School News!!
Every school has some sort of announcement system. In many schools it is the school library media specialist who is given the task of producing the morning news and announcements. Possible variations include:
- intercom announcements
- daily email or newsletter
- close-circuit television show
account. Another option, is to use Schooltube.com which is recommended by AASL.
The content will usually have some standard features such as the pledge of allegiance, lunch menu, or student birthdays. Interest can be added by including special guests , quotes, math problem 'competitions', character education, joke of the week, and student skits. etc.- The Seattle Public School District has its own cable channel and airs the news at scheduled times as well as a live feed. Seattle Public Schools Media Operations Center
- Tenafly High School has an amazing library media webpage where users can access the webcast through online streaming. http://www.librarymedia.net/
As the school media specialist we can use this additional role to advertise and advocate the media center.
- new books added to the collection or can be checked out
- an interesting website or research tool
- highlight class activities that incorporate media literacy
- author interviews and book talks
- award prizes for most books read
- Keep your eyes and ears open; listen to what your friends are talking about.
- Watch or read your daily school morning announcements.
- Read everything you can get your hands on; get story ideas from other newspapers, magazines, or any online news or television source.
- Think of a youth angle to a current local or national news story.
- Research a subject that interests you and ask yourself, what you would like to know more about.
- Talk to people, your friends, teachers, principals, community members, and parents to find out what is important to them.
- Check out videos online, such as SchoolTube.com, to see what other students are producing. (Goble, 2013)
Morning News Builds School Community
This article gives great ideas for school news program content.
This article gives great ideas for school news program content.
This article demonstrates how a school news show can be student brain powered. "It was about critical thinking skills, decision making, empowerment, ownership, community, and, of course, vision." (Bencivenga, 2006)
For the media specialist that want to upgrade the production quality School Video News
is a free online publication that covers all aspects of televised news production for K-12.
Another aspect to producing televised news is the use of the experience as a technology teaching tool if not a full blown production class.
is a free online publication that covers all aspects of televised news production for K-12.
Another aspect to producing televised news is the use of the experience as a technology teaching tool if not a full blown production class.
Detailed article with steps documenting pre-poduction process through post-production. Websites included for weather, current events and world news.
Citations:
Image. (2005).Gwynneth Anne Bronwynn Jones.
Image. (2103). Beatrice Daily Sun.
Bencivenga, Anthony. (2006, August 30). Lights! Camera! Action! Student News Coming Your Way. Edutopia. Retrieved February 16, 2015 from http://www.edutopia.org/lights-camera-student-news-coming-your-way
Goble, Don. ( 2012, Jan. 13) "Finding Stories Ideas and Successfully Preparing for your Student Television Show." Digital Media Resources. Retrieved Feb. 17, 2015 online from http://www.jeadigitalmedia.org/2012/01/23/finding-story-ideas-and-successfully-preparing-for-your-student-television-show/
Catherine (Team 5),
ReplyDeleteIn reading the beginning of your blog entry, it made me think about how our announcements are done at my school. We are a Fine Arts Magnet School that includes a Video Broadcasting program, so our Video Broadcasting teacher is pretty much in charge of creating the announcements video. Although the video is usually great with lots of different student broadcasters on it, we are running into the issue of teachers not playing the video for students during the scheduled time. Our video broadcasting teacher is very enthusiastic about the creating the broadcast each week and I don’t doubt that he would work with our media specialist to create different parts of the broadcast to promote the media center more. I see in your post that you also highlight the importance of following copyright laws concerning pictures and music. Our broadcasting teacher actually has found a website with thousands of songs that are royalty free for the kids to use I their projects and broadcast. In one of the articles you placed in your blog, it stated that students are more receptive to the news when it comes from their peers and I definitely think that is true. I also think that it a great idea to start the day off with upbeat announcements to get the students excited about being at school and what the school day will bring throughout the day. I also liked some of the additional things that you and the articles you posted suggest such as a moment of silence, trivia, funny jokes, simple word math problems. As I think about more of the media specialist role, I begin to place some of these suggestions in my mind in terms of the media center. You could do trivia questions once a week on the announcements about a hot author that all the students seem to like and award a prize to the first person or first few persons to get it correct. This will bring traffic into the media center as well!
In our school we use all of the news options you stated. Our video broadcast group does a weekly show, our students present the morning and afternoon announcements and our media specialist puts together our PowerPoint slideshow scrolling announcements which are shown on televisions in the front office and cafeterias. I love your idea of advertising the media center in the announcements. We may not be able to do this with the morning and afternoon announcements because there are so many but we could definitely add them to the weekly show and the scrolling announcements. This really gets me thinking about how to improve the visitations to the media center. If the students know what is going on in the media center they are more likely to come in and check it out.
ReplyDeleteSchool News is informative no matter how it gets to the students, staff and parents. You’re right in stating that much of this information falls into the School Library Media Specialist job duties. I know here in Bibb County every morning several of our elementary schools have a news team that leads the morning news informing the staff and students of what’s going on for the day. There is a segment that introduces the “word of the day” which is awesome fun because the kids get a chance to learn something new and the staff gets a chance to use it in their lesson plans. Getting kids involved is what learning is all about and if we can be the ones to do it in a creative and innovative way, then let’s do just that. It’s not very costly and can be done within 30 minutes or so without interrupting daily instruction and besides its something the students enjoy, will remember and can relate too.
ReplyDeleteLots of food for thought! I currently do the video news broadcast for my school. It is a great way to involve students in the workings of the school on a daily basis. I like the idea of making a link to the news on the media center webpage. Our school uses Media Cast to access the news broadcast. This system makes is really easy for teachers to show the news to students via whiteboards in the classroom. Parents do not have access at this point, so I will need to figure out how to pull a link from the system to post on the media center webpage. I think the parents would really enjoy seeing the news!
