Just For TV Teachers

I’m on spring break, so it’s time for a random, wandering, pointless (but not totally thoughtless) blog about whatever pops into my head. Brace yourself, we’re in for a bumpy ride.

*Elizabeth Edwards says she wants her husband John to continue to run for president despite her ongoing battle with cancer. Some have suggested he should drop out of the race while others cynically suggest the candidate is using his wife’s sympathetic position to gain votes. First of all, God Bless Elizabeth Edwards for not letting cancer control her life. She says without hesitation that she wants her husband to continue his candidacy, and that’s good enough for me. I admire any cancer victim who refuses to let the disease win by default.

*Just because I have totally missed the animation craze doesn’t make me a bad person. I have never seen an episode of “The Simpsons,” “The Family Guy,” or most of the animated movies released in the last 20 years. Sorry. I liked cartoons when I was growing up, but since they can’t seem to find “Beany and Cecil” episodes to run anymore, I quit paying attention. My students think it does make me a bad person. So I’ll rent “Little Mermaid” someday. They have it on VHS, right?

*Lawn mowing season is back. I just spent almost two hours cutting the grass for the first time this spring. I have a riding lawn mower now, and I have to say, it’s made the job much more fun. Headphones bring me Jim Rome’s sports talk show, and there is always a glass of iced tea standing by when it’s time for a break. Ah, summer can’t be far behind.

*When we return for fourth quarter next week, it will be as fun as always to tell my seniors to do something, then watch them try to avoid laughing out loud at my request. The only thing a senior wants to hear in fourth quarter is “Pomp and Circumstance,” except for the rare “sentimental senior,” a breed that enjoys wallowing in old photographs, and those cheesy songs about “friends” and saying “goodbye.” I have this thing I say to kids as an homage to those stupid things people signed in yearbooks back in the day: “Stay sweet, never change.” Say it to your seniors. It feels so good.

*Baseball season begins next weekend. The World Champion St. Louis Cardinals open the campaign Sunday night against the Mets. Let me get this on the table now for all Cubs fans who read this: We are the WORLD Champions. Taunt us, tease us, say whatever you want. This year, it rolls off our backs because the Redbirds are WORLD Champions. I don’t care what happens in 2008 because, see, my Cards are WORLD Champions.

*I never miss “24″ but this season is shaping up as one of my least favorites for the series. It’s still “appointment television” in our house, but I just don’t seem as engaged as usual. It’s tough for this show to top itself. Jack can only escape so many sure-death scenarios before we start asking, like I used to with James Bond: “Why the heck doesn’t somebody just shoot him?” Talking back to the TV is not a sign of anything is it?

*I’m out. The grill is humming, and a cow’s sacrifice can not be ignored.

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Ug. I am still exhausted from the 2007 STN National Convention in Anaheim, CA. It began with the new “Sweet 16″ contest on March 7, and concluded with the student-hosted closing awards ceremony on March 10. In between, lots of stress, struggle, and ultimately, exhiliaration.

It was my fourth year to serve as convention chairman, a job I kind of fell into when I pushed for the first STN convention back in 2004. It was a little easier when we had 500 attendees back then, but with the 1,600 who joined us in 2007 came many challenges. One of the biggest was getting something on the presentation schedule for everyone. The breakouts are the heart of our convention as professional broadcasters and video producers teach STN students and teachers how they do what they do. So we have over three dozen breakouts that received mostly good reviews from attendees. Some stood out, but just about every session provided food for thought.

One of the other challenges was unexpected. My right-hand man fell very ill all day on Friday the 9th, so the rest of the staff scrambled to fill his shoes. It was tough, but as one member of the STN Executive Council told us later, whatever was going on behind the scenes did not bleed over into the event.

The biggest news out of the ‘07 convention was the addition of 350 new schools to STN, all Channel One bureau schools whose membership dues were donated by Channel One. We grew from 440 schools to about 800 thanks to this act of support. It remains to be seen how active the new schools will be, but they all have broadcast classes, so I think they’d be crazy not to take advantage of what STN offers.

Another huge part of the 2007 event was the introduction of Schooltube.com, our newest partner. Schooltube is “teacher-approved, student-produced video” on the Internet. But it’s going to be so much more. For the next year, STN schools get free access to the premium part of the Schooltube site, and there will be all sorts of training videos and other curriculum-swapping opportunities there. It should be a very nice, virtual gathering place for STN.

One of the most talked-about sessions at our event was the Music Video Showcase. It featured ten previously-submitted videos, and ten chosen as the best from the on-site music video contest. Interesting was one way to put it. Some of the videos revealed tremendous skill. Some revealed just how provocative kids will be when they have the chance to interpret a song. Since then, teachers have debated what our STN guidelines should be for the videos, and for the student film festival, which preceded the showcase.

I suspect the impressive panel we are putting together to come up with some standards will provide plenty of direction for the future. These kinds of discussions inside an organization like STN, where we value student creativity and expression so much, are very important, and the controversy from the 2007 convention will stimulate solutions and a better understanding of what’s appropriate and what’s not for this event, and that will get everyone on the same page.

So now to my big news for the membership of STN. I have made it official that the 2008 convention will be my last as chairman. I have loved getting this thing going, and seeing it grow to something special. But I love my broadcast students at Hillcrest High School even more, and I need to enjoy the convention with them in the years ahead, not without them, which has been the case each year I’ve had this job. It became very clear to me on March 7th as we competed in the first-ever “Sweet 16.” That’s the contest where teachers entered with their staffs in an effort to produce an entire show in just 16 hours. At 8 p.m., 12 hours into the contest, I was still working on convention issues, unable to be with my staff for more than ten minutes at a time. It was not a sweet Sweet 16 for me. I basically missed the one event designed to keep me with my kids for a full day, and, well, they let me know about it. Good for them.

Enough about me, because it’s not about me. If you came to our show in 2007, you need to come back in 2008. Yes, we have much to improve on, much to fix, but also much more to offer. I promise you this–I am going out with a bang. I hope you’re there to see it all, and enjoy everything the STN convention has to offer.

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