Tag: career technical education

Lent

Day 24: Lip Dub

Alexandra Diane

What is the last thing you learned?

I am absolutely exhausted. Today I participated in our school wide lip dub. Holy shit, was that fun. It reminded me why I love working in production. The energy everyone brings to performance can not be matched. Even working through tech problems. They are stressful, but it’s like my brain feeds off of it. I love watching all the pieces fall into place when the world seems against it. My mentor, Mr. Wright, started producing lip dubs in 2014 and I have always wondered how they could produce a high-quality video. Well, now I know. 

Today was insane. If you check out my Instagram reels, you can see some of the behind-the-scenes footage from organized chaos. This production was months in the making. Wright spent months sending out emails to the school, ensuring that all clubs and sports were included. Everyone had the chance to submit a song of their choice. Some people slept on this chance and were not happy with the song selected for them. But it wasn’t just up to my mentor. The film club and SGA were a critical part in selecting music and comedic bits throughout the lip dub. 

Late days and missed lunches were in abundance. My mentor would walk the path that we would take, mapping out everything to time the music just right. In the weeks leading up to today, he emailed out the final audio mix. He held rehearsals to prepare students for the parts they were supposed to lip sync. Even with all this preparation, problems arose. 

The day before the event, we found out that some students were upset about their song selection. We didn’t know they were upset until a teacher overheard students discussing their plans to protest. They would not sing the song that was picked for them by SGA. The club was called women leaders of tomorrow or something along those lines. Remember how I said they’d had months to pick out a song and weeks to listen to the music? The day before the production is not the day to complain. Their complaint was that they were in the cafeteria, and that the song that was selected for them was called stir fry. Apparently, they found this sexist saying “women were being put in the kitchen.” The problem was that they weren’t the only people in the cafeteria. The cafeteria is an enormous space. They shared the scene with multiple language honor societies and wrestling. Thankfully, there was no protest.

We ran through the first part of the lip dub three times. But production even started, students were outside for close to 45 minutes. They were setting up the inflatable helmet that the football players were going to run out of. The Cheerleaders were practicing their stunts, and the band was preparing to play their instruments. Our principal even did a skit in the beginning that was a callback to the year previous and a meme that one of our seniors created when he was a junior last year. It’s a lot of fun to see the student body work. The reason it took so long for us to start was that there were multiple people who weren’t in the correct place. The people who were supposed to be singing were missing, and certain academies just weren’t ready.

When we finally started, it was incredible to witness everything. We did the skit again and then the music seamlessly flowed into the senior class’s lip sync. That’s when the controlled chaos began. After the senior section, they broke apart and were running to their next locations. Football players magically appeared in the helmet. Some showed up in the cafeteria as a part of the national honor society in, or wrestling and flag football. From the cafeteria, we had the next set of singers hop on golf carts and head towards part of JROTC where they were doing the raiders rope bridge event. That went into the step team and the BSU. And straight into JROTC followed by automotive and into construction. We did this three times and every time things got better and tighter. Despite a few minor errors, witnessing the high school kids wholeheartedly engage in their tasks and show professionalism was the most enjoyable aspect of my day.

After that, there was a small break when everybody reset and moved on to phase 3. We recorded Phase 2 earlier because it was complicated. But understanding the match cutting that’s going along with it and how it’s going to flow. Here is the final product! I would love everybody to see the hard work of all these students, teachers and administrators.

After Wright walked phase three and made sure everybody was ready, filming began. I’m pretty sure the universe just wanted to test us today because we had complications in all the strangest ways possible. We almost got done with the first take and something happened in biotech and we had to reshoot. We did a race golf cart scene with our principal and the superintendent of the school board. It was amazing and fantastic until the Osmo’s battery died. This is something that’s never happened in the years of production. We had a group of boys infiltrate the basketball scene and the basketball players could not hear the music, so they didn’t know what to lip sync. Finally, we had 11 minutes left until lunch and we were doing our very last take. We were told that the superintendent had left, and we were going to have to figure out how to match cuts into that scene. But then the universe gave us a break.

When my mentor came out of the soccer scene and the superintendent was in the rival golf cart. The amount of pressure that was lifted off of his shoulders for editing was astronomical. There was a bit of delay in recording, but not much that anybody would truly notice. We got through the softball scene, SGA and basketball. We went through medical and biotech and finally finished phase 3.

