In my elementary school, the media specialist and the media
paraprofessional direct the school news. The school news in done once a day and
it is live. It is a student broadcast. There are two news anchors, a weather
person, a special feature person, 2 camera people, and a mixer. The two news
anchors give the day and how many school days we have had. Then we do the
moment of silence and the pledge. The pledge is led by different classes. For
one week during the school year, a classroom is in charge of sending five or
six students to the news to lead the pledge. Next, the school lunch menu is
read and any other school wide announcements. The weather is done and then
birthdays are announced. If it your birthday, you can announce it on the news.
After the birthdays, an administrator usually gives announcements. The administrator
might give out special awards. Next, it is the special feature time. On
Mondays, the Staff Person of the Week shares their poster that will be hung in
the front lobby. On Tuesday, is Sign of the Week which includes a video presentation
of the interpreters teaching American Sign Language. On Wednesday, is Math Challenge and each grade
has a math problem. One student with the correct answer from each class is
picked and can go to the office to get a Math Challenge pencil. On Thursday and
Friday, there is a song on a PowerPoint produced by the Music Teacher. This
song is usually one they are learning about in Music. The last feature every
day is A Moment of Movement, where the students are led through different exercises.
The talent is selected by an application
process. Fourth and Fifth graders fill out an application if they are
interested in helping with the news. The must get two recommendations from
former teachers. The students must arrive at school by 7:30 AM. The students
are then put on a rotating weekly schedule. If students are late or do not take
their job seriously then they are not on the production schedule. Each student
does the news about three weeks out of the year. The only problem my media
specialist has experienced is technology problems. She has had different
problems with the cameras and sound. Right now, everything is working. The
biggest thing that was added this year was the use of the Promethean Board for
Powerpoints. This has been a big help. It is easier to record the board than
hook the computer into the mixing machine.
Claire I like that you shared the weekly schedule with us. It gives the reader a good overall picture of what your morning news should look like. It looks like you use many students to help produce your morning news. I was not sure what the purpose of the Staff Poster was. I think teaching sign language is a great addition. What size hearing impaired population do you have? It is also good that there are different features each day; it keeps the morning news more interesting. I also like how different staff members are utilized for the morning news. It is good for the students to see different people participating.
ReplyDeleteI am interested in the type of equipment your newsrooms uses. For instance, we use a self-contained MediaCAST (by Inventive Techonologies) cart that is equipped with its own server. Our morning news is achieved on our county Mediacast files along with all the other live morning news programs in the county. Do you have the ability to provide parents of morning news videos if requested? One thing we do is at the end of the year during our awards presentations we give every student on the news a copy of one newscast they helped produce. This year we added wireless microphones and a laptop connected to a flat screen monitor serves as our teleprompter. That makes it easier for the students and they are always looking up. We also added a daily weather report that comes from our WeatherBug station mounted on our school roof.
Overall, I have gleaned some great ideas from you post that can help improve our morning news. Thanks, Claire for sharing.
Hi Madeline,
DeleteI'm not sure the purpose of the staff poster is either. :) Our principal picks our name out of a little yellow basket and it is your week to make a poster! We all dread Wednesday's when she picks. Seriously, it is to get to know the staff in our school.
We have about 40 students who are Deaf or hard of hearing.
We do not video tape our news. It is live. I am not sure of the name of the equipment. We have a video camera that does a live broadcast to a tv which sends out on our school tv channel.
My goodness! That sounds like quite the production that that the media center must put on everyday! How long does it normally last? I have realized that ten minutes is kind of the max at a high school level in terms of attention span, so I am always curious to see how elementary and middle schools operate. I too would like to know more about the equipment that is used. Madeline, thats pretty awesome about the weatherBug and wireless microphones. I'm always intriqued by the sorts of production materials schools use. Budgets are low and resources are scarce, but some of these broadcasts are amazing. There is an application that can be downloaded onto an Ipad as well, is specifically for teleprompting. It is linked to a script writing program where one person can be writing the script while a seperate person is operating the teleprompter. Perhaps a litle advanced for highschool, but definitely cool.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that you all do different things each day is wonderful and I'd say critical. It keeps the entire school active, and I would imagine it would help create a sense of school spirit and kinship. Thanks for sharing.
As I read more about the news broadcasting done by other schools, I find myself feeling more and more envious. My school does morning announcements over the intercom, with a rotating selection of 5th grade students leading the school through the basics (pledge, mission statement, moment of silence, etc.), but I feel like we are missing out on some great opportunities by not using a TV broadcast. Your school seems to have a great balance of the basics with fun, interactive material. I can imagine with activities such as the Math Challenge and A Moment of Movement, students are excited to tune-in each morning. I think it is a smart idea to have different special features each day of the week – this keeps things fresh and interesting each day, but also establishes a routine that students can understand. How long do the media specialist and parapro devote to this each day? Also, is the media center closed during this time? Thanks for sharing!!
ReplyDeleteThe media specialist is working on this starting at 7:15. The media center is open and run by the parapro until 7:50. At the 7:50 bell, the media center does close until announcements are over. Students should be watching the news, taking lunch count, and attendance so they really shouldn't be in the media center anyway.
DeleteYour news broadcast is similar to the one at the elementary school where I have been working temporarily. The music teacher coordinates the broadcast, which is held in the workroom behind the circulation desk in the media center. In her absence, I performed her role on two occasions, which was basically to plug the cables from the camera into the closed circuit television network, practice the reports before the broadcast, and make sure all was ready to go. The students really knew what to do. This crew changes out every quarter. Other classes also send representatives to lead the pledge and the character education quote of the day. The fifth graders in the news crew read the quote, but the younger students hold it up for the camera.
ReplyDeleteI like your school’s special feature of the day. The Sign of the Week is a great way to reach out to your hearing impaired students and encourage other students to learn to sign. Schools with a diverse international population could also share words from other languages. I also like your Moment of Movement. My former middle school needs that to wake up some students! Some of the ones who need it most would probably be late and miss the morning show anyway! School news, regardless of size, can enhance the school experience for those on the crew or just viewing the broadcast.