ReplyDeleteThanks for including the article links in your blog! It's nice to get fresh ideas for the news. I feel like we get stuck in our news routine. I like changing segments up and adding new aspects to the program to keep the audience engaged! Students really do feel more involved and a part of the school when they see themselves on the news, so I think it's a perfect way to create a sense of community!
Wow! Lots of great information Catherine! We have a school broadcast show that airs on Tuesday-Friday mornings. Though it is not as WOW as the one done by Orenco Elementary, it gets the job done, and is something our students are proud of. It is pre-recorded and then shown either on our video distribution system, or it is saved to our school's network drive and can be accessed at any time of day. The broadcast covers the pledge, announcements, lunch menu, etc. There are also various segments that appear daily like Tuesday jokes, Thursdays happenings around Lakewood where they show a picture slideshow set to music, then a Friday showcase. The Friday showcase is a presentation by one of the classes doing something. It can be anything from a song, a skit, reciting a poem, or even pictures of an activity. Last year, when it was my turn, we used pictures of our progress in the garden. We are a science magnet school, and have a full-working greenhouse and garden. My showcase day was in the spring, and we had planted potatoes that February. We were able to compile a slideshow of the garden beds from planting, weeding, and almost to the harvest. It was really neat to share that experience with other classes who do not use the garden, and my own kids LOVED seeing themselves. Being able to include other classes in the broadcast is a great way to get more kids involved. I like the idea of having a club or consistent group to actually conduct the broadcast each week, but having segments to include others is a great way to make it a school-wide broadcast.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Brandi - that is a lot of information - but good information. I like how you give many ideas about how to create a broadcast. It doesn't have to be complicated and I tend to complicate this idea. I keep thinking I need special equipment and that it has to be live, but you give the idea about recording these ahead of time and posting them on the media webpage. That is a great way to get traffic onto the page as well as getting out the latest news. I also appreciate the ideas of topics that can be covered on the news Some of these things I hadn't thought about. I like how in the picture they are using an i Pad to record the broadcast - how simple is that? I do think this is a wonderful tool that we all need to take advantage of. Many schools are creating these broadcast and I HAVE to get on the ball to create one for our school.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of recording the news and adding it to the media center website but does that open the door to all kind of security issues with people other than parents having access? I know we all sign a photo permission slip so maybe that would cover posting videos of kids on the school website. I'm not really sure how I feel about that. Although when my daughter was on the news crew I would have loved to watch her do announcements.
ReplyDeleteI really liked your ideas for the news show. I especially like the idea of showcasing a class and what they are learning in their classroom. One thing I've learned is that kids love to see themselves on the news. And if it helps get students excited about what they are learning then it would be all worth it.
I love that this topic was brought into our discussion on technology. Almost every school has a TV broadcast system -- and I do not feel like we have had many discussions through my classes about this very thing.
ReplyDeleteOur school has a broadcast that is also live-fed to a local cable channel so that parents and those around the neighborhood can tune in on a daily basis.
Our school is blessed to have a full-time media specialist AND a full-time technology coordinator. The tech coordinator is the main person in charge of the video broadcast.
It is a huge deal at our school though. Rising 5th graders audition for the part and are trained by the current members for the last month of school. Every day, there are news anchors and small blurbs. Also - the principal has a weekly warm-up where she rewards students for excellent behavior. There are announcements of teacher birthdays, upcoming events, and fun segments such as Spanish Spotlight, Book Nook, and Miss Manners. The students do all their own research and production -- with the technology coordinator being there simply to ensure that everything runs smoothly.
Overall, I think the video broadcasting is such an important piece of the technology component of school. The students who are the broadcast are school celebrities. It helps other students to see technology in action and the community gets to also be a part of this integral part of our morning.
At the elementary school where I teach, the STEM and Music teachers are in charge of the school news program, not the Media Specialist. After reading your post, I can definitely see how using the news program to highlight new book arrivals, author interviews, and student/class created book trailers would be an excellent way to promote the media center. Our school uses iMovie to produce the news program, record music, use voiceovers, and create a slideshow to highlight student activities. Thank you for sharing other resource links in your blog. I will definitely check these out and share them with the STEM and Music teachers at my school....and maybe bookmark them for when I become a media specialist and create my own news team!
ReplyDeleteGreat information Catherine!! School news is always important and the means of delivering the news is different at every school. At the high school I teach at the Media Center creates a newsletter that all teachers/staff can add information to. The newsletters are mailed home quarterly and have all kinds of school information that parents and students may be interested in. I think they tried to do a weekly video news but it never seemed to catch on. I think unless there is a set time to show videos it is hard to get 100% of the staff on board. I LOVE the idea of having a youtube channel or webcast that students can access. With technology in the hands of almost every students these days, giving them the opportunity to access news and information is a great idea.
ReplyDeleteI am the coordinator for our closed circuit morning news program at my school and it is a lot of fun. We include our school mission, pledge, weather, lunch, character education, student awards, and on Friday we have a dance party. In the near future I would like to add our Birthday Book Club participants and some student created Accelerated Reader videos to help motivate students to reach their goals. I also think it is a fabulous idea to have a link on the media webpage and school Facebook page for parents to watch the news. Right now I post a picture of our pledge helpers every day and the parents love it!
ReplyDeleteI liked the website you posted that suggested having math problems of the day or fun riddles for the kids. They had some good ideas that could be easily implemented.
I enjoyed reading your posting; it was filled with tons of great references. I was not aware of school tube and I found myself actually watching videos! At my school we have the daily announcements read over the intercom, but I think using some sort of video distribution that can tie in with the media center’s website is super cool and I think the kids would enjoy it more.
ReplyDelete