Just For TV Teachers

I am stepping down as the chairman of the Student Television Network’s annual convention after five years. We began this experiment in 2004 and in January we’ll reach our first little “milestone” with the fifth gathering of scholastic broadcast students and teachers, once again in southern California, more specifically at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim.

Permit me this opportunity to flashback to some of my favorite moments from my tenure. Here are some moments I will carry with me for a long time:

1. The opening of the 2004 convention, when Steve Hartman addressed the 500 in attendance via an eight-minute video that set the tone for the entire event. It was our dream to get Steve in person, and we did that in 2005 thanks to the efforts behind the scenes of Debbie Millan, our great friend from Channel One.

2. Dale Russell stepping in to save the day in 2004. Our keynote speaker could not get to Los Angeles, but investigative reporter Russell, courtesy of RTNDF, provided our keynote and took questions from kids in the audience. Thanks again, Dale, for that appearance, and all the others through the years.

3. Hartman and Les Rose, the dynamic duo from CBS News, provided memorable breakout sessions in 2005 after Hartman’s keynote. (Yes, we got him in the flesh) Two of my students sat up front and didn’t move when the sessions rotated. They said it was worth it. I know it was.

4. At each convention we have been supported by the Upper Midwest Chapter of the National Television Academy. Teresa Vickery and “her guys” step up every year to show amazing stories, and they make it a point to teach during their sessions. They also provide on-the-mark critiques as they judge on-site contests for hours and hours, all for some semi-warm hotel food, when the chairman remembers to order it.

5. Those kids from Hawaii. They come every year, always bringing with them the “Aloha Spirit,” which is so real and so refreshing. (Thanks Candy and Lynne for spreading the word about STN)

6. Al Tompkins’ sessions, which challenge teachers and kids to think critically about ethical issues and how and why stories get told.

7. One of my favorite pros, Jerry Jacob from the NBC affiliate here in Springfield, MO, provided our taped keynote in 2006. We begged him to do it, and he came through as always, wearing a convention tee-shirt which read, “Say Your Name and Spell It.” Then he proceeded to show a clip of a woman who got flustered and could not spell her own name. Jerry came through for us, and as many of you know, he volunteered for the military at the age of 42 and is now serving as a paratrooping field medic. We wish only soft landings for Jerry.

8. Apple Computer’s continued support of our event. They are providing 100 computers for the 2008 convention. Adobe has also upped its participation and is sponsoring the Sweet 16 contest, as well as editing stations. We could not pull this off without them.

9. Speaking of the “Sweet 16,” it debuted in 2007 and was a huge success because it accomplished its mission, forcing kids and teacher to come together as a staff and develop better teamwork. I admit, the contest was my idea, and it came to me on the flight home after the 2006 convention. I just had no idea it would work so well.

10. The people who work with me to make this event happen. Tim, Mike, Paul, Ross, Teresa, and all the interns. My convention staff has dwelled in the trenches for the most part, keeping the train on the track as best we can.

There will be a new convention chairperson next year, and I will return to civilian status, just another teacher bringing my staff to soak up the event. If any group is on my list of convention MVPs, it’s the broadcast students at Hillcrest High School, who have overcome their teacher’s growing distractions through the years, the constant phone calls and barrage of e-mail, as the STN convention has grown and taken on a life of its own.

It will be a pleasure to return to my classroom as just the adviser of “HTV Magazine,” one of the nation’s oldest scholastic broadcasts. We’ll see you in Anaheim.

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It’s tough for teachers to look back and reflect on the calendar year everyone else lives by because we mark time by the school year, from September to May. At least I often think that way, tying my memories to things like the first day of school, or commencement, and what happens between the two.

So how was my calendar year 2007? It was good, but not great. There was sadness personally as I lost an uncle who had been ill for a long while, and one of my childhood friends lost his mom, one of the “neighborhood moms” I can still hear yelling for Greg to come home for supper as we tried to drain every ounce of fun out of a summer day. I still think the line from the movie, “Stand By Me” says so much for me and the gang I grew up with: “I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve.”

On the professional side, I met my new boss, Mr. Rush. He’s the sixth principal in our school’s 50-year history, and I’ve worked for five of them. (Fetch my cane, fast) I like him and he’s doing a good job at our school, where the rise in poverty among our students is impacting everything we do. I do not see it getting better in the immediate future, so we as educators have to get better.

