Just For TV Teachers

Next week, I have to move every single item out of my classroom/studio to make way for a major renovation this summer. That will take a major effort by my students, because their final exam will now include a section testing their “manual labor” expertise. What, it’s not in the syllabus? Sure it is, under “class participation.”

My final words of wisdom for the 2007-2008 school year follow.

Teachers, more of us need to get our kids IN THE FIELD, talking to sources, gathering information from somewhere other than the local newspaper, the school building, or the Internet. Make them connect with human beings who are newsmakers, who are real characters with important stories to share. This generation is about to lose the skill of having conversations that don’t involve a palm-sized electronic device doing the communicating.

Personally, I know I need to do a better job of getting kids to push past the obvious. I challenge them to tell me at least one thing I don’t know in every story they do. It sounds like a modest goal, but how many scholastic stories have you watched and later thought, “tastes great, less filling” was a fair review? Pretty pictures and graphics, but no new or surprising or compelling content.

So finally, let’s turn to some professionals for inspiration as we prepare for summer, and sunny days away from the studio and the young people we seek to inspire.

These are your Final Axioms. Please memorize. There may be a surprise quiz in July. Oops, there goes the surprise.

*News is people, producer Tiffany Bommarito of KSDK once told me. It’s simple, I know. But it’s so true.

*Bob Dotson of NBC News says every story should be about “you,” the viewer.

*Steve Hartman and Les Rose of CBS News consistently proved “everybody has a story.”

*Say it, prove it. Thanks to Jerry Jacob for passing that along at “Camp STN” a few years ago. News is still about attribution and truth.

*Wear your headphones. Sorry. Not real deep. That’s mine. We mess up audio all the time. Just thought I’d toss that in.

Here at Hillcrest, the “goodbyes” are over, my seniors have walked the line, and sometime in late August, the 20th year of “HTV Magazine” will begin. We’ve got plenty of work to do soon enough. For now, some frozen custard and the occasional Starbucks mocha will suffice.

Have a great summer, teachers. You deserve it.

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I’ve seen a couple of episodes of MTV’s “The Paper.” It’s a reality (sort of) show about a high school newspaper staff in Florida. These kids at Cyprus Bay HS have a newsroom many professional staffs would envy. Computers everywhere, all the resources to produce a great product. Their paper is called “The Circuit.” From what I’ve seen, they take their content seriously, and they work long hours to produce a quality publication.

It all got me thinking about the daily drama that takes place in the HTV “newsroom.” Would it make an entertaining reality show? Should we call MTV and make a pitch? Nah. Not much going on here.

We just finished a year of almost no drama. The kids played well together, and everyone respected each other. Even those who aren’t the closest of friends worked well together, or gave each other plenty of space. The loudest arguments were usually about lunch choices.

It can work both ways, really. I’ve had great staffs that bickered a lot, but still found a way to produce good shows with good stories. It was not fun for me to constantly referee the conflicts, or navigate around the egos. I enjoyed the kinder, gentler atmosphere of 2007-2008. Our leaders on staff set a nice tone, and it all came together nicely. We had a great team, with some outstanding individuals.

To be honest, TV is a lot like baseball. While it takes a team effort to achieve the desired result–a good show–it’s all the individual efforts that make that possible. In baseball, you have to hit the ball, catch the ball, or run the bases all by yourself. The production of a news story is about the reporter doing homework and preparing for interviews. It’s also about a photographer checking all of the equipment, and knowing how to use it when he or she is in the field.

The final result of a lot of great individual effort is a program that collectively, the entire staff can be proud of. That’s why we teach each kid to shoot, edit, interview and write. Some will gravitate to one role or another eventually, but by giving them all the tools they can individually utilize, we strengthen the entire team’s performance.

As for the drama and conflict on “The Paper,” it’s reality TV. Egos and conflict and sometimes, “manufactured” moments are what we have come to expect. It seems to me that those kids in Florida do care about their final product. Too bad they can’t find a less volatile way to produce it. Of course, if they did, MTV wouldn’t give them the time of day.

