Saturday, October 31, 2009
School Newscast
My field experience site, Pickett's Mill Elementary, has a daily morning newscast, which is taped in the media center's production room and broadcast over the closed circuit television system. It includes announcements, birthdays, the character ed word of the week, the lunch menu, the pledge, and the moment of silence. Linda Mullen, the media specialist, oversees the broadcast, but fourth and fifth grade students do all of the on-camera and off-camera work. At the end of the school year, interested students fill out a questionnaire, and get a teacher recommendation (based on behavior, personality; basically, how well the teacher thinks a particular student would do in performing the functions needed for the newscast), as well as a commitment from parents that their child will get to school on time to participate. A group of 8 students is chosen for every eight weeks, and they rotate through on and off-camera jobs each week (so that every student has a chance to do every job). On Monday morning, students from the previous week train their predecessors in the new job (2 cameras, someone to operate the laptop PowerPoint presentation that serves as cuecards, a mixer, and two main anchors and two "reporters"). Because the newscast is so early in the morning (it usually begins around 7:45), and I live 45 minutes away from the school, I've never seen it thus far, but am planning to do a full day in the media center soon, and am looking forward to witnessing it firsthand.
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The planning of your news cast at your school sounds like it works effectively. I have never witnessed a broadcast either. Being at the high school, things are done a little differently. We basically have a broadcasting class that takes announcement submissions and puts everything together to be broadcasted over the televisions; this happens every Friday. Then the daily announcements are done through the media center can be viewed on the TV all day long...scrolling. Important announcements are made over the intercom after the pledge of allegiance after 2nd block begins. I can't wait to see both broadcasts and what it entails either.
ReplyDeleteThe way the morning newscast is done sounds great. My own school includes some of the same information that Pickett's Mill does. However, it is done over the intercom system and not a closed circuit network. Fourth and Fifth grade students make these announcements each day. There are two teachers as well as a media specialist in charge. They help write the announcements that the students give each morning. Another blog suggested having the students be a part of the script writing process. I thought this was a great idea to share with others.
ReplyDeleteI like how the students are doing all the on and off camera work. This provides them with a great responsibility and the opportunity to have ownership over something. I would love to see it in action at Pickett's Mill. The idea of having the students train their replacements is a great idea.
I have read several posts and I noticed that at high schools there is a class for the video production, but at most elementary schools the media specialist is responsible for producing it. I'd like to know when exactly they find the time to do this! My schedule is different from day to day! I normally don't have the same block of time free from one day to the next. It just depends on which grade I am working with that day or what teacher I am meeting with during their planning time. It would be almost impossible for me (middle school level) to do this every day.
ReplyDeleteAs for the newscast at Pcikett's Mill, I do very much like that it is student lead and student driven. It makes it more enjoyable to the other students and they are more likely to pay attention!
Before this blog topic, I never gave much thought to the morning announcements. But I've started paying more to them I've realized that it is an effective medium of communication. The students seem to be more interested in the ones that actually appear on the tv versus the PA system. But either one contain vital info regarding the school day.
ReplyDeleteI am an elementary media specialist and oversee our morning news crew every day. I write the script the morning of the show--which I plan to do in advance every week...but never do! This takes me from about 7:15 to 7:45 every day--because of the continual interuptions. Right before school is when teachers are trying to prepare for their day--finding materials and asking questions, so this it is a difficult time to be writing a script!
ReplyDeleteOther than the script though, I really don't have to do anything else, except focus the crew. They are really capable of doing it all without me.