School TV News, Video Distribution, and GPB Resources
Coming live to you from Arnall Middle School
Years ago my school did have a TV program that 8th grade students worked on, but with cut backs, our technology guy was no longer on campus 5 days a week to assist with the project. It was a really neat project and if I end up taking over the media center in my school, I plan to bring it back. The students met every day (it was considered a connection’s class) and they would work on producing a show that would air once a month. Personally, I thought it could have been expanded more, but considering it was still a new concept, the students were still just experimenting. Our morning announcements, pledge, and the words of the day were (and still are) handled by the intercom system so I would like to eventually branch out and handle all announcements through the TV show. Many schools, all over the
http://hs.scasd.us/ms/kelchner/tigernews/index.html
http://www.warren.kyschools.us/~swmsstlp/SWMS_STLP/News_Show/News_Show.html (this one lists the pervious shows in case you missed one)
http://alliance.pes.schoolfusion.us/modules/cms/pages.phtml?pageid=54563&sessionid=c6a7c1af5863849c64
Currently, my school must rely on the closed circuit system
to share information via the television.
Many schools have a similar system in place as well. Our school uses the closed circuit system to
broadcast the afternoon announcements, show CRCT pep rally videos, show movies
for rewards days, and broadcast Channel 1 news http://www.channelone.com/ during
homeroom. If your school does not watch
Channel 1 news, then I highly recommend checking it out. It has students reporting on information for
students.
Unfortunately, our school does not allow teachers to give
input on what is showed on the closed circuit unless it is a movie that was
requested days in advance and approved by our principal. We also do not have control from our
classrooms to pause, rewind, or stop the film (this can cause issues because we
have to send a student to the MC and that can become a hassle). More teachers are using the projectors more
and weaning off the use of the TVs.
If you would like to look into setting one up, I found a
great website that explains what you will need to start your own.
http://www.school-video-news.com/index_files/Middle_school_studio.htm
With the use of the projectors, more teachers are using other
forms of media that can be viewed using the computer and a projector. With the Common Core Standards quickly
approaching, more and more teachers are turning to Georgia Public Broadcasting. The teachers at my school, including myself,
use the Discovery Education’s streaming videos when presenting new material to
the class. There are a wide selection of
videos ranging in all topics. My 6th
graders love it when we watch videos! Additionally, the teachers are required to
watch the educational videos on the website to better prepare for the upcoming
changes with curriculum.
There is also a really cool link to S.T.E.M central http://www.gpb.org/education/stem-central%20
which contains links to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math.
Also, if you look under the “programs” link there are more links for
teachers to use in the classroom (depending on the grade and subject). I really enjoyed the Georgia Stories
link. They had a wide range of
biographies and podcasts that could be played to the class, among other resources.
http://www.gpb.org/georgiastories There is an abundant amount of information on the website – and it could take hours to review, but it is all worth it!
Amanda,
ReplyDeleteI work down the street from you! I'm at ECHS...I believe we have a couple of your old administrators! :)
I will admit before I even get started on this post that I protect my time with my students as much as possible. Within 45 sections of the bell ringing, my students are well on their way to starting work. The way I look at it is they just had 6 minutes of free time, so I HATE it when the morning announcements seem to go on forever. In my mind and in my experience of seeing video announcements done a few times, this would take forever and eat up my time with my 1st block students (which gets cut often for other things anyway because it won't interfere with lunches). I can't imagine, as a teacher, having to do that twice a day!
I like the idea of a closed-circuit system for videos, but I wonder how that works when one teacher, who is not controlling the video, needs a few more minutes after she just dealt with an unexpected event in her room. Are her students missing the beginning of the video? I know that if the 4 9th grade English teachers decided to do something similar, none of us would be at the same spot at the exact moment the others were. Someone would be waiting, and someone would be late. I know I sound cynical, and I'm sorry!
I do, however, think closed-circuit broadcasting would be great on certain occasions. Those hot-topic issues would be a great place to start! I also think this would be a wonderful option for media specialists to showcase new titles, procedures, changes, etc. Especially for reluctant visitors, the media center is a daunting place, and I think videos that were there to orient students (must like our Power Points for this class) would be a great place to start!
I use GPB at least once a month. It is also useful that you can break the videos into segments if you just need to present one part of the entire video. Often, you can find information on authors and time periods. Sometimes, I can't think of any other way to present the time periods other than sit-and-get notes, chunking, or web quests, so having this option works, especially with American Literature because they receive a foundation of the background in American History. The videos also come with handouts and quizzes that the students can use as guided viewing or the teacher can use as a formative assessment afterwards. Because the videos are informational texts we are also meeting the new Common Core standards.
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