Phase 4 was when everybody went to the courtyard. This was utter chaos. The original plan was to have all the students spell out the word hawk. That did not happen. We also still had to record the IT room and the drone room. There was a bit of a pause as we organized the students and went into IT to ask them if they were ready.

Wright moved from using the Osmo to filming with a drone. That meant we had to do another walkthrough just to understand what the framing was and the pacing for the drone. After completing the walkthrough, they sent me outside to assist the students in ensuring that the outside was prepared. Everyone was clueless about what they were doing. Because of course. After a swift talk from Wright to the students, everything proceeded without a hitch. We had two takes, and both were fantastic.

The day was chaotic. Everything happened between 8:00 a.m. and 11:45 in the morning. But it was wonderful. It epitomized everything I love about our industry. Showcasing our students and our school. We let the world know how well our administration works with our students and how our teachers communicate with our student body. This is something that other schools try to reproduce and they can’t do it. And I think a lot of that has to do with the social structure within the school itself. It’s not just the fact that Mr. Wright has been doing this for 14 years and has mastered the experience. It’s all the work that goes into it. The students’ effort to ensure this is an amazing production is commendable.

My favorite part about the whole thing was a surprise. Our 9th grade guidance counselor had a baby a few months ago. Her husband is the baseball coach and while we were preparing to do phase 3, I saw her holding this little tiny infant. He was wearing a baseball jersey. It was adorable. My absolute favorite thing was watching the senior baseball boys holding this little nugget. They tenderly held him while singing, showing their love for their sport, their coach and their coach’s wife. This is the stuff that needs to be shown. This is what people need to understand what makes a successful school. It’s not just about grades. It’s about the atmosphere in the social dynamic that is produced. 

Lent, Teaching

Day 6: I’m tellin’ y’all, it’s sabotage

Alexandra Diane

Today was a teacher’s work day. Students were supposed to be off, teachers were supposed to be in meetings, and having the chance to organize their lives. However for me that wasn’t the case. The TV production students are preparing for the Student Television Network (STN) competition out in Long Beach California. They will be participating in the team challenge Crazy 8 as well as individual challenges for two other days. 

The Crazy 8 challenge is two fold. We have news students and film students. The film students are given a title, a character line, prop, and shot required to be seen through the film. They have eight hours to write, film, and edit the final cut. The news students are given a topic, like “service with a smile,” to create a newscast around. They also have the same eight hour window. 

Last month when we held a mock competition I was right with my students. Held them to their times, reviewed their script, gave them suggestions on their shots. But we were unable to repeat the same magic. I had to participate in mandatory training which meant the students were on their own. I peeked at their final script and cringed but there was nothing I could do. They had to manage it on their own. 

There was more than just a poor script that sabotaged them. The location they based their story on was closed due to it being president’s day. The crew wasted an hour trying to find a new location and rewrite their script. While they adjusted the story there were still major plot holes. The script lacked a true first act. We were thrown into a fight between the only characters in the short film. There was nothing redeeming about them and I even texted a student about fixing the problem, however they did not take my advice. 

When we were all able to finally meet together the cast and crew were actually cordial with each other. While the editor got to work the rest of the crew relaxed and we started planning what we will be doing in California. This was a high contrast to the news students who were running around in a panic. There were attitudes being thrown left and right. One student came in and screamed at their partners. While I understand frustrations run high in a competition that is no way to treat the people you rely on. I am insanely petty and if my partner would have spoken to me in that way I would have flipped the bird and told that human to figure it out on their own. I know I have done that in the professional world. 

While that student was being handled by the news teacher, I was watching our editor break down. While our shoots were beautiful the audio was trash. Adobe has a new AI podcast web based element that helps clean up audio. We tried that and it resulted in the whole room laughing. Instead of fixing things it made the two actors turn into a mix of minions and chipmunks that sucked about seventeen helium balloons. Although this was not the result we were looking for, it did make us laugh. It was the mental break we needed after coming to the conclusion there was no saving the audio in the small window we had left. The editor took a song that fit (ish) the mood of the film and prayed it would mask all the issues. 

** Plot twist, it did not.**

When it came time to watch the news cast and film the problems followed. First the short film that the students submitted was not the three minutes that we shot.  It was only 49 seconds long. While my co-teacher / mentor teased the students about checking the exports, he pulled up the newscast. It was supposed to be 8 minutes long, however it was only 42 seconds. That’s when the whole class burst out laughing and teasing one another. The students who submitted the files opened the files, and at first glance they looked correct. The time codes gave the proper time, however when playing out the videos they both stopped at the 40ish mark. They were corrupted. We waited for the files to be fixed and then returned to watching the projects. 