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Just back from the Windy City. What a great couple of days, despite being a “Cardinal in Cub country.”

I was privileged to take two of my students, Rachel Miles and Kendra Weatherford, to the ceremony for the National Television Academy’s “Awards for Excellence” Friday evening. There are only seven categories for high school broadcasters. Back in January, and Rachel and Kendra produced a piece called “Easy Access” that proved how easily teens can purchase alcohol online. It was the winner in the “News” category.

What a thrill for them to meet Av Westin, who worked for Edward R. Murrow, ran ABC News, and created a show still on the air called “20-20.” At Westin’s request, the girls’ segment ran in its entirety, and was the last award presented. He described it as a story that “didn’t leave anything out.” He said it could run on network news as is, and was just so nice in all if his remarks. Quite a memory for the girls, and for their teacher.

It was nice to see the gang from Carlsbad High School, a fellow STN school, and their teacher, Doug Green, at the event. They won for Craft Achievement. The other five winners were from schools I did not know. We got to watch clips of all the entries, and enjoyed a great meal and plenty of photo ops. Both Rachel and Kendra’s parents made it to the ceremony, which made it even more special.

The other highlight was taking the girls to “Wicked” the day after the NTA ceremony. Or did they take me? As soon as they learned of their award, our effort to get tickets to the musical began. We were successful, and I have to admit, it was a great time for all of us. Don’t ask me what we paid, but I think it was enough to merit a personal ride on the witch’s broom. I loved watching the staging of the show, and how they were able to transition between sets and scenes in just seconds. It takes us just a little longer to re-light during our HTV anchor taping.

One line from the play had me laughing out loud. “There’s a goat on the lamb.” I guffawed, while Kendra and Rachel sat quietly. Turns out they had not heard the phrase “on the lamb” before. I explained it later, but when you have to explain a joke, it loses its impact.

So we arrived home safely, only about 35 minutes late, which is as close to on time I ever get anywhere on United. To escape O’Hare Airport within an hour or two of your scheduled departure time is also a victory. So all in all, it was a great weekend.

Happy Mother’s Day, mom, Martha, and all the mothers out there.

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So I will be filing three more blogs to wrap up the 2007-2008 school year. It’s been a good year for me, and our broadcast program. The students have been fun to work with and I will definitely miss the seniors when they leave. Now, what to write about in this third-to-the-last blog…

I could write about the renovations to my classroom taking place this summer. What that means is we have about 19 years of stuff to move out of our room and store in well, another room, by no later than June 2. I am afraid to see what long lost “treasures” have been hiding on top of Edit Bays 5, 6 and 7, where we tend to toss stuff to get it out of the way.

I could also write about the next “HTV Magazine.” It appears it will be a pretty good show. I would not have been too confident about that two weeks ago. Seniors tend to check out early, about a month before their bodies actually stop showing up. This year, we’ve had a very dependable staff, so iit looks like the class of ‘08 will go out in style.

I could discuss our annual media banquet, which takes place May 22. We give out awards, honor our latest HTV Hall of Fame inductees, show some funny clips the parents in attendance haven’t seen before, just to remind them we media types are far from normal at times. It’s a great night, but there is quite a bit of preparation put into it. Just one more deadline to face.

I could give you a veteran teacher’s sage advice on how to cope with the end of the school year. That advice would probably be pointless since teachers, administrators, secretaries, cooks, custodians, and bus drivers are just as anxious to get to the end of the year as the students are.

Instead, I think I’ll write about Carrie Underwood’s new music video: I like it.

Okay, two to go.

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So your show needs to step up its content. The topics you have been covering to death, like school activities, sports, those talented teens, good community causes, all the “usual suspects,” have gotten old. But the administration, in your building or in your district, is watching closely. You operate under prior review, like most scholastic broadcasts. Everyone likes your show as it is with its relatively safe content, and you are concerned about taking on edgier fare and getting it past the higher-ups.

The best advice I have for your kids if they really want to tackle tougher stories and do more in-depth, substantive journalism, is to start covering controversial topics that have nothing to do with the school.

