I knew that my school was not savvy when it came to School TV
News, but after looking at Pleasant Grove Elementary and The Tiger News, I am a
bit embarrassed, but realize what potential our newscast can have.
Our newscast is “The Cougar Cub
Morning News”. It is taped throughout the week and broadcasted on Friday
morning. Each week two 5th graders are picked to be the anchors of
the news. The broadcast follows the same format each week. It includes the
pledge, our mission statement for the school and county, lunch menu, weather,
students with birthdays for the week and any other important news for the week.
If there are any special events happening in the classroom, these events are
spotlighted too.
Our media specialist is in charge
of the program. She does all the filming and editing. We do not have an
elaborate set, or props. There is a small room off of the media center that is
used for filming. It consists of a table with a tablecloth with our school
name, an American flag and a few fake trees in the background.
The only problems that the media
specialist has encountered had to do with technology. She used an old camcorder
to record the news and then would edit on an old Mac computer. Within the last
year, she has purchased a flip camera and now produces the news on a newer PC
in the library. Another problem that she has is getting additional news stories
from the classrooms. She encourages teachers to let her know if they are doing
something in their classroom, but there are some weeks when there is nothing extra
to share on the broadcast.
Honestly, our school news is
B-O-R-I-N-G. I have been at the school for 9 years, and the format has not
changed at all in the time that I have been there. Same music and script, the only thing
different is the 5th graders each year. The problem is addressing
the problem. Does our media specialist know that the program is dull or does
she think it is great? Or does she do it because she has to and does not care
how it turns out? There are people in the building who are willing and would
love to help with the broadcast, but bringing up the subject has been
difficult.
I think that sometimes people think
that elementary students are not capable of producing a newscast, but Pleasant
Grove Elementary proves that theory wrong! Our media specialist is nearing retirement;
maybe our next media specialist can revive and revamp our Cougar Cub News!
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ReplyDeleteI know what you mean about the morning broadcast. Currently, our technology teacher is out on short-term leave, and so we have no one to conduct the media broadcast. Our school has been doing it over the intercom (which is a far cry from last year when they had one of our administrators as part of the morning news crew). It's really frustrating when you know so much more could be done. But honestly, in a lot of elementary and middle schools, it's just a way to fill time during homeroom. Half the time the kids are talking through the announcements anyway.
ReplyDeleteHowever, high school is when you really get to have fun with it. At our high school, we had 5 students get together and shoot a comedic skit which aired on Fridays. We looked forward to it all week, just to see what crazy stuff they were going to come up with! It's really nice when the teachers get to step back and let the kids be creative in coming up with ideas that they want to see broadcasted. I feel if this were done more in middle and elementary schools (allowing kids to have input), then maybe the shows wouldn't feel so boring and scripted. And the adults (who are already bogged down with other responsibilities) would be more inclined to have fun with the broadcast.
Joy Reid
Hey Rebecca!
ReplyDeleteI agree with Joy that high school is a place where students can tweak their journalism and media skills by taking part in the video broadcasting class--It is fun to see how creative and carefree students can be!
I also think that elementary students can have an exciting program as well!
Do you remember when we had our first assignment on a podcast and we listened to the elementary school where students presented interesting facts in a podcast?
Maybe your school could try to prepare something around an upcoming holiday and share facts and cultural tidbits with the school via podcast or cc tv. It could be timely and fun!
By starting around a specific holiday or season, you'll be able to include interesting facts and information that all of your students might find enjoyable.
Maybe you could offer to set up a comment box for students to suggest different ideas/stories that could be mentioned in the news program...to freshen up the programming:)
Good luck and thank for you sharing:)
I enjoyed reading your post Rebecca. You made this topic directly related to the needs of your school news setting. No matter what the task, it is always a good idea to look at what other schools are doing in order to see where your school stands. Sometimes changes are necessary and sometimes not. However, feedback from within is also important. Given the broadcast has been the same for a while, as well as the media specialist possibly feeling bogged down by this task and nearing retirement, I believe many have encountered the resistance to change issue.
ReplyDeleteAdditionally, you have presented a real angle on school technology, broadcasting and the like from a very relevant perspective in that in our program studies it is great that we learn the latest and greatest. However, there are still schools with outdated or limited equipment and materials, as well as personnel that do not embrace integrating various resources or change. I agree with you that perhaps, the next media specialist for that school will likely make some adjustments and let us pray none of us end up dealing with an administrative team that is not supportive of the potential LMS could bring to the school community table.
Rebecca,
ReplyDeleteYou post was blunt and honest and I loved it. School news can get kind of boring, everyone is so busy doing the million other things we have to do throughout the day and I could see school news taking a back seat, but it shouldn't. Maybe you can share the sites we explored in class with your media specialist and she'll get some new ideas. I do agree that it could be a sticky situation. At least you guys have a video distribution system. I am familiar with them but at my previous and current school we haven't had the technology available to us. I think that it is a wonderful concept and I can imagine great uses for it. I think it would be terrific for school wide functions like assemblies, etc.
Thanks,
Suzanne
I agree with Joy and Rebecca that high school news can be really fun. Our high school offered a TV Production elective, and the students in this class produced the news every morning. In addition to school announcements, they included comedy sketches, current events, etc. It was very well done. However, I think a quality news program was possible because this task did not fall to the media specialist in addition to her zillion other duties. Instead, it was a separate class period, taught by the drama teacher, and the students had 50 minutes each day to devote to creating a 5-minute broadcast. Media specialists have so much that they are responsible for. It is impossible to give 150% of ourselves to each and every task, so I think it is only natural that some media specialists will choose to focus their energies more on the technological side of things and produce great news broadcasts, while others might focus more on other aspects of the job and end up with boring news broadcasts. Maybe bringing in help from a specials class or from other teachers who are really interested in technology could bring a little life to the boring broadcasts.
ReplyDeleteTerese Scheiderich
I love the idea of a student “produced” news show. However, as you mentioned, technology issues seem to often raise their ugly heads. Unfortunately, it seems that schools now have quite a bit of technology in them, but very few resources to maintain and update them. As your media specialist has discovered, this can turn a simple task into a frustrating one (i.e. the old camcorder). I also think that the problem of the “boring” newscast could be due to an individual who is just punching the clock until retirement.
ReplyDeleteBlake