The film students covered their heads and avoided stares from the news students. Of course our garbage sound was not covered by the music. And while we watched I just cringed waiting for it to end. I couldn’t connect with the characters. The varying audio levels made my ears want to bleed. As soon as it ended my co-teacher repeated all the comments that I had made during our editing process. 

When we started the news students project things started to go well. Although they had some soft focus shots their levels were far better than our film. Everything was going pretty smooth until a news package was cut short. That’s when my co-teacher ripped apart the news cast.

This was supposed to be our last practice before the competition. But this is not what not the level of work any of these students usually produced. I kept suggesting over and over again that we needed to hold another practice. That way we had a clean palette and no shame hovering over us. Eventually all students agreed as well as my co-teacher. So hopefully this extra practice will ensure that we won’t sabotage ourselves in California. 

Bloganuary

The College Try

Alexandra Diane
Bloganuary writing prompt
If you could un-invent something, what would it be?
View all responses

I’m a millennial *queue annoying montage of people saying that over and over again.* But I am and growing up we were force fed the idea that college was our only option for a good life. However, as we know now, our generation is the over educated and grossly underpaid. So when the topic of “If you could un-invent something, what would it be?” was presented, I had a bunch of options run through my head. Did I wish for social media to disappear? Could bombs not been invented? Maybe I wished for AI to vanish? But as I was driving to work, a different thought crossed my mind. I wish the push for college education had never been invented. 

Now I can hear people saying that colleges have been around for hundreds of years. But I am not talking about being rid of higher education. I am talking about the propaganda that college is the only option for a successful future. I’m pretty sure my generation is a prime example of what can go wrong in a short amount of time if we rid ourselves of trades. We have a world filled with consumers and hardly any people who know how to produce. People complain about how hard it is to find someone to fix their AC or plumbing. Well yeah, we were told growing up that those jobs were beneath us. That no one of value should want to work with their hands. But now we’re seeing how untrue that logic is. 

There’s a social media trend discussing how millennials are skipping the midlife crisis phase and jumping right onto “grandparent hobbies.” I mean, do you blame us? We burnt out. We didn’t spend our lives outside like wild men like our parents did. Our parents kept a watchful eye on us because they had the chance to be free. They wanted us to experience opportunities they never had, and the advancement of technology pushed us in that direction. We were the generation of kids who took AP classes and dual enrollment classes, so we had a head start on college. Millennials don’t need to have a midlife crisis. Most of us had one during college or our twenties, as the world fell to shit for the third time. 

Now I look at my gen-z students and see how that process has amplified. Some of the most creative kids are being told they are failures because they don’t test well. However, I am proud of my school because we have a construction and automotive academy. These are amazing opportunities for our students to work with their hands. Also, my program of TV production is another outlet for students to challenge themselves outside of core classes. Within these programs, we are pushing students to earn their certification for the software or skills they have learned. Certifications are being more sought by employers over college degrees. We are giving students the opportunity to obtain them without the high cost they would have to pay if they were an adult trying to earn them. 

The shift in employers’ expectations is giving me hope for the younger generation. May now they will branch out into other professions without the stigma my generation faced. It would be nice to see blue-collar jobs appreciated for their worth. Because if we don’t have HVAC technicians, plumbers, mechanics of any kind, our world will fall apart. We need to encourage students to get out there and get dirty. Not everyone is meant to sit in an office all day. Not everyone is meant to write a twenty-page paper on the meaning of the color red in a film. Some people are meant to build homes, have grease under their fingernails, and make sure the world can still run. We need those people. 

Bloganuary, Writing

As a Mother, Educator, or Writer?

Alexandra Diane
Daily writing prompt
What is your mission?
View all responses

The prompt today is: What’s your mission? But that’s not a straightforward question to answer. I wear many hats, so how do I know which mission they are asking about? So I’ll answer for all. 

As a mother, my mission is not to raise assholes. Children are only children for such a short time. They will spend a majority of their lives beyond my home and care, making it my duty to raise decent humans. I know it may be a silly concept, but I am not talking about raising people pleasers either. I want my children to know when to be respectful, when to reach out to those in need, and be able to work with others. To know right from wrong, when to seek help or when to problem solve. More importantly, I want them to know when to stand up for themselves and how to leave a dangerous situation. 