That’s right. It’s a good bet your administration will be more forgiving of stories that highlight the tough stuff teens are dealing with, from drugs to alcohol to depression to whatever. As long as it doesn’t make the school or district look bad.

Based on years of experience, I think the fastest way to get into trouble is to cover anything that criticizes the school district’s use of funds. It will strike nerves from the principal all the way up the ladder to the school board president. The second-fastest way to fall under scrutiny is to criticize athletic teams, or the money spent to keep certain sports alive despite lack of success or student involvement. Basically, every school has its sacred cows, and there are land mines all around them.

Non-school topics also bring their challenges. They are not easy to cover. Kids have to get off campus, spend time away from school chasing down sources, and basically go to the story, wherever it is. It means your young journalists will have to approach people who do not know them, or your program. Establishing credibility with total strangers takes skill and maturity.

Once kids get a taste of taking on controversial, challenging issues not related to your school, they will find it rewarding and more “real.” Then, after establishing a track record of accuracy and fairness in handling those stories, it will be easier to make the case that your kids have earned the right to report on school-related issues and policies.

Remember, I didn’t say you should not cover potentially sticky school topics. You definitely should. You just have to come at them with a proven track record, a record of professionalism that will open doors for your student journalists. Our kids SHOULD be watching district decisions and policies that impact them, and they should be prepared to shine a fair, but bright light on those who are making those decisions.

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Mid-April means time to get serious here in Springfield as we prepare for “Camp STN,” coming in three forms this summer.

First up, our “Returners-Only” camp for teachers who have previously attended our week-long workshop. This one has some added spice this year because Les Rose, award-winning CBS News photog, is joining the staff. We can’t wait to see his presentations, and get him involved with the assignments and critiques we put teachers through. Remember, it’s “teacher-as-student” at Camp STN. We are working on all sorts of surprises for this year’s returnees. It all starts on July 13.

A week later, the “big camp,” as it’s known to the staff, begins. On July 20 we will welcome teachers from across the nation who will be attending for the first time. We have hosted the camp since the summer of 2000, so this year we will be changing up some of our approaches, re-thinking the order of our presentations, and basically just giving the camp some fresh content. The week of the “big camp” is probably my favorite week of the summer, and it’s so nice to work with teachers who discover they are no longer alone in TV Land.

Finally, from August 4-7, we will travel to Lee’s Summit West High School in Kansas City to work with ambitious young broadcasters attending “Camp STN For Students.” We will keep them hopping all day, and by the end of the week, the kids usually have a new vocabulary, and a better appreciation of video storytelling.

Registration for all three camps remains open at: www.campstn.com. As I type this, it appears we will fill all three camps in the next month or so. Register soon. We would love to see you in Springfield for teacher camp, or in KC for the kids camp.

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This head cold I am experiencing has made it impossible to sleep, so I am exhausted from all the wheezing and sneezing. I don’t think I’ve taken a deep breath in at least a week. So I decided this week’s blog would be quick-hittters about this and that. I’ll do my best to stay positive.

*”Idol Gives Back” on Wednesday night was fun to watch, but about an hour too long. I thought Carrie Underwood and Fergie were the highlights. My wife says whoever dresses Carrie is doing a great job. Teri Hatcher gets props for taking on “Before He Cheats” with Carrie in the house. She wasn’t great, but she gave it her best. I grew up in the era of variety shows, so that may be why I liked IGB as much as I did. I still think Jimmy Kimmel falls back on crude jokes too much.

*Baseball is back, and the Royals are playing well. So are my Cardinals. I don’t expect either team to finish near the top, so we better enjoy it while we can.

*I don’t know much about global warming and its impact, but it seems to me we have more extreme weather now than we used to. We’ve been flooded in the Ozarks this spring, coming off a rough winter. I wonder how hot this summer will be.

*I am not real political, but it seems to me the candidates are not talking much about gas prices. I read where gas was at $1.42 a gallon when President Bush took office, and now it’s up to well over $3.00 most places. It’s going to hurt so many industries and people in the months ahead if the prices keep going up. Just ask the kid who delivers your pizza.

