RLA Podcast: Dress Codes

Reflection:
We just finished up the journalism unit, which was unique in comparison to others, because we had a lot more freedom, which seldom happens. It was fun getting to meet a real journalist and try it out on our own, with interviews and a podcast at the end.
I am most proud of the research that I did on my topic, including the interviews. I feel that I asked many follow up questions and found good information that I could use in my podcast. I also was able to find reliable sources to draw statistics from. My interviews let me learn about SAS as well, because Mrs. Mehrbach told me a few things about uniforms that I was surprised to hear.
One of the biggest challenges I had was finding a good topic, because I not only wanted something that had an impact on me/SAS, but also needed something researchable. The first few topics I tried out had few good sources in all of the databases I tried, so I eventually settled with uniforms. Also, Garageband was hard for me to use, because I'm not that tech savvy.
I wish I had more time to find the perfect topic, as even though we had a lot of time to find it, uniforms don't perfectly fit with me. In addition to that, some more time to fine-tune the podcast itself may have brought it to the next level. I could have added more statistics and less commentary.
Some unintended learning I had was about how the internet isn't the best place to find sources; there are many other ways to research effectively.
The interviews I conducted went well in my opinion, as I got answers that I wanted and learned a lot about my interviewees. I built rapport by asking questions that related more to them, so that they could open up a little and tried be polite. For example, with Mrs. Mehrbach, I did not say anything against the school, and showed signals that I was listening. With my interview of Lilly, I said, "I know you're good at playing rugby, and you mentioned that you feel the dress code stops you from expressing yourself because you can't wear the sporty tank tops that you like to school." and she replied, "Thanks. And yeah, because, again, guys and wear those things to school but girls are dress coded, and I don't think that's fair. It's not like girls don't play sports as well; it's just one of those things that we should be allowed to show." I build rapport by complimenting her.
Like my above example, I listened carefully to the little details and almost mirrored back what she said to have her elaborate a bit. I asked a a few unscripted follow-up questions as well to clarify, such as (to Mrs. Mehrbach), "Have you ever worked at a non-uniform school?"
Something else I would like to share is that I enjoyed this unit because of the new things I learned about the SAS community. I liked using interviews because they were more direct and credible pieces of evidence that made the podcast more interesting.

My podcast rubric (can help answer question 6)