Each week we have to write a blog post about what we learned.

Here are two of my blog posts from this half of the semester:

15 Minute Observation

 For this blog I had to observe a place that wasn't my site so I can practice taking notes. So I chose to observe my work for 15 minutes during my break. The first 5 minutes every worker was pretty sad looking because my manager was still their telling them to do meaningless things just to keep them busy. But finally she left and everyones mood seemed to turn from angry and sad to happy and relieved. Everyone clearly does not like the manager. For the rest of my break I observed all the employees laughing with each other as well as the customers going through line. The mood completely changed just because one person left.  My work becomes a completely different place when the managers leave. As far as the background to the store and the background its located in Taunton and is the original store of the Trucchis chain. I mostly observed the two employees outside who were on carriage detail. They goofed off a lot but still did their job and helped people with their groceries and brought the carriages back into the store. Then some lady came out yelling at her children because they were running around in the parking lot and I myself couldn't help but laugh. Working in a grocery store you see parents and children all the time and this was no different. Her parenting skills weren't the best I've seen. Children tend not to respond well to you swearing at them. After watching the parking lot for a while I came inside to go clock back in and go to work.  I wrote all of my notes in my phone so they thought I was texting and told me to put my phone away.

Looking at what I noticed during this fifteen minute interval was really interesting. I never usually pay attention to what goes on at my work because I'm usually just keeping the time in my head until I can leave. But by doing this it really helped me see what I should be looking for during this project. Not only the scenery but the people's interactions as well. I am looking forward to see what goes on at my actual observation site and this helped me.

Slide, Roll, Slam!

 One of this weeks readings was a paper written by my professor back when she did the very same project im doing now. She went into great detail of what the bowling alley looked like and really gave me a sense that I was there. Going into this much detail really helped me to know what she was talking about. This really will help me to prepare for what I should look for when I observe my location.      The bowling alley she described in this paper is very similar to the one in the city I live in.  Its kind of run down and none of the seats match, but the lanes are smooth shiny and are the only thing your eyes are drawn to. This was a good paper and served its purpose.