I am pleased that my media specialist produces a daily news broadcast, but there is still a lot of room for improvement. Even simple things like improving the lighting and backdrops in the room that the broadcast is filmed in would make a big difference. This is especially evident after seeing what great things are being done on other school news broadcasts.
The Tiger Newscast is a very professional looking news broadcast that can be seen at http://hs.scasd.us/ms/kelchner/tigernews/index.html . Watching just a few segments will motivate you to find ways to improve your news broadcast. What I found the most valuable from these clips was how this would make a student want to watch the news each day. The SEA Idol segments are a great example of really hooking your audience. I think if you can find something that the kids are your school are really interested in, pull that into the broadcast and you will have students listening and looking forward to each day's broadcast. Investing the time in something that the kids will really enjoy will pay off because they will be paying more attention to the less intriguing information as well. In my classroom, very few students are actually listening carefully to the news each morning. That means they are missing some daily announcements. If we can't get our students to want to watch the daily news, it's hard to invest the time and resources to create them. Making news broadcasts that are interactive and involving is one way to insure that students are getting something out of them.
I enjoyed reading about your students and how your school uses their morning news broadcast time. I am also super impressed by the examples given in your blog! Wow are those awesome! My school, like yours, has a news broadcast every morning. It is run by 5th grade students who as 4th graders submit essays and audition for spots on the crew. At some point over the year, all the students will host, film, or write the script. I think they do a great job! My favorite part is the green screen that allows the students to change the background according to the season or holiday. Something innovative our students came up with was a daily theme such as Monday they present the vocabulary word of the week, and on Tuesday they have "data of the day" displaying different kinds of graphs. They even get the kindergarten-2nd graders involved by doing the weather on a felt board!
ReplyDeleteI think that by sharing different ideas, schools can have an innovative news programs that informs and engages students. I think that keeping it as "kid centered" as possible allows for more engagement from all students.
Hannah,
DeleteYou are right! We need to keep the news as kid centered as possible. I love your ideas as well. I think if we share ideas we can really create great news programs that the kids will really enjoy!
Julie, the Tiger News you provided the link for was totally amazing! I guess I can not imagine being able to view that every day at my high school so it is really impressive to me that high schools and middle schools are able to plan and produce something of such quality on a daily basis. I would love to see some examples of a great morning news show at a an elementary level like this. I am sure there are some out there! We have live announcements only on Fridays and we basically have the pledge, moment of silence, and a few announcements. Students pretty much just read the announcements and they don't really get to show a lot of personality. I would love to see more humor included and I know that it would get the kids attention as well. I guess different things would be possible at different levels (high, middle, elementary) but I still think that with a lot of hard work our elementary school could produce something a lot more student centered that is still informative and valuable to everyone in the school. I agree with you that my students do not often pay attention to the morning announcements. Even though they are only in kindergarten, there are still things that they need to hear. I think that it is important for students to get used to listening to the news and be aware of what is going on around them, even if it is only at a school level. Schools that interested in starting a morning news show or improving the one that they already have would be smart to seek out other schools that do have a quality morning news show and find out from them how they got to that point. Obviously, it will involve a lot of hard work but getting our students involved and allowing them to collaborate and get excited about current events would be well worth it!
ReplyDeleteI totally agree that at my school the school news/announcements are when the student’s totally tune out. They believe that it’s their time to talk, listen to their iPods or put their head down; such behavior causes me, as their teacher to regain their focus to ensure they don’t miss important messages that may come through the daily announcement. I can’t tell you how many times, their focus was off from the announcement when they hear the tail end of a message and they begin asking me for the details of the message. My response is always the same, “you should have been listening!” I then inform them, that the daily announcements are for them, just like the weekly faculty meetings are for me to receive updates. Nonetheless, I also agree that the announcements must have SEVERAL “hooks” in order to get the students attention and KEEP IT!
ReplyDeleteAt the high school that I’m at, the Media Specialist isn’t in charge of the daily announcements, they go through the main office, however I think it’s a great idea for Media Specialist to take on that charge of the daily school news. Here again, we must continue to show the VALUE of Media Specialist beyond the circulation desk. I like the idea of the 9 week rotation, based on recommendations from teachers. This would allow different creative thoughts and ideas to be heard or displayed, thus keeping the attention of the audience. It’s amazing how a group that’s been performing several weeks together, all of a sudden loses a member but gains another; the original members would see the dynamics of the group change. It only takes ONE person for change to be introduced, hence the same with reporting the daily announcements – constant change is good!
I enoyed watching the segments of the Tiger News. The kids in that school system are doing a great job. I think that the morning news has great teaching potential to our students. In my sytem we have a K-1 school, 2-5 school, middle and high school. At each level the student involvement in the morning news production increases up to a full news segment at the high school. With my school being K & 1st grade, a group of studnets gets to lead the pledge each morning and lead the singing of the Star Spangled Banner on Fridays. The rest of the broadcast is made by the principals, school nurse, media specialsit, and school Counsolor. Each one of these people take a different day of the week. This helps the students to get to know these individuals in the school. The technology teacher is in charge of the technology side of the broadcast. At our 3-5 school the students are mostly in charge of the boradcast and are assisted by the technology specialist. At our middle school the student are also mostly in charge of the broadcast and are learning how to use green screen this year. This group is overseen by the media speciasit. At the high schol there is an actual class that is in charge of the school news.
