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| The Video Production room is a part of the school's media center. |
School
TV News
How important is the School TV News? I would say
very important. The school news is the best way to update the school community
of what is going on at the school and in the community. If this method of
communication is done correctly and efficiently the student body should feel
connected and excited about being a part of their school community. The news
should bring the school alive! The broadcast should be carefully thought out
and carried out as professional as possible.
Media Specialists are not necessarily responsible
for the production of the School News.
Sometimes it is a faculty member that is in charge of the video production
class, as is the case with Tiger News. I
spoke with Media Specialist, Carrie Davison, at Rex Mill Middle School and the
responsibility did not reside with her, but with another faculty member. She
directed me to Ms. Christian, who is a faculty member over the STEM
classes.
Speaking to Ms. Christian and the student producers
gave me insight on how a show is put together. The news is done on a daily
basis and starts on time every morning at 8:45am. The first thing we hear is
the music letting us know that the show is about to come on. This gives
everyone time to get out of their lockers and into homeroom. When this happens
the next thing is the weather, pledge of allegiance and moment of silence. After
this the news broadcast begins the student anchors give the lunch menu, a CRCT
word of the day, Character Word of the Day, The administrators have a segment
where they make announcements and any of the faculty may do so as well. It’s
great to see the students anchor the whole broadcast.
Michael, who is an 8th grade student
producer, said, “We look for people, who
have computer skills, a strong voice, and confidence.” He said that they stay with the same people
right now because they are dependable. He also shared with me that many of the
challenges come with equipment because it is old. Sometimes the equipment shuts
down and they don’t know why. The production equipment helps with smooth
transition from screen to anchor back to screen. The Media Specialist then will
fix equipment when it is down.
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| The student producers hard at work. |
The music
played in the morning has certain requirements. It can’t have any profanity or
sexual gestures in it. Each day of the week has a theme associated
with it. At the present time the show is
not recorded and put onto the website for those who may have been absent and
want to know what is going on at school. I really liked how Southern Columbia’s
Tiger News was put up online.
Sometimes the students get bored with the show
because it is the same format everyday. I would suggest that they change it up
and add some new segments to it. Tiger News makes the students feel apart of
something by having SCA Idol. What an awesome idea. Getting the students
involved is key to the show’s success.
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| The RMMS Broadcast room. |
The challenge
comes with having enough dedicated people. Ms. Christian stated that, “The
newscast budget falls within the media center. However, with budget cuts, no
real improvements have been made to the newscast this year. Hopefully, next year we can get a new set and
some new equipment.” Ms. Christian seems
to enjoy working with the young producers and wants to see them grow as
students and people. The school tv news is an extension of the media center and
I believe should reflect the mission and vision of the media center in
establishing school culture and unifying of the student body.
Wow! Did you bring back some memories? It sounds like you have a working program with some of the same issues that I had at my previous middle school. The kids were in to it. The Media Specialist was not involved. I, as the technology education teacher, was the active faculty member with the show. Our equipment was old and made keeping the program functional interesting. The video cameras were the worst. We had one camera that worked for the first 10 minutes and then would just drop off into sleep mode. It took me about a week to figure out that it needed to have a tape in it and to have it recording for that not to happen. The day the amplifier went out was most inopportune. We had to quickly run a new microphone to be shared between my anchors. The students never got flustered; they just smiled and laughed at me while I ran in circles trying to keep us on the air.
ReplyDeleteWe had problems keeping students interested in doing the show. They weren’t always present for school or they found a significant other who wasn’t interested in the show. Both of which caused me to pull from the crowd and promote from within to do a show. It always helped to run with an anchor and co-anchor, so that in a pinch, I could do the show with one person. The biggest problem with an anchor was their reading ability. You didn’t want someone to plod through an announcement on the air, so they had to practice once or twice before the show to get pronunciations down (especially of the names of people).
The biggest issue for me personally was the support of the Principal. When the Principal was for you, most everyone went along. Without the principals support, we were dead in the water. I even had issues with one Media Specialist who thought the whole program was without value .
