As a third grade teacher at Clarkesville Elementary, I view a school news broadcast every morning. Even though I was very familiar with the daily school news, I decided to sit down and talk with the media specialist at my school today during my planning time to discuss the school news broadcast. She explained that four fifth graders are chosen each nine weeks to participate in the school news broadcast. Two of the students serve as the news anchors, while the other two students operate the video camera and sound. At the beginning of every school year, the media specialist goes around to all of the fifth grade classrooms and discusses the news broadcast team. The students are then given the opportunity to sign up to audition to be a part of the broadcast team. The auditions are held in the media center and four students are chosen for each nine weeks. Therefore, 16 students are chosen in all for the school year.
The media specialist has a script written out for the anchors to read from during the news broadcast. Several components of the script stay the same each week. For example, the Pledge of Allegiance, the moment of silence and KIP's Code (school motto) will be same each day. The character education word of the week changes each week. However, the counselor talks about the character education word each day on the news broadcast. She discusses what the word means, gives examples, shows videos and even reads books to help the students better understand the meaning of the character education word.
Teachers may turn in any announcements that they would like to be read on the school news to the media center and the anchors will read them the next morning. Our school administrators use the daily news broadcast to communicate important announcements with the students. The administrators even draw out of grade level containers every Friday for lunch with the principal.
The school annoncements are very popular at Clarkesville Elementary. No matter what my students are working on in the morning, they are quiet as soon as the announcements begin because they want to make sure they don't miss anything they may need to know!
I believe that it is very important to have a school news broadcast that is at least aired to the entire student body each week. Although I can't imagine our school changing from a daily news broadcast to a weekly broadcast because there is so much happening at our school! The daily news is a wonderful way for the students, teachers and administrators to communicate with one another.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
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So are the announcements live!!!??? That is scary. I guess maybe not in elementary school, but it sure would be in middle school. We do it basically the same way, except ours are prerecorded. We also select a new group of 4 or 5 5th graders each week. I like that because it allows all the kids to get a chance to participate. It does have some drawbacks though. Announcements are not as "professional" as they would be with the same group of students each week. Some groups are way better than others!
ReplyDeleteThe announcements in my elementary school are live and it works very well. The broadcast is led mostly by 5th graders in various leadership roles (student council, recycling captain, debate team, science olympian, etc.) However, students from other grade levels are aloud to participate if the need arises. Students from all grade levels are used to present character words and other announcements that are relevant to various activities. I agree that taking away a daily broadcast to be replaced by a weekly one may have its disadvantages. Students and teachers like the reminders that come with daily updates and allow us to stay connected with the "moment". Sometimes a significant event on a Monday will be forgotten by Friday due to other "significant" events.
ReplyDeleteJessica--It seems like your school media specialist has a great plan. I love the idea of auditions. When I worked in the primary school and elementary school, we also broadcasted live. This is an excellent opportunity for students who get to do the broadcast but also a good way to communicate to the student body. Of course,on the high school level we do not do a morning show but we do have announcements. Unfortunately, most students see this as a special time for visting with their friends rather than listening.
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