Just For TV Teachers

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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