I have done field experience hours this semester at an elementary school and a high school. The elementary school produces a TV news show and the high school does not. The high school media specialist told me when I asked about a news show that "they were a lot of trouble and take up a lot of time". Therefore I am going to focus on the elementary school in this post.
At the elementary school, which we will call RR Elementary, the media specialist and a team of students produce a live TV news show that airs every morning directly following the tardy bell. At RR Elementary there is a basic broadcast room that the media specialist has created for the morning news show. In this room she has a desk that the news anchors sit behind, a video camera for recording that is connected to the computer and video distribution system. The media specialist at RR Elementary said she had to have an IT guy from the county come and help her set everything up for the broadcast room. She is in charge of maintaining it but can always send in a workorder with IT if it is something she can not fix.
The morning news show, Eagle Eye News, starts with a looping powerpoint. In this first part of the show the powerpoint shows an introduction to the news program and plays a video to the America the Beautiful. The media specialist created this in movie maker and shows it through powerpoint. The news show then goes to live announcements where two students tell the lunch menu, any announcements sent in by administration, and upcoming events. The news anchors then turn the show over to the pledge leader for the pledge of allegiance to the flag. The show then goes back to a looping power point that loops through out the rest of the school day on a selected TV channel. In this section the lunch menu is covered again, weather report, and any useful reminders about upcoming events.
The TV news show team consist of two student anchors, a pledge leader, and a video recorder. There are four teams, one for every nine weeks, that do the show. The students are all fifth graders. They must apply at the end of their fourth grade year to be on the Eagle Eye News Team the following school year. The media specialist then selects from the applicant pool those with the best academic and conduct grades. She has a small training session at the end of the year so that the students will be ready to start the show the first or second week of the following school year.
The media specialist is the one who writes all the scripts for the students. She also creates all the powerpoints that loop throughout the show everyday. She said she typically spends the last hour of every single school day working on the show for the next day. While this is very time consuming, she says she likes doing the show and the students love it.
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I was very interested in your post as I have now just moderated my first elementary television production. Although most of the endeavor was identical to yours, there were a few differences that I would like to mention.
ReplyDeleteThe producers and script-writers are the 5th graders themselves. They come in on a Wednesday and write the power point presentation. I found this to be a very effective way of teaching them to cover all the bases and to know who was doing what.
Another highlight that is added to the local elementary production is a series of early AM exercises. The intention is to get the heart rate up and I think this is a good life-long practice for the kids to begin at an early age.
One thing that I would have liked to have seen is to have them speak much slower. No matter how many times we tried to convey this to them, their excitement during the production is one whereby they just ramble on.
Liz, I am so sad that your high school LMS said that about a news program. These students are the ones that would very much enjoy this type of program at their age! Plus, they would be able to do so much of the work! I am not working in a media center now so I should not criticize, but I know that my son really enjoys the broadcasts at his high school :)
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