As for 2007 for “HTV Magazine,” we closed out our 18th year in May and began number 19 in the fall. We found some interesting people to profile, and some challenging topics to tackle. The biggest news in our broadcasting department was the curriculum money that came our way for the first time. Our annual budget was $600 a semester, not much for three classes. This fall we received $45,000 of new computers and equipment, so we really are more focused on the process and the results than the toys we play with. I just wish every school that had an interest in student broadcasting would get the same kind of support.

The summer of ‘07 was fun. We took “Camp STN” to Boston in July and Chicago in August. We also hosted two camps here in Springfield. I still hear from teachers and kids who attended those camps, and I think we are having a positive impact. I know we have brought more schools to STN thanks to the camps, and that pleases me.

As I look ahead at 2008, it’s hard to see past the middle of January. That’s when the STN National Convention takes place, and I am serving as the chairman for the fifth and final time. It will be bittersweet for me on January 20 when the closing ceremony closes and I walk away from my duties. There will also be a tremendous sense of relief as I pass the torch to others who will oversee the future of the convention. I am sure there will be changes and improvements to the event in the years ahead. It will be great to attend the 2009 convention with my students, and not have to answer my cell phone every three minutes. This past month or so, my students have noticed how distracted I have been. I pride myself on not letting the outside STN responsibilities invade my classroom, so I know now more than ever it really is time to move on.

So past January, we’ll see what 2008 brings. I know we’ll visit a special place in March when our staff returns to Hawaii for the first time since our original island invasion in 2004. I can’t imagine a trip going any better than that one, but we can’t put anything past the wonderful folks in the 50th state.

Next summer we’ll focus on “Camp STN” while the school district remodels my classroom. Camp will move into the large Hillcrest library, but we’ll get to show campers the “work in progress” as we await the new digs.

So yes, 2007 is done. I hope it was a great year for you and yours, and I hope the next 12 months will be better for us all. It occurs to me with the Hollywood writers strike on, the only original programming we may see in the next year is the content produced by our students!

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The Radio and Television News Directors Foundation (RTNDF) has a website for scholastic broadcasting, http://hsbj.org, and one of the features you find there is the “Director’s Cut.” My students have now submitted three of these unique segments, and it has been a wonderful teaching tool for me.

The idea is to have students tell the story behind the story. I help them through this by just tossing out questions like, “What did you leave out?” “Why did you sequence it that way?” “Did you think about doing it differently?” “What were your toughest challenges?” The reporter simply looks right at the camera and talks about those questions and others. It’s not hard, but it is thought-provoking. You can see the wheels turning as the kids answer. They really think critically about their segment, and the hope is others who watch will do the same.

I strongly encourage you to try a “Director’s Cut” with your kids. You can do it the way we have, or take your own unique approach. The key is to include video or soundbites not used in the final piece, and talk about how those content decisions were made. This gives teen broadcasters the opportunity to share with other students (and teachers) reflections about the process they went through to create the final package. Think of it this way–it’s just like those DVD features where the filmmaker shows scenes he left out, and talks about the thought process that went into the making the final cut.

One more thing–you must include the actual piece as it aired so everyone can start on the same page when the “Director’s Cut” is discussed. For students, this is a chance to show some great footage that simply didn’t make it into their story, and it provides a great exercise in critical thinking and decision-making for those who watch online.

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So the forecast in the Ozarks for the next few days is rain and temperatures possibly low enough to bring about a repeat of the ice age we experienced last January, when civilization as we know it was replaced by power outages, a run on generators, and schools and businesses at a standstill, waiting for a thaw.

I don’t think it’s going to happen, but what if it did? Just think, on top of all the inconveniences and challenges when the world around you becomes one big ice cube, we’d have another inhumane issue to deal with–the Hollywood writers strike! That’s just too much to even contemplate.

Right now most of the first-run shows have already aired on network TV. For those of us who spend a lot of time at night watching the flat-screen LCD set coincidentally positioned directly in front of our recliner, this is a big deal. My Monday evenings, which are spent with “Chuck” and those compelling “Heroes” on NBC are now melting away. And I need my weekly fix of “House” grousing at the world and torturing Cuddy. My wife is not nearly as bad off because yes, “Law and Order: SVU” is heading into reruns, but she is among the millions of women who seem quite fascinated by the constant airing of “Law and Order” repeats on cable. It doesn’t matter how many times she’s seen an episode, she still tunes in. Unless there is a “CSI” on that she hasn’t seen in the last month or so.

Yes, it’s going to be hard to go without fresh episodes of “Criminal Minds,” “Ugly Betty,” and the one we simply can not miss, “Friday Night Lights.” This stupid strike is costing us the new season of “24″ as well. My youngest daughter, who is in grad school where her advisor is a member of the writers union currently striking, says this thing is going to drag out until March, so we are about to receive a healthy dose of reality TV and game shows. This is not fair. I don’t know what I’m going to do. Now, add a potential ice storm, where we might lose electricity and have no TV, and you can see the irony.

