.
A great start!
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