My PLP class has been working on a unit about podcasts, specifically story telling ones. For the end of this unit, we had an exhibition where all of the grades in the PLP programs could show some of their work. Although the main purpose of this exhibition was to show our projects to other people, my grade had a different task.

As a unique way of ending our unit, my grade was told that we had to interview three strangers at the exhibition. We had already completed two podcasts; one with a grade 12 student and one with a family member. Now that I had experience with different podcasts and stories, I felt confident with the new assignment.

The first thing that we did was get into groups that we would work with to create a room that our interviewees would feel comfortable in. My partner was Hannah, and we starting brainstorming ideas right away. What makes someone comfortable and willing to share personal stories? Food! I made about two dozen chocolate chip cookies and Hannah brought in some pretzels and iced tea powder so that we could have drinks too. We were very lucky to be given the home ec foods room because we had unlimited cutlery, dishes, and fridges that we could borrow.

Now that the food was taken care of, we needed places for people to sit in so that they were relaxed. We borrowed a couch from the choir room for our guests to sit on, and I brought a blanket to cover it. Now for one of the most important parts of setting up, the lighting. The lights in my school are very bright and harsh, not the calm lights that we needed to set the mood. We borrowed stage lights from the drama room and lamps from other rooms to get the right brightness.

After all of our hard work, our room felt very comfortable and calm.

Once the setting up portion of the night was over, all of the classes got together for a pizza dinner in the cafeteria. After that, it was time for final touches on our rooms and a group photo before people were let into the building.

The exhibition had finally started!

I was really interested in finding out personal stories from people because those are the most interesting and relatable topics to talk about. I also wanted to give myself a challenge and interview a couple so that I could have different experiences. I had the pleasure of interviewing an elderly couple who shared a little bit about their travelling experiences with me. Unfortunately, that interview had too much background noise so it wasn’t usable, but thankfully I had two other interviews to choose from.

My second choice was an interview with the band teacher from my school, Mr. Barnes. This interview was really enjoyable for me because I got to find out a little bit more about my teacher’s life. I asked about his experiences teaching at other schools, and found a really interesting story about a musical he conducted.

Unfortunately, this podcast also has background noise because of the environment I was recording in. One thing I have defiantly learned from this expirience is that my class should have made the waiting area further away from the recording rooms. This would have minimized the background noise and would have made it easier to considerate. I’m glad that I’ve had an experience like this because now I know what kinds of working conditions I need before I hit the record button.

Bibliography:

“THE Podcast: Steven Knapp Interview.” Times Higher Education (THE), 16 Feb. 2017, www.timeshighereducation.com/comment/podcast-steven-knapp-interview.

“Exhibition.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 10 Jan. 2018, en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exhibition.