Field Notes 5

For this week’s field work I decided to begin my observations in the morning to hopefully get more informed as to what happens before the school day and if t is similar to what happens between cases during the school day. To accomplish this I began my observations at 8:45 on the morning of October third and continued them until 10:50. This would hopefully allow me to get a better idea of the patterns that take place during the early morning, and if they are at all similar to the patterns that take place in the afternoon.

My observations began fifteen minutes before the start of the school day. At this time the majority of students had not yet began to arrive, however there were still several individuals and pairs of students at the tables under the awnings and in the cafeteria, and one larger group of four students (The Cabinets) at one table under the awnings. My observations started at a very good time as the first bus arrived shortly after I began. This bus was followed relatively quickly by three more busses which unloaded a large amount of students, similar to the amount of students already at the school, each. Another bus full of students arrived about ten minutes after the first series of busses bringing the total amount of busses to five. This bus also unloaded a similar amount of students as the last busses.

Evan thought the busses dropped off many students there were still a large amount of students that were either driven or drove themselves. At the beginning of my observations the parking lot was just under half full. The part of the lot further from the entrance was fuller than that which was closer to the entrance and the area where most of the students gathered. The first large influx of cars began to arrive at a similar time to the busses. Most of the cars that first began to arrive came to drop off students that could not drive themselves, however a few cars did begin to arrive and park in the parking lot.  Most of the cars that arrived to drop off students came into the parking lot and dropped of students near the front office. This observation struck me as strange given that there is a designated drop off lane that comes off of the street and close to the buildings. The first large arrival of cars ended about ten minutes before the beginning of the school day but cars still continued to come in until the beginning of the day at 9:00, with another smaller wave of cars arriving within five minutes of the school day. The majority of cars that drove to the school and parked came approximately ten minutes before the beginning of the day and the back part of the parking lot filled before the front portion as had been previously noted to be a pattern earlier.

Despite being focused on one small aspect of the daily happenings at my field location much information was gained about the way student’s park and the way this relates to the behavior patterns the student engage in during other times of the day.