There are many facets to creating a daily tv news program in schools. From my experience, which is very little, having properly working tools and equipment is the first major consideration. Secondly, who and through what measures will students be chosen for participation. Finally, an equally important condsideration is how to best utilize time without taking students from their academic classes.
A school can't have a news program without the proper equipment. As I am researching other school's methods of creating a newscast, I am surprised at the amount of money that is required for equipment. Some schools like Aviara Oaks Middle spend up to $12000 for their equipment and studio. Where in the world do they obtain that kind of funding? We struggle just to get decent books on our shelves. There must be a creative and less costly solution, right? The research continues....I stumbled upon some more realistic ideas from a school in Henry County. Here they have a list of Suggested Equipment for a School TV News Porgram. Compared with today's technology, it looks a little 'old school' but, I think that we have most of the suggested equipment in my media center. We have a camcorder, VCR's, and background stands. We still need a wireles mic and I think that $150 is more realistic for my school than the thousands that are spent in some.
So, it looks like our school is almost ready to produce TV News. How does the media specialist go about choosing the participants? At Pleasant Grove Elementary in Henry County, students from the Gifted Program are allowed to participate. In an elementary setting that may work best for scheduling since most students are pulled out of general ed classes a couple of times per week. However, in middle school, I would want a cast that represented the entire student population. Many of our students that do not do well in their academic classes are gifted in many other areas, especially when it comes to using their hands or allowed to work with technology and/or equipment. Ideas for castmembers and crewmembers should be well-thought out and considered. Once all positions have been determined, the media specialist should begin interviewing interested students.
Some things to consider and question are:
Is the student: Responsible, Energetic, Compassionate and a 'Go Getter'
Do those considered for anchors possess the following: Interpersonal Skills, Speaking Skills and Writing Skills
Do those considered for crewmembers possess the following: Responsibility, Trustworthiness, and will they take pride and ownership in protecting the equipment
Will students be able to get to school early?
Will other activities cause conflicts with morning duties?
How frequently are students absent?
Currently, my school does not have a tv news program. I am interested in speaking with the media specialist about the possibility. We will definitely be starting from a humble beginning.
But, schools like Southern Columbia, which have a fantastic school tv news program had to start somewhere!
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I am totally with you. Where do these schools with "high end" news programs get the money? I am in a very low socio-economic county and we do good, as you stated, at getting the appropriate materials that we need in a classroom on a day to day basis. However, we do produce a daily moring news program on a daily basis with just your basic technology needs. I believe that you can make a meaningful morning news program from just about anything that you have in your school. You just got to be a little creative and think "outside the box"
ReplyDeleteYour list of qualifications for what a media specialist would want in a school news team member are almost exactly what my mentor said she looks for in students. At the school where I do field experience, the students have to fill out an application to be on the news team. Part of the application is approval from parents and teachers; but the students also have to answer questions about themselves. These are:
ReplyDelete1. Why would you like to be a member of the Tiger News Network Team?
2. On the first page of this application, you either selected to be a newscaster or part of the production staff. Which job do you feel you are best suited for and why?
3. What kind of influence do you think TNN can have on all of the students at Atkinson Elementary School?
I think this last question is especially important because it speaks to why the student wants to be part of the news team. If he or she just wants to be seen and to seem important to his or her peers, then the answer will reflect that. However, if the student really wants to learn from the experience, get something positive out of it, and make a difference in the school; then this will be reflected.
And I have to agree with you, that students from all areas of the school should be allowed to try out for the news team; because some students are stronger in some areas than others. A student who is a strong, eloquent, or enthusiastic speaker might not be in the gifted program; but would make an excellent addition to a broadcast.
My mentor auditions students at the end of each school year. She looks for strong speakers with presence and personality. Any rising fourth or fifth grader can audition. Rising third graders are allowed when nominated by their teacher or an administrator. Sometimes the auditions go on for hours at a time for an entire week. Most of the students do take it seriously though and even get dressed up for their auditions. It’s fun to watch!
At our school we do not have a TV school new broadcast but we do have morning announcements over the intercom that the students are a part of. We do pledge, moment of silence, lunch menu, and the principal then makes any other announcements needed. We are a PreK-2 school so it would be hard to put together any elaborate production but I think that we could do something simple. That would really involve the students even more. We would first have to have closed circuit TV which we do not. We are also a low socio-economic county that has just enough to get by with. We do not have any of the high-end tech stuff. I would be interested in trying to find out how we could do a morning broadcast of announcements since we already use students to do announcement over the loud speaker. This would be something that I could check into.
ReplyDeleteThe schools in my county have Channel One broadcasting equipment. From what I understand, this is free as long as we are broadcasting Channel One daily. All you need for input devices are a video camera and a mic. At a high school, many times the media center can coordinate with a technology or production class to create the school news. Media specialists take primary leadership in coordinating school news programs at the elementary and middle school level. I like how you listed all of the considerations associated with coordinating the school news program. There are definitely a lot of things think about!
ReplyDeleteI really appreciated the research that you conducted in terms of finding out how much broadcasting equipment really costs. I had no idea how much everything could cost. In addition to being a Title 1 school, my school is also our district's technology magnet school. Because of this status, we have a fully functional school broadcasting room. We also have one faculty member whose main job includes running the school's morning broadcast (previous to working in the school district, he worked for one of the local news stations). However, when I was in high school, I was a part of my school's first broadcasting class and had to make due with whatever equipment we could get our hands on. While I did attend a private school, little to no money was provided for this maiden broadcasting class. Keeping in mind this was eight years ago, technology has changed considerably (yes, even in this little amount of time). With a little creativity and a lot of cable, we were able to create and produce a once a week broadcast that the entire school came to love.
ReplyDeleteNot having a hand in our school tv news I also appreciated your list of attributes to look for in students who would like to be news broadcasters. While there may be a ease that comes along with using only "older" or "gifted" students, I agree with your desire to want to have a cast of students that represents the entire community that the broadcast is reaching.
Best of luck in speaking with your media specialist about starting up a news broadcast!
My school does the news cast once a week with Fourth Graders. The technology specialist and I decided that students needed something to look forward to before they reached Fifth Grade. We have the students complete a form stating what they would like to do and then have their parents sign it stating that they are aware of the responsibilities and that they are responsible for getting their students home. The classroom teachers look at the forms and have a final ruling on who is able to participate. This helps the students to realize that they are still responsible for classwork or homework assigned for that evening. Since the taping is completed after school, it is especially important that we have the parent support as well as the teachers. If the students begin to show irresponsible behavior in class, the teacher is able to come to us and have the students removed from the news team. Doing this helps the students to realize that it is an extracurricular activity and does not excuse them from their classwork.
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