Starting Over and Moving Forward
“If I had known then what I know now” those words from one of my favorite Pearl Jam songs have been echoing in my head for the last two months. The “then” in this case was late February 2010, when I started my first job in education. I was hired as a Program Assistant for a federal grant at a small school in South Georgia. I was 24 years old and I had no idea what I was doing.
Teaching To The Test Pattern: EP108 - Bill Phelps
In episode 108 of Teaching To The Test Pattern, Tom talks with Bill Phelps from Harrison High School. Phelps and his students produce two studio shows - Hoya Vision and HSPN - on their YouTube channel:
Broadcast Studio of Future - Mount Royal University Responds
Calgary’s Mount Royal University is committed to its communication programs - their Broadcast Media Studies Program has been running since 1961. For most of that time, it was a two-year diploma; in 2016 it became a 4-year communications degree. The MRU Broadcast Media Studies Program operates both as a modern media organization and a learning laboratory where students apply their skills to serve the wider campus community.
Westmark School Gets Brand New Production Studio
The Westmark School is now operating with a fully functional professional production studio, thanks to TV Pro Gear, NewTek, Panasonic, and Fujinon. Based in Encino, CA, Westmark serves students with language disabilities such as dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia.
How To Make Hands-On Professional Development Virtual
Camp T&I (Trade and Industry) is a three and half day family reunion shrouded in professional development. It’s been 10 years since I first attended Camp T&I. It was the back corner of a community college in Savannah, Georgia. There were a dozen or so teachers from around the state struggling to get internet access but sharing all they had with each other. I was immediately in love with this idea of a true, teacher-lead professional development.
Wilmington University Educational Technology: The Bleeding Edge on a Budget
Over 8,000 students take their degree program at Wilmington University entirely online. With such a large online presence our focus on educational technology and online learning must always be at the forefront of our student experience, and as an institution focused on affordability, budget-conscious options are always a high priority. By creating a balance between user-focused technology and budget friendly options, we’re able to create the ideal remote experience for our students and faculty.
Getting Creative with Google Classroom and Project-Based Learning
While some school districts are deploying high-tech video production setups to completely recreate the classroom environment online, that’s not an option for districts whose populations skew on the lower end of the socioeconomic totem pole. Delta County School District 50J in Colorado has roughly 56% of the student population receiving free and reduced lunch. According to Rupp, computers are not a household staple, and some of the students don’t even have access to the Internet. Finding a virtual learning solution that was easy to deploy and access was paramount.
Middle School Teacher Keeps His School’s Newscast Alive Remotely
Happy Valley Middle School’s Media Arts teacher Steve Oliver was quick to act when his school switched to the online model during the COVID-19 crisis. He runs the school newscast to help lift the spirits of his school’s community. With the help of teachers, he has successfully increased viewership, engaged fellow teachers and students, and provided a therapeutic outlet for himself and others. It is not too often that middle schools offer a media arts program let alone have a news cast. Stream Semester spoke with Steve about his unique middle school news cast.
Enrollment Marketing for Private and Charter Schools
As the 2020 school year comes to a close, focusing on school enrollment is high on the minds of private and charter school directors. Kreative Webworks’ Digital Marketing Blueprint for Schools analyzes your school’s website, competitors, and industry search trends to develop an improvement strategy that lands more eyes on your content and, in turn, more names on your waitlist.
School News Gets Social
When your students wake up in the morning, they probably check their phones before they even roll out of bed. Catawba Ridge High School’s news team was quick to take advantage of that morning routine. They post daily news updates on Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat so followers know exactly what to expect for the school day ahead.
Crafting Innovative Student News Stories During School Closures
Since the state mandated stay-at-home orders went into effect, the students have been broadcasting their weekly news show and comedy special while virtually collaborating on story ideas and production. We spoke with television production teacher Elisia Harkins-James to learn more about how her students are staying creative with their newscast.
Creating a Virtual Newscast with South High School
While moving curriculum online addresses student learning outcomes, maintaining morale is just as important. Coming to school gives students a chance to be social, explore new ideas in conversation, and fosters a sense of community among peers. Now online, having only a screen to interact with all day threatens that community. South High School in Bakersfield, California didn’t want to take that chance.
Scott Pelley’s Lessons for Aspiring Journalists
I recently started the second semester of my junior year at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism in Phoenix, Arizona and much to my surprise, a well-known figure in journalism welcomed me into this jam-packed half of one of my most important years of college. Insert Scott Pelley, journalist and author who has been a correspondent and anchor for CBS News for more than three decades.
Reed College of Media at West Virginia University
West Virginia University is an R1, land-grant institution located in Morgantown, West Virginia. It’s home to 30,000 undergraduate students. The WVU Reed College of Media is an accredited student-centered journalism school that has been graduating journalists and strategic communicators since 1939.
Esports in Education
New Esports in Education book shows how student broadcasters are finding careers in esports! Esports is an interesting new sport where students are competing at the high school and college levels nationally. At the high school level, esports players are not only competing to win tournaments but also to gain scholarships to prestigious universities.
#SpaghettiGate2019
SpaghettiGate2019 was on! We got a little bit of a pop of the first hit in the show, and when we returned after the Thanksgiving holiday, the full-court press was on! We did hits every day about SpaghettiGate2019, including one day where we did look lives from outside the office of every administrator in the building and a conference room where a "called meeting" was in session.
Right Where I Need to Be
Long-time, no talk. A lot has changed since my last School Video News blog post, which was a prompt and now, slightly cringy summary of my first semester of college at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism in Phoenix, Arizona. I am now a junior, nearly three full years in, and I feel I owe you a timeline to fill in the rather extensive gap.
Veteran’s Day Documentary - Part 3 - Ken Burns
To say that Ken Burns is a hero to me would be an understatement. Just take a look at his collection of documentaries over the years, and you will see that he is probably one of the most significant historical filmmakers of all time. Getting his attention just a few years after we started producing documentaries at our school was a career highlight for me and a pretty unforgettable teaching moment for our students.
Veteran’s Day Documentary - Part 2 - Behind the Scenes
You know the reasons I believe producing a class documentary about a local veteran can be one of the most exciting experiences for students. In summary, it pushes their script writing abilities, drives them to the edge of their technical limits, and tells a story that captures the attention of the community. Having shared why we produce stories about local veterans, I thought I would take time in this article to share the nuts and bolts of how we use a collaborative workflow to create them.
We Revisit Hoover High School After 10 Years
The Video Productions program at Hoover High School in North Canton, Ohio, began in the fall of 1998 with the purchase of two digital broadcast video cameras and one Avid Express nonlinear editing system. Today, the program is two-fold, with three levels of a Career Tech based Video Production classes and a multi-year set of Broadcast Journalism courses. Both programs are multi-award winning and are rooted in exploring the fundamentals and advanced techniques of the television and film industries.