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12/04/09
Students at Corpus Christi aren't just talking about the news, they are researching it, reporting about it and broadcasting it thanks to the school's video broadcasting program sponsored by Mrs. Krafchek. For the past three years, Corpus Christi School has been producing a student-run TV news show which is broadcast regularly to all students during the lunch periods.
The shows run from 5-8 minutes in length and include school news, a weather forecast and a variety of special features, such as our "fun facts" corner and our student and teacher interviews. There also are onsite reports at such school activities as the 5th-grade Wax Museum, Tasty Literature, and Toys for Tots and other service projects.
Mrs. Krafchek explained that "The response to my request for news anchors has been so overwhelming that I have to hold auditions each year." Currently, there are fifteen 7th and 8th graders on the news team, and eight 4th graders who give the week's weather report. She continued that "The weather segment is an extension of our school's participation in Channel 4's 'Weather Watcher' program with meteorologist Bob Ryan. The fifth grade science teacher Mrs. Miller organizes this aspect of the news."
Pulling It All Together
The coordination to pull off a weekly broadcast segment is intense and takes a lot of work each week. The process involves the following steps:
- The first few days of the week are spent collecting and finalizing news items. The school calendar provides the bulk of the "hard" news with input from local and national news sources along with some style and entertainment news.
- Classroom teachers are asked about any special academic or community activities in which their students are involved and the news team often provides their own ideas for special features.
- Mrs. Krafchek works with the students and contributing teachers to research, develop, write and approve the scripts before shooting.
- After the script is approved, the news and weather portions of the show are videotaped on Fridays, with any Special events often being filmed on location during the week.
With all the filming completed, the show is edited later on Fridays, over the weekend and on Mondays as time and busy schedules allow.
- Each week's show is run during the three lunch periods on Monday so all grades can catch the broadcast.
Fun and Learning!
"I love working with the TV news team and hope that their time here at Corpus Christi has been enhanced by this educational experience" says Mrs. Krafchek. She observed that the team members have learned about many aspects of news reporting, including script editing, interviewing skills, camera set-up and staging. She is amazed at how the students continue to grow in their self-confidence each time they are on the air, and really enjoy and have fun doing the show. As students from all grades are involved as guests on the show, they too are getting the opportunity to gain experience speaking in front of the camera.
Mrs. Krafchek explained that she hoped the program would evolve in the future. "My ultimate goal is to expand on what we have started here at Corpus Christi with the creation of a full-fledged Media Club. Students could meet more regularly and become more involved in the writing and editing process of the news show and really take this to the next level in professional reporting."
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