*It was 20 years ago that I had the pleasure of coaching a state champion baseball team at Hillcrest. I don’t see those guys much, but maybe I’ll drop by the class of ‘88 reunion this summer to reminisce. Those were some great times, which I wouldn’t trade for anything, but for some reason, I burned out on coaching faster than most. It may be because I was spoiled by the really good teams we had in the late 80s. We were in the USA Today Super 25 for nine weeks one year. That was cool.

*My HTV seniors have one more program to produce. I told them to just do a good show, and not to feel any pressure to do a great, last story. They have been a wonderful group to work with, and the stories they have produced have been memorable.

*Finally, a sad note I feel compelled to share. My youngest daughter went through some trauma a couple of weeks ago. While waiting at a stoplight two blocks from home, her dog Mickey jumped out of her car window, something he had never done, and landed in front of an oncoming truck. He was killed instantly, and my daughter saw it all. She instantly felt heartache, guilt, and a great sense of loss. For anyone, but especially single girls who count on their pets for companionship, it’s like losing a member of the family. The good news is, she says she will get another dog soon, and she also has wonderful memories of Mickey, who was her first pet ever. We buried him in my parents’ backyard. I was the pall bearer.

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I’ve been teaching long enough to have sons and daughters of former students take my class and tell me their mom or dad says to tell me “hi.” What I hear on my end is, “YOU ARE SO OLD!” but I smile and tell them “hi” back.

I’ve been teaching long enough to see us go from no final exams, to mandated final exams, to final “evaluative activities,” and then back to final exams. Hard to see how any of it really made much of an impact. Finals are a nice PR tool, but don’t really matter if you don’t give a test at the beginning of the year to see where kids started.

I’ve been teaching long enough to see us go from an unarmed security guard in plain clothes, to a “safety officer” in a cop-like uniform, carrying mace, handcuffs and a gun.

I’ve been teaching long enough that most of the administrators in my building, or “downtown” at district headquarters were in middle school when I started at Hillcrest.

When I started teaching, there were no block schedules, no computer on my desk, no e-mail, only two phones in the building that I could access if absolutely necessary, and students did research with World Books and microfilm at the public library. They usually wrote research papers by hand.

Once when I taught the “demonstration speech” in English I, a student brought in his rifle and showed us how to clean it.

The students still call me “Coach Davis,” but maybe half of my kids know what sport I coached for ten years.

Our school is in its 50th year. We have had six principals. I have worked for five of them.

I’ve been teaching so long that none of the students on my current staff were born when “HTV Magazine” aired its first show.

None of my students know what a jog shuttle is, or how to shoot with a camera on your shoulder. They do not understand “tracking” and how to correct it.

We produced our first 50 shows without access to the Internet, the first 90 without digital cameras or non-linear editing systems. We couldn’t do slow motion until 2001.

Our first 12 staffs operated without cell phones, our first 15 without text messaging.

The man who hired me to teach has been dead ten years.

In two months, when a long-time colleague retires, I will have the most seniority in our building.

I referenced “Laugh-In” in class last week and not one student knew what I was talking about.

The “fickle finger of fate” has certainly played a cruel joke on me. When, exactly, did I get so old?

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Our HTV trip to Hawaii is winding down. We’ve been here for a week and it will soon be time to return home to the Ozarks, where torrential rains made us glad we were in the sunshine of Oahu the last few days.

We are so thankful we can take trips like this once in a while. Travel is always educational. The learning never stops. The HTVers on this trip saved their money for almost a year, took part-time jobs, or relied on the kindness of their generous parental units to make this trip possible.

Our chaperones paid their way, and have been wonderful. I had 14 kids and 13 adults along, and that’s a nice ratio, trust me. Just think if you had a classroom aid for every kid. I like those odds.

I am typing this blog while watching ‘March Madness” at 7 a.m. in my hotel room, overlooking the ocean. Surreal for a boy from the landlocked midwest.