Parenting is about love and care, and so is teaching. My course is an elective, a choice program that students apply to be a part of. It is considered a career and technical educational course. And for me, it’s so much more than teaching students how to use a camera and edit. I heavily focus my projects on critical thinking and problem solving. I want my students to understand how to research their topics and find credible sources. The aim is to expose the dangers of unquestioning information and to showcase the ease false information can be created. I usually go off script when students are required to engage in the school-wide Mental Health lessons. Most teachers just have the student watch the videos and answer the questions and leave it at that. The students find the lessons to be a waste of time because they include dated examples. However, I speak to the class about my personal life experiences that relate to the lessons. Many students have thanked me because they feel uneasy or need time to process the information after the lessons. After the Techsafe lesson, I have all my students take out their cellphones. I explain to them how metadata works and show them how their pictures create a map of everywhere they have gone. We then go through their settings and turn off different location trackers.

As for being a writer, I don’t have a mission for anyone aside from myself. Writing is therapy. Sometimes I use it to express emotions and negative feelings, and other times to share thoughts I don’t want to keep to myself. I have had thoughts that have been beneficial to others and have found the readers who needed to know they are not alone. However, I don’t market my work or seek attention for what I write. I write for myself, be it my blog, my short stories, or my book. I write because it is a passion, not a mission to make money.  

Bloganuary

My College Selection Process

Alexandra Diane
Daily writing prompt
What colleges have you attended?
View all responses

I could sum up today’s prompt in one word. What colleges have you attended? One, just one. But what fun would it be to end the conversation with just a word? It wouldn’t at all. If I left it up to the simple word of one, you wouldn’t know all that went into picking where I had my college experience. I look back at my reasons now and laugh. I’ve spent the last few months listening to stressed-out seniors freaking out about their college decisions. Part of me wonders if I should have put more pressure on myself, but in the end, it doesn’t matter where I earned my degree from. I wouldn’t change anything. 

When I started high school, I absolutely knew what I wanted to do with my life when I graduated: I wanted to be a marine biologist. I had spent nearly all my summers at marine biology camp studying fish and ocean life. Basically living at the beach for as much as someone could without a car and watching documentaries on marine life. While the internet wasn’t like it is today, I did as much research as I could about my future career. That was until I took my first biology class. I realized I’d rather swim in the ocean surrounded by fish than I liked the actual science behind the creatures. 

I felt perplexed. I had spent the last three young years of my life thinking I would dedicate my future to the study and survival of the marine world, and now I wanted nothing to do with it. I still loved spending time at the beach. However, it was more for an escape and a place to be rather than study. I shifted gears from marine biologist to an underwater videographer. I figured I could blend my two passions together. 

I spent countless hours in my guidance counselor’s office trying to figure out what college would suit me best. God knows how much of that poor woman’s time I wasted. She was sweet and indulged my dreams. Looking back, I can see how she guided me in the best way she could, finding schools that dealt with ocean studies and still had a film department. Either way, I was doomed, because pursuing a career in film is just as challenging as marine biology. I am not sure when my gears shifted from the underwater world to the surface, but eventually I focused only on a communication degree. 

I remember some people asking what I planned on doing with my future, especially because I wasn’t seeking a journalism or a film degree. I told them I didn’t know. I know I enjoyed directing our student run newscast, but I also loved creative writing. At one point, I didn’t even want to get a degree and wanted to dive right into work. But my mom persuaded me to earn my degree, just in case I changed my mind. 

My choice in a more open degree allowed me more freedom in picking where I could go to school over my friends who were seeking a more specific degree. I knew I had to stay in Florida; I had earned bright futures, and out-of-state tuition was insanely expensive. My parents and I discussed different schools. Orlando had UCF, St. Augustine had Flagler College, Tallahassee had FSU, Jacksonville had UNF, and Gainesville had UF. My SAT scores ruled out UF and, for some reason, I had no interest in FSU. 

The university I toured was UCF. While the campus was pretty and was in very close relations with Disney and Universal, my mom and I had a weird vibe about the school. The tour guide focused on the engineering building. When we asked them to show us the film school, the person just pointed in the general direction and said we could go look after the tour was over. Now this wouldn’t be such a problem if the majors were mixed, but the tour was for communication and film majors, and yet the person outright refused to show us the film school. 

My students would be shocked if I told them this. UCF is where most Florida film students go now as their backup school if they do not get accepted into FSU’s film school. However, this was nearly two decades ago, and I’m not sure if the program had the same notoriety as it does now. 