Then again, losing TV due to the ice is probably not as bad as having TV with all the reruns and lousy programming filling the airways.

What’s that? There are other things to do? Not watching TV is okay? What? Read a book? Work on those things around the house you’ve been avoiding? Spend quality time just visiting with family and friends?

Maybe a writers strike is just what the doctor ordered after all.

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Inspiration today comes from those ESPN “Sportscenter” segments that break down game results, analyze statistics, and provide perspective on a major sports event. This time, though, instead of football or baseball, it’s all about the “STN Challenge” contest. Finalists were just announced. Here are the high schools whose kids are in the running for the big prize, to be announced January 20:

High School “News-Feature Challenge” Finalists:

Becon (Broward Teen News), Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Canyon Springs High School, North Las Vegas, Nevada
Carlsbad High School CHS-TV, Carlsbad, California
Maui High School, Kahului, Hawaii
Northwood HIgh School, Irvine, California

High School “Sports-Feature Challenge” Finalists:

BECON (Broward Teen News), Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Hillcrest High School, Springfield, Missouri
Shawnee Mission North High School, Overland Park, Kansas
Lee’s Summit West High School, Lee’s Summit, Missouri
Waianae High School, Waianae, HI

First off, four states have two finalists each: Florida, California, Hawaii and Missouri, with one each from Kansas and Nevada. The midwest was shut out of the News-Feature finals, something that does not often happen. Another huge STN state, Texas, with over 80 affiliates, is missing from both lists.

The Challenges take place in six days (it used to be five) as students take the broad topic provided and find their own angle. Then they shoot, write and edit a three-minute story and rush it to the post office by midnight on day six. All entries are judged by professional broadcasters.

The topics this year were very, very broad. In news, “When people act, things happen.” In sports, it was Jim Valvano’s famous quote as he fought cancer, “Don’t give up, don’t ever give up.”

The news topic threw my kids for a loop. If you know me at all, you know I like it when that happens. The struggle is all part of this contest. They don’t call it the “Challenge” for nothing. To be honest, my kids’ entry in this category was lacking in visuals, but had a decent character. This is TV, so those visuals kind of matter.

My sports team drove a couple of hours to cover one of our city’s high school football teams hoping to break a 49-game losing streak. Despite “never giving up,” they lost their 50th straight. It was and is still one of my favorite stories of the year. They took on the challenge and came away with a great piece. Win or lose, they won.

This year’s finalists feature last year’s defending champs, Broward Teen News in the “News-Feature” category and powerhouse Waianae in the “Sports-Feature” contest. It will be interesting to see if either repeats. Broward is the only school to make the finals of both contests, and Jeb Brunt’s students are asserting themselves as one of STN’s most accomplished schools. Northwood, under Tina Murphy’s leadership, has frequently enjoyed success in the STN convention’s on-site music video contest through the years, and now they have been named a finalist in the News-Feature category, showing their flexibility.

Waianae has influenced so many schools in STN with its incredible production efforts throught the years. Candy Suiso is probably smiling as much as anyone about Clint Gima’s team at Maui High School making the finals in News. Candy has done so much to be a true ambassador for STN in her state, and really, everywhere she goes.

Canyon Springs is one of many STN affiliates in the state of Nevada, and especially in the Las Vegas area, to regularly take part in contests. Tom Rizzo has an aggressive, hard-working crew and it’s no surprise they made the finals this time. Same goes for Doug Green’s great program at Carlsbad.

The midwest stepped up to the challenge in the sports category, with Karrie Smythia’s consistently strong Lee’s Summit West team making the finals again. Shawnee Mission North, a newcomer to the finals, is in the middle of a hotbed of STN schools. Brandon Corbin is their adviser. Hillcrest last won the Sports Challenge last in 2005, and has been a finalist all four years the school has participated in the category.

The plans call for a compilation DVD of the Challenge finalists to be ready for the 2008 convention in Anaheim, then later it will be available in the STN online store. The contest always brings out the best in the students who participate, providing them with a great chance to work as a team under the pressure of a national deadline. For my students, once they conquer the stress of taking the “STN Challenge,” there’s not much I can throw at them that scares them the rest of the year.

Well, wait. There is that “Sweet 16″ contest. That’s like the “Challenge” on steroids. And that’s a little over a month away. Can’t wait.

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