Fundamentals of Interactive Journalism

Sierra is a senior high in a classroom with thirty-five other students. She agrees that it’s crowded, but what can you do? There’s no room. So, pre-adolescents and young adults applying to college cram together in one room, studying different subject, with one teacher.

Listen to Sierra here.

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In Tompkins Square Park, Suzanne Tisman was with her small son. She said that it was not a surprise that New York City schools are crowded. Also not a surprise is the high turnover of our childrens’ teachers.

Susan Tisman looks towards a better day.

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Earlier this week, lower Manhattan city officials put the tackling of monster class sizes high on their fall agendas. Assemblywoman Deborah J. Glick warned that unless the Department of Education creates a comprehensive plan to address sprawling classrooms, “class size will remain too large and our students’ education will remain compromised. Elizabeth Wright, a new mother, is already concerned about the pre-kindergarten waiting lists.

Wright feels the pinch.

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Breena Bishop used to teach art in school so she has experienced the pressures of teaching first hand, especially if classrooms are bursting at the seems.
Bishop, It’s insane.

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by H’Rina DeTroy

“Something sour makes my day a little sweeter,” said Rebecca Masback, while enjoying Pickle Day in the Lower East Side. Unlike last year, Masback and friends Jaimi English and Lenora Ditzler couldn’t stay away from the portly barrels of pickles that lined Orchard street. “We came two years ago but not last year–regrettably.”

Rebecca Masbeck and Jaime English show off coveted jars of kimchi and pickled herring. Yum!

Long queues of fans waited their turn to toothpick and taste a morsel for free. A dollar bought a pickle on a stick. These were a hit, apparently.

Katie Besch-Hart and Alice Xie like pickles a lot.

A pickle is usually a cucumber soaked in vinegar and spices and left to slightly ferment in an airtight container. But, cukes weren’t the only members of the vegetable kingdom bathing in brine. Beets, okra, olives, carrots were a few of the many tossed into the mix.

At some point, we’re all in a pickle.

Pickles and politics also mix. Check out Rick's Picks.