Another hit the school had against it was its distance from the beach. Although I said I was focused on above water production, I still went to the beach in my free time. The thought of driving over an hour instead of the usual ten minutes was not appealing to me. Yes, I know this makes me sound a bit spoiled, but growing up in South Florida allows us certain luxuries that other places do not. We also spend a good portion of the year boiling from the sun and six months out of the year praying that hurricanes don’t hit, but it’s a give and take. The beach was my happy place and brought me peace, and I was certain I would need it in college. My mental health became more of a priority than I realized. 

The next university we looked at was FAU in Boca Raton. I knew little about the school, other than it was 45 minutes from my parents’ house and dangerously close to the beach. When we got to the campus, it was beautiful, filled with trees and history. The campus was initially built as an air force base during WWII. Despite the campus’ growing popularity and updates, remnants of its military past remained. Some of the old dorms were once barracks, and the breezeway was a runway. Our tour guide shared a lot of information about the school’s history, including Nazi submarines near the coast during the war. The tour of the campus had a different vibe than UCF. The students we saw looked relaxed and having fun. When we asked the tour guide about the communication program, they promptly took us over to the Art and Letters building and broke down what the school offered. They also informed us about two more campuses that housed the production classes. 

When we left the school, I felt comfortable, unlike when I left UFC. I knew a lot of my friends were applying to UCF and had plans to work for Disney and Universal, but I knew my path wasn’t the same. My mom asked when I wanted to go tour Flager and I said I didn’t want to. I wanted to go to FAU. She asked what if I didn’t get in? I laughed because no one got rejected from FAU. I told her I liked how the tour guides seemed excited about the school they went to. The school was small, so I would have more intimate classes. I also liked that I could take film, theater and any other classes that I was interested in without getting off track for my degree. Also, I loved how the tour guide brought up if there were a few hours between classes how easy it was to go to the beach. 

So while all my friends were stressing out about where they would go to school and how, whether or not they would get in, I started planning what classes I would take. I knew it was only a matter of time before I got my acceptance letter. I was eager to learn about the historic and academic side of film, along with the production side. But I was also excited to plan my days at the beach. 

Teaching

New School – New School Year

Alexandra Diane

This year was different. Instead of walking into the Bear Den, which has been my professional home for the last three years, I walked through the gates of the Hawk’s Nest. To say I was apprehensive about my first day back on a high school campus is an understatement. Imposter syndrome had hit me hard over the summer. I know the work my future students can create and, to be honest, that’s not how my brain works. 


I can edit breaking news until I am blue in the face, but that’s not what I was doing. I was now in charge of the junior and senior film students. My strength is writing, not production. But that doesn’t mean I don’t know how to correct people’s work. I am a manager at heart. I love training people and giving them the tools to succeed. 


Accepting my new role was a two month long mental process. In July, I headed to a new classroom with my co-teacher and mentor for the last twenty years. The room was a hot mess. The cabinets were filled with abandoned papers, folders, and work that had been in here since the school opened in 2005. I didn’t know where to start. I felt like I would never be ready with how much I had to purge and set up. But God sent angels in the form of two of my former students. They just were at school with their mom/aunt. I lost count of how many times I would receive a text from that asking if I was going to be on campus and even if I wasn’t, they would go into my room and clean. I don’t think my room would have been done by the first week of August without their help. 


My mentor helped me transform my boring room into something fun because my brain was broken. I was struggling to figure out how to take three classrooms’ worth of stuff and fit it into one room. But fortunately, I wasn’t alone. My mentor totally had not been planning what room I’d be taking over for the last ten months or more. If you didn’t read that with sarcasm, I don’t know what to tell you. Walking into a classroom with functioning equipment felt strange. Knowing there was a budget at my disposal made the situation even more peculiar. However, the hardest thing that I will have to get used to this year is not being alone. Finally, I had a colleague in my profession, someone to bounce ideas off of. Which I will be forever grateful because right now I’m just trying to keep my head above water.


As time crept closer for the students to return to campus, I faced an additional problem. I had to make sure that my first-year students would live up to my mentor’s expectations. Once more, the lifesaver that eluded me during my initial three years of teaching was present. Yes, my mentor helped me out with getting ideas for my middle school students. However, I created all my lectures and developed my curriculum. I wasn’t sure what I was doing was right. I just knew that the kids were learning and could create content that was unexpected for them at the middle school level. But this year I had everything in front of me. A part of me desired to change it, but I didn’t feel ready.