I was proud of our little production team and tried to keep treats for those who showed up every day. I remembered birthdays, and gave everyone graduating special thanks for their support. But there is no way to say that it was no effort to keep the program going. It took money and time to do a program. I think the Media Specialist can use this program to keep the Media Center as the center of the school. They can use the equipment to do the vodcasts, promote the media center and the school. The biggest problem we had was staff wanting to borrow the equipment for school and personal use. If it came back broken, what was I supposed to do? I never loaned out the equipment that I used for the Morning Show.
Yes, I enjoyed doing the program, but you need a couple of other staff members to be willing to help and to take over for you on occasion or it can become tedious. I think as the Media Specialist, I would welcome someone else being in charge and allowing me to assist in the production. I do believe that the Morning Show is a worthwhile program to have in the School Media Center.
Your post shows the value of using video distribution to produce a Morning Show for announcements. To be successful, one must have support from the media specialist, teachers, administration, and students. It has to be a total team effort. Students must be responsible enough to handle this type of activity. I work in an elementary school so I would probably only allow 4th and 5th graders to participate.
ReplyDeleteCurrently, my school only uses the intercom for annoucements, but I would like to see a morning news broadcast. I think this would be a very useful program to add to the school media center at my school. It could also be an incentive for responsible, well behaved chidren. Those children would be the ones chosen to participate.
We do have live announcements on Friday mornings only. We used to have them every morning but teachers complained about how long they took. We are required to do focus groups from 7:50-8:10 every morning. There is only a five minute window from 7:45 (students enter classroom) until 7:50 (focus groups begin) for announcements to take place. During that five minutes teachers are also expected to get a lunch count, do attendance, and students should get unpacked. Needless to say, it is a very rushed time of the day. When we do have live announcements on Friday they usually last 10 minutes which goes into our focus group time. Our administration has placed a huge amount of importance on focus groups so it is a little stressful. I wish there was a way that we could maybe move focus groups to the end of the day and have live announcements every morning. The children really love them.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if it would be easier to do a morning show in middle school than elementary school. In middle school the students would be more mature and they would play a more active role in the planning of the show. At our elementary school the students mainly just show up right before the broadcast and read what the media specialist has written. I agree with Has that the responsibility should not fall on one faculty member. That would be too overwhelming! Sheila, the morning show at your school sounds really cool! I bet students love it! It was amazing to read about how much work went into producing only one show but it sounds like it is worth it!
If I were to be a media specialist at an elementary school, I agree with Celena that I would probably only allow the older students to participate. It would work great as an incentive for maybe good grades or reward for responsible students.
I realize that this comment has nothing to do with technology and everything to do with students. But several comments struck me in reading today and I can't seem to get past them. Here it is, yours is the second blog I have read today in which the statement was made that production classes look for a certain type of student and then stick with them. I wonder what talents might be uncovered if production classes stopped looking for a particular type of student, "people, who have computer skills, a strong voice, and confidence” or those who have no behavior problems. This seems like a self-limiting practice. I am involved in two activities that draw from the more nontraditional student, theater and academic bowl. Because both of these activities are open to all, we have a wide variety of participants, everything from band geeks to valedictorians. I have watched many children blossom when given the opportunity to try something outside their box. I know it sounds judgmental, but we do a great disservice to students if we only draw from the well-behaved, extroverted pool of students. Unfortunately, my school is just as guilty. A student cannot take broadcasting at the Ninth Grade Academy unless they are nominated by an 8th grade teacher.
ReplyDeleteI think that having school news is essential and critical in developing school pride. When students become an integral part of the school as a whole, their sense of pride for the school heightens because they have a VOICE! When students take the time to put together segments for their classmates, it encourages rigor and relevance because they know they are being judge by their peers. Students’ being able to receive accolades through the school news is also a boost in ones ego, hence leaving other students wanting to hear their name called during the daily school news.
ReplyDeleteI agree that often times the news can become boring because of the lack of equipment and software that’s available to those who have the daily task to perform. Yet I believe that if administrators see the value and the sense of pride that can be created with students and the daily school news, I’m willing to bet more money would be placed in this venture. In order for this to happen, it takes educating the administrators on the VALUE of a program and the effects it can have in developing THE WHOLE CHILD!