Just For TV Teachers

We go on spring break this Friday. That means when we return, my seniors will have about 35 days of high school left. Wanna know how motivated they will be to produce another TV show?

One thing we do each year as our monthly broadcast winds down is to turn over the last show of the school year to the incoming staff. That means in April the current staff, which is senior-dominated this year, will do its very last “HTV Magazine” before the new crew takes over.

Fighting the malaise that sets in after the break is a yearly challenge. It isn’t just in broadcast classes. It’s a school-wide problem that afflicts all teachers with 12 graders. How can we keep the class-of-this-year productive in the closing weeks of their secondary education?

To complicate things, the kids all know their semester grades in January are the last ones the colleges look at, so this last semester is even more insignificant. Nice.

I have tried several things through the years. Guilt. It works a little. “Johnny, after all we’ve been through, I’d sure like to see you show enough pride to do your best on your last show ever….” Or better yet, “Mandy, how can you not do one more great story after all the passes I’ve written, all the off-campus food runs I’ve let you go on, all the times I’ve loaned you a camera for those non-school projects you’ve done for your team and your youth groups and….”

If guilt fails, there is always the legacy thing. “I’d sure like this staff to leave behind one more great show for everyone to see.” Yeah, that rarely works.

Then there is the threat. You know, the ole “I still get to give you a grade, young lady, and while you may not care, your mom will.” Not a nice way to say goodbye, is it?

So teachers, let me know if you have a sure-fire way to make the post-spring break malaise tolerable. I’ve been doing this for 28 years, and uh, I got nothin.’

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