Regarding field notes:

Hello all,
  After combing through the first couple rounds of field notes, I identified many commonalities regarding areas for improvement. As a result, I wrote, basically, the same thing on nearly all of the field notes that I read. I am pasting the generic comment below; it encapsulates my feeling regarding the direction of each of your field notes. Please let me know if you would like more individualized feedback; (though, I must warn it will not be dissimilar to what I have pasted below):

Be as descriptive as possible: it will help you later as you construct your case study. You want to really paint a picture, i.e., really place the reader within the mise-en-scene, so to speak. For example, a student mentioned nearby “tattered” apartment buildings: my advice is instead relying on the word tattered to do all of the work, describe what it is that qualifies these particular apartments as tattered. This is what I mean when I say be as descriptive as possible.

All in all, these are good starts; that is to say, continue to construct field notes in this manner, with a little more detail, and you will be fine. Just make sure that there is an overall coherence to what it is that you write; it will make it easier to pull from for papers, later. Also, if you haven’t already, begin to narrow your focus to one or two student/s and/or teacher/s.