ReplyDeleteI think it is important to make the morning school news both informational and educational, not to mention find some sort of hook so both the students and teachers will tune in.
Julie
ReplyDeleteI am learning something new every day from these blogs. Considering that I am not a classroom teacher, I am completely amazed at the range of talent displayed by the students as well as the teachers that are teaching them. It is true that a student’s progress and ability is only as good as the teachers that are giving them the instruction. It is obvious that the Southern Tiger News Cast has an awesome teacher with a passion to teach and demonstrate how to successfully develop a news program. I agree that a news program is an excellent way to start the day and distribute important and valuable information to the student body. However, it is equally important that the production is well developed and presented in a manner that is intriguing and eye-catching to its audience. I am curious to see more news programs so that I can get some more ideas on how to create a successful program myself. Based off your current schools rotation, I would think that in order to give everyone a fair chance at discovering a new talent, I would rotate anchors more often.
I would be very nervous as a media specialist to do a "live" broadcast every day especially with high school students. Even the most well behaved students would often like to push the envelope and when you are broadcasting live to a whole school, they may feel the opportunity to do something to attract attention. Also, I have limited knowledge of broadcasting but I do think you would be able to edit and make a pre-recorded video look more professional than a live broadcast. This would also prevent any objective material from being broadcast to the whole school.
ReplyDeleteThe part of your post that stands out to me is the part about the media specialist requiring that the students not be severe behavior problems. Why can't this be one of the places that she turns in order to find students? Educators spend so much time judging and separating students because they are products of their environment, which is out of their control. Instead of putting these kids in boxes and punishing them for what they learn at home, why not teach them speaking skills, how to read, respond to, and give information through informational texts? Maybe they need an outlet or place of expression that has been stifled out of them since the beginning of their young lives.
ReplyDeleteA live broadcast is a perfect way to involve students in the school as this might be the only source of information some students receive all day in this format. Live forces the students to prepare and be ready, which would translate well into the classroom.
The part of your post that stands out to me is the part about the media specialist requiring that the students not be severe behavior problems. Why can't this be one of the places that she turns in order to find students? Educators spend so much time judging and separating students because they are products of their environment, which is out of their control. Instead of putting these kids in boxes and punishing them for what they learn at home, why not teach them speaking skills, how to read, respond to, and give information through informational texts? Maybe they need an outlet or place of expression that has been stifled out of them since the beginning of their young lives.
ReplyDeleteA live broadcast is a perfect way to involve students in the school as this might be the only source of information some students receive all day in this format. Live forces the students to prepare and be ready, which would translate well into the classroom.
I really liked the Tiger News example! Wow! I am so impressed! We used to have a morning news broadcast in our middle school when there was a journalism connections class, but when that was no longer available, we once again returned to doing the morning news over the PA system. The students seem to think this is socialization time and half of them miss important information. I think it would be great to once again do a school news or even a live broadcast every day. I think it would be important for all students, even the "behavior" problems, to have a chance at recording and broadcasting. Who knows? This might provide just the right incentive for their behavior to improve!
ReplyDeleteam really impressed by this broadcast. If you had not told me before I looked at the clip, I would have thought that this might be a local TV broadcast or at least high school or college. Please congratulate all those who participate for their excellent work. When I did a news broadcast at an elementary school, all we had was one video camera, one microphone and a shower curtain for a backdrop. But the students involved seemed to enjoy putting on the broadcast everyday and worked at doing the best job possible. After the first two to three weeks of school, I pretty much let the students take over. About all I did was keep the time for the momnet of silence, they did every thing else. When we did the broadcast, I had a core team of six to eight students who rotated through all the jobs (camera operator, computer operator, anchor, weather person, lunch menu, birthdays). For the pledge, we had a schedule that went to each homeroom teacher. Each day that teacher would send two students to lead the pledge for the school. Over the course of the year, every student was able to lead the pledge at least one time and some got to do it twice. The live broadcast was a good learning experience for that students and a little fun at the same time.
ReplyDeleteMarch 13, 2012 7:36 AM
Julie,
ReplyDeleteIt’s funny that Cobb does not train their media specialists to use the broadcast equipment. During my full day in elementary (in another county), my mentor told me that she equipment was shipped to the school and she was expected to work with the tech team to figure it out and broadcast the news on the first day of school. This was brand new equipment that was sent to a brand new school. I guess as media specialists, we will be expected to figure it out, and make it work! I often wonder, if I am the only media specialist in the school, who will I call on for help? As a teacher, I often ask other teachers when I am the least bit skeptical about something, but I will most likely not be working as closely with another media specialist.
Thank you for sharing this wonderful resource. It is good innovative ideas. I really like the idea of showcasing some student talent. Some students in the school may never be recognized for academic achievements like all A’s, but they have hidden talents that should be recognized and appreciated.