One week into my 8th grade Eagle News and I can say with all sincerity that I am so pumped for this school year! I realized a couple of years ago that taking a media production course and committing to it for an entire year in 8th grade wasn’t for everyone. I realized while being in charge of the Washington D.C. trip for the entire 8th grade that more than half of the students in 8th grade didn’t want to take Eagle News for 6 weeks (1 grading cycle for Unified Arts classes).
So as the years passed, the class became this machine that was run by a specific smaller number of students. Eagle News “all year” is a term out there amongst students as taking Eagle News all year-long, not only to be able to put your stamp on the newscast in the morning, but to also do some of the newer things out there in technology and media.
Two years ago, our students created Aurasmas that allowed the use of an iPhone or iPad to scan an image and a video played over top of that image. It was brand new and our students did a bunch of these all over the building. But no one watched it because nobody knew anything about Augmented Reality and now we have Pokemon Go. I want to revisit Aurasma this year and I am excited about that.
Two years ago, Eagle News started an instagram page and we were the first to do it. It was exciting to share all the great things that happens at Hyatts. This year we will do Snapchat stories and we are hoping to do a couple more activities outside the morning broadcast to get the students using the new technology as the proper tool to share the phenomenal things that happen in our building each and every day!
I wonder, why do the students choose to take Eagle News all year-long? There are favorite projects that kids say that want to be a part of, like our annual Lip Dub or the Hyatts Film Festival, but what else pushes kids to want to be a part of, what I consider “the Program” and then I think of it as “the Family” as we grow as together in Eagle News.
Video Production is not easy. A simple slide show takes 90 minutes to make and make it well. A two-minute video(which is what I expect for most projects) takes a couple of days to a week to make. I also ask the students to update the teleprompter every night, take 5-10 Instagram pics, tweet to keep our twitter feed fresh, organize the equipment, use your free time to cover an event, film, edit, research, download music, create, imagine, tell a story all in such a short time in class and so on and these students do this without question.
Why do they do this? A teacher at Olentangy High School that I met this summer wrote this fabulous blog post about “The Week of Why?” and what I took from that article is that I am doing what motivates some kids and engages them to their technical side or their creative side or their stardom side of who they really are. I can see that already in a lot of students in class after 8 class periods.
Do students like to act, share, edit, write, sing, collaborate, report, interview, create and love? It’s evident that I have a group of dedicated kiddos already ands hat they accomplished in a short amount of time is amazing.
One week of Eagle News is in the books. What about the kids taking the class now, but they only want to be here for six weeks? They want to try other classes and experience the other offerings that Hyatts has. I respect that! I understand and encourage them to make the most of their 8th grade year. If they need my help and it’s a skill that is beyond what they get out of their six weeks with me, then I will help them. I look forward to those challenges.
My job for them and all students is to share as much as I can about the skills presented in our class. How can they use the speech skills, the presenter skills, the editing skills and the research skills that I will show them and transfer it to other classes or other life opportunities and be GREAT!
That’s my goal for my 8th grade students. Some are so determined they are working with all the equipment and motivated to share and some are waiting for me to guide. When I guide them, the Hyatts community and the world can see what all kids have to offer and I am determined to encourage the best out of all of them.
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