The trip began with a two-day visit to Waianae High School where teacher Candy Suiso opened up her facility and her huge heart, providing so many things to our group that it’s almost embarrassing to write about them now. For no charge, members of our HTV gang enjoyed surfing, dolphin and whale-watching exursions, site-seeing, a luau, and our money was no good when it came to well, anything.

The students from Searider Productions and HTV Magazine found common ground, literally. They camped out together on cots under a tent provided by the Waianae JROTC. We old folks took our cots indoors, sleeping in the WHS TV and newspaper classrooms.

We spent about two hours sharing video clips with each other one morning, and once again we were amazed at the creativity and skill of the Waianae staff. It was fun to watch them celebrate their latest national award when they learned they had won first place in the RTNDF “Five Freedoms” PSA Contest. It was a great moment, but not overdone. They were honored, but humble.

Candy and I marveled that we met 12 long years ago at a convention, and somehow have managed to keep that friendship alive so long, from so far away. Her remarks to the entire group about making connections rang true. This is one connection we have valued through the years.

Lynne Sueoka and her wonderful students from Moanalua High School joined the fun each day, and that added even more of a real Hawaiian flavor to the trip. Lynne is a leader in the Student Television Network, serving on the Executive Council and overseeing the organization’s quarterly newsletter. She is all about teaching and learning. I am glad her relatively young broadcast program has come so far, so fast.

The rest of the week was spent in the Waikiki area, where the HTVers stayed very busy. You can’t put midwestern kids this close to an ocean and expect them to stay dry. Plenty of swimming, tanning, and just playing in the sand. They deserve it. They have worked hard this year, and we’ll have two or three stories from this trip to share on our show when we get home, so we did do a little work. A little.

Hawaii is a world away for most of us. Bringing the kids from Waianae, Moanalua and Hillcrest together proved to me that teenagers are teenagers, no matter where they reside. They love to laugh, play, experience new things in new places, and given the chance, they know how to make connections with others.

What they call the “aloha spirit” here is what we call “hospitality” in southwest Missouri. You treat your visitors special. They are “company” after all. We felt like the guests of honor on Oahu all week. It will be hard to return home, but at least we left some great new friends behind, friends we hope to see again someday.

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Thanks to ice and snow days, our fourth quarter of school will start a little late, sometime near the end of March or the first of April. Regardless, it’s yet another “FOURTH QUARTER,” that final nine weeks of malaise, summer daydreams, procrastination, distraction, and a longing to just get it over with. I hear it’s also bad for students. So in a never-ending effort to help broadcast teachers navigate these little challenges, here is a list of Fourth Quarter Strategies:

*The Field Trip. Yes, nothing beats leaving campus and visiting the nearest TV station for an hour or two. Or a day or two.

*The Guest Speaker. Now more than ever, a local professional’s insights would be appropriate, and save you some brain cells in lesson planning. Turn it over to the local anchor or hey, get a college broadcast teacher to come by and take your kids to the next level (that probably means a grad student will actually show up and provide the lesson).

*The Movie. Too bad you are a broadcast teacher and have little time to show movies in class because most of the time, your kids are actually creating video projects. Time to take a break and analyze the issues raised by “All the President’s Men” or “Good Night and Good Luck.” Remember, bell-to-bell instruction is what we’re after, so be sure to hit “play” as soon as class begins. Take roll when you hand out popcorn, er, study sheets.

*The “Project” to End All Projects. It might be time for a five-week production cycle on an original student movie or music video. Better yet, both. Put the class in groups, tell them it’s 90% of their fourth quarter grade, and require all scenes to be shot off-campus.

*Investigate Professional Media Techniques. This would require having cable in your classroom. Begin in the morning with a written response from each student about the production values and use of sound on “The Price Is Right,” followed maybe by a critique of the pacing of videos on CMT, followed by extra credit for each correct question supplied during “Jeopardy!”

Okay, it’s a start. The Fourth Quarter is nothing to take lightly. It’s serious business. The apathy you are about to encounter is real, almost palpable. Extreme measures may be required. If you dare, you could go ahead and teach. But you’ve been warned.

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