Elementary School News
The best way to get to know about something such as the
School News Show is to perform and interview.
On October 12, 2012, I interviewed the Media Specialist, David Milford at
Roopville Elementary School about their School New Broadcast show. The interview went as follows:
- What content segments
are included?
The program at RES is pretty
simple. The students recognize the day’s
birthdays and lead the pledge, motto, and moment of silence. An adult makes the daily announcements. Announcements include items such as yearbook are on sale, the book fair
is coming, Locks for Love, STAR readers, and Today in History tidbits. These pieces of information are repeated on a
scrolling powerpoint announcement that constantly scrolls during the lunch
shifts.
- How long is the
broadcast?
Our instructional schedule limits it to
5 minutes.
- When is the broadcast
shown?
It takes place the first five minutes
of the day.
- Is the broadcast taped
or live?
It is a live broadcast. (Music for 5 minutes prior to the broadcast.)
- Faculty member responsible
for the broadcast?
David Milford___________position: Media
Specialist___
- Who writes the script?
There are printed pages for teachers to
write announcements. We also will
include emailed submissions. The student
portion of the broadcast is fixed.
Rarely will their script change.
- Who are the crew?
The 4th and 5th
grade student council members make up a 3-person crews. One is the on-air personality, one is on
camera, the third maintains the cue cards.
They swap jobs daily and each crew works one week per month.
- How is screen talent
selected and trained?
Part of their student council contract
includes information regarding the morning broadcast. We stress the importance of leadership,
attendance and punctuality. At a
previous school, any disciplinary infraction was grounds for dismissal from the
crew or missing a number of rotations.
I’ve not had to address that yet at RES.
The “training” consists of about a 5
minute orientation for each crew member and then it’s “on the air.”
- How often does the
screen talent and/or film crew change?
The crew changes weekly with each crew
working a week each month.
- What equipment is used?
The school is equipped with a video
distribution system that allows us to broadcast from any classroom that has coax
cable for the television. Using this
equipment, we can tie in with any VHS or digital camera and regular
microphones. We’re presently using a
small Panasonic digital video camera and two low-impedence microphones.
- Does the show follow a
fixed or flexible format?
The student portion of the show is
fixed. There will be times when they
will participate in scripts for special events.
- How do you think it could be improved?
I’d like to move the program from
classroom to classroom, highlighting some of the things going on in the
featured rooms. I’d also like to remove
the adults from the “anchor” positions and let it be a total student
broadcast.
We are playing music from the School
House Rock series before announcements at this time. I’d like to be able to allow the students to
view the video that accompanies the songs.
Since we’re in an older building, we
have some wiring challenges that create bad buzzes when we attempt to piggyback
the video with the audio. I foresee us
working through that before the end of this year.
Our instructional day prohibits the
broadcast from being longer than 5 minutes, but we’ll keep dreaming!
Seems these videos are very structured. I agree with David Milford, in the experience and ownership should be given to the students over the broadcast. The students probably have innovated ideas to enlighten the broadcast, as well as giving them a chance to express themselves. Like a lot schools, wiring and technological issues limits what can be done. The wiring used 20 years ago and even 6 years ago sometimes cannon handle the data that is being transmitted. Just as technology is expensive to replace so is wiring. It seem Milford has a plan in place to turn the broadcast around.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad this school is producing school news. My school used to do this but for some reason stopped. I liked Mr. Milford's ideas for improvement. It would be great to have the students as anchors. I wonder what is there reason for having adults do it? I also agree about the videos. I love School House Rock! I also wonder why they would only have audio on for these instead of video? Especially since they are showing video anyway. Maybe it's just the wiring issues like he mentioned. Regardless, it's great that there are still schools out there that are willing to work with what they have to involve students in all aspects of the school.
ReplyDeleteThis interview was very informative. It was good to hear the details from someone who does it on a daily basis. I am sure it is hard to meet the 5-minute deadline. Sometimes we have morning announcements that seem to last for 10 minutes! As everyone else who has commented said, I think the students would benefit from taking charge of the broadcast. However, I can see from a time standpoint that it would be difficult. Another post I read from a different team mentioned how much training goes into making sure the students do a good job on the broadcasts. This media specialist mentioned that no matter how much she encouraged and reminds, the students still have moments where they forget there is an audience! After reading all these posts, I just can't imagine have a morning broadcast on my plate every day. My hat is off to David Milford!
ReplyDeleteThe structure of this school news program sounds very similar to the school news program in place at my school. We have students to fill out an application for the news team at the end of 4th grade and two crews are selected. These students must be reliable and hardworking. Each applicant must have a teacher sign off on his/her application. Another option we give our students is to be an on air personality, behind the scenes, or both. This allows those students who are shy and do not want to be on camera the opportunity to still participate. I really liked the suggestion Mr. Milford had for improving the news program. I think playing School House Rock! before the show is an excellent idea. Our program had scrolling pictures at the beginning, but I can imagine the kids singing along to those songs being so much fun.
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