Category: Podcast

Teaching To The Test Pattern: Mark Hendren from Helena High School

The highlights were crap.

Mark Hendren will tell you that himself. He was a teenager at Mississippi State. The cameraman who was supposed to shoot highlights for TV stations across the Southeast didn’t show. Mark said he could do it. He had never done it. He had watched someone do it. He said yes anyway.

The footage was bad. But the guy who was supposed to be there came back the next day and taught him. Zoomed in on this. Pulled back this way. This is how I do it. Mark learned. He went on to shoot for ESPN in his teens, work all four TV stations in Birmingham, and build a career that a whole other podcast could cover.

He’s three years into the classroom now. Helena High School. Teaching broadcast.

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Teaching To The Test Pattern: Billy Dunn from the Albertville Innovation Academy

He outproduced NASA. Seven cameras to their four at the Huntsville Space and Rocket Center. And at the end of the year, he sat down and told me he didn’t think he grew.

This conversation with Billy Dunn from Albertville Innovation Academy is one of the most honest things we’ve put on this podcast. Billy came from Fox 6 in Birmingham — gold standard broadcast — walked into a classroom, and is now three years in, running five jumbotrons across five sports, building a state-level AV teacher conference from scratch, and wondering if he’s doing it right. The answer might surprise you.

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Teaching To The Test Pattern: Evan Rosenberry

What does a marketing teacher in Gwinnett County know about broadcast education? More than you’d expect.

Tom sits down with Evan Rosenberry at Collins Hill High School — the first marketing teacher in Teaching to the Test Pattern history — and the conversation goes places. AI in the classroom, why banning it might be the worst thing you can do for your students, a student MLB franchise project that ended up in Seoul, Korea, and what happened when Evan handed his kids the VidPod and said “figure it out.”

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September Content Ideas

Explore engaging May content ideas for school programs, including Teacher Appreciation Week, monthly celebrations like Mental Health Awareness and National Photography Month, and daily event coverage from World Password Day to National Burger Day. Discover creative social media post prompts and article topics for effective student engagement and program promotion. Perfect for educators and student media creators looking to plan compelling content for May 2025.

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FIVE UNDERRATED RESOURCES FOR NEW(ISH) TEACHERS

As the new school year approaches, a focus on organization and structure leads to the discovery of valuable resources for educators. Explore free music, stock footage, and photos from Pixabay. Uncover the “secret sauce” of texture with Texturelabs for enhancing motion graphics and text. Experience studio-quality audio with Adobe Podcast/Enhance Speech, now integrated into Premiere. Discover a wealth of film-related resources, including a Canvas curriculum shell, on Sneak on the Lot. Power up your motion graphics with the MotionBro Premiere extension, offering professional preset text assets. These resources aim to excite and prepare you for the year ahead.

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5 Trends To Watch In 2025

In this portion of the conversation, we will take a look at trends in video production that will have a great impact on your classroom. From advanced production techniques that are simple enough to be done in K-12 to how the industry’s sales goals will trickle down to your classroom, let’s take a look at the 5 trends to watch in 2025.

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Sometimes work just sucks.

Discover the transformative power of daily positivity in the world of teaching as we delve into the candid experiences of an 18-year classroom veteran. Facing the challenges of burnout and the quest for renewed passion, this article explores the impact of making intentional, positive choices each day. Drawing inspiration from Dr. Amy Cuddy’s TED Talk on “faking it until you become it,” the narrative unfolds with humor and honesty.

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Failing To Succeed

This picture (John Paul Jones, Dave Grohl, and me) popped up in my memories today and set me back. This was the day I knew something had to change – 2/11/2010.

Long story short: I didn’t set up my own gear and got burned. The radio station had done a promotion for two weeks where listeners were able to ask these titans of rock music any question. It was a big deal. We had a real film crew with real lights and cameras for an interview. I was in charge of audio and cutting the BS and excuses- the audio wasn’t usable so the whole promotion was ruined. And it was my fault.

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