I wanted to see how my mentor taught his classes. It had been twenty-plus years since I had been face to face with what he teaches and I am not that arrogant to think I know better. His system works. Students from this program win awards, they get jobs; and they are admitted into amazing colleges. Students who graduate from this TV Production Academy have life skills and I am proof of that. 

However, I’m basically sunshine mixed with a little hurricane, so of course after I digest everything from this year I’ll have to put my spin on it. 


This week my TV 1 students are learning about basic camera shots and shot composition. When I opened the lecture, I legitimately laughed out loud. I came face to face with the same images that I used in my lecture that I created three years ago. It looks like we had the same sources. Undoubtedly because he gave me a bunch. But he threw so much information at me I wasn’t sure what he used and what was just given as a “here figure it out” source.  


As we went through the lecture, I noticed something. I went way more in-depth on certain subjects. When reviewing the rule of thirds, he only had one slide. I have an entire lecture dedicated to the rule of thirds. It’s just funny what people focus on. 


The apprehension that I had with my upper classmen has also begun to fade. When I introduced myself to my first class, four boys sat there, radiating a “too cool for school” vibe. They underestimated me when I didn’t call them out. Instead, I intended to let their work speak for itself, yet their first project contained silly errors that a 4th year student should not make. When I could point out their mistakes, the laughing stopped. The next day, when I was bringing up the new assignment, they were all ears. I explained to the class what I would be challenging them with and everyone had a look of challenge acceptance on their face. 


We’ve only been in school for two weeks and I can already see why my mentor kept saying he needs a female in the academy. Some of these girls are intense. We are an arts program and that means we get some exceptionally interesting students. I have one who is interested in being a writer, however she hyper fixates on things. I could spot this out before he ever warned me. Another girl thinks she’s quirky and can get away with her unlying rudeness by squeaking. That shit will not fly. And then there are typical issues that girls face. A freshman who is being vindictive to her ex-boyfriend. Another who has a crush on a guy who doesn’t know she’s alive. Gossip is already flowing and I can’t say I hate it. I think the gossip keeps the day entertaining. 


So do I miss my middle school, in a way yes. I miss the professional friends I made. But graduating simultaneously as the students who I have been with over the last three years has made the change easier. I don’t doubt myself as a teacher like I did when I came into this field. I know my shit. Now comes the hard part and ensuring students can produce content that far outshines what the adults expect them to do. 
I always enjoyed a good challenge. 

Lent, Teaching

Day 23: I like my classroom writing prompt

Alexandra Diane

I didn’t know what to write today—I spent the first half in the hospital waiting for my husband to get his back injections and the second half trying to herd cats. Er, I mean, keep my students occupied before spring break when most didn’t attend school. 

I looked up writing prompts, and the one for today fit perfectly: I like my classroom because… 

Because it’s mine, it was the first professional space I didn’t have to share with a coworker. In every production company or newsroom, I have worked in, I’ve had to share a desk or office space with one or more coworkers but not this time. I could decorate my room to my liking without worrying about whether the person I shared my space with would care. 

What made the shared space even more challenging was that I usually shared it with males. I tended to bring girlie things to decorate my desk with, and they would tease me. Now it was never anything malicious, ever. I’ve been lucky to work with amazing men, but hearing “Alex the piggy? Really?” Yes, really, and over time they all loved the damn piggy. 

However, with teaching, I still have to be careful about what I bring in. I have to make sure it’s not something that a student can walk off with. Unfortunately, quite a few things gifted to me by students went missing while I was on maternity leave. 

I had my tissue box cover broken. Not sure how it happened, but the screws came out of the lid. Thankfully they fell under the tissue box, and I could fix it. But I was unable to fix what was stolen. 

Away from my primary classroom and heading towards my studio is a center room where students will go to work or decompress. They think I don’t know that sometimes when they go to the U table, I know they seek an escape. I don’t let students who I don’t trust sit in there. The room has blue lights thinking across the ceiling, and most of the time, the students only have them on. They love writing in the dark, but I don’t usually let them live out their vampire fantasies. 

My studio is probably my favorite of the three classrooms. It’s where I can truly see how much my students have learned. They have to set the lights and cameras. Students also keep the room organized and clean. It’s their space as much as it is mine. I’m so proud to see them troubleshoot technical problems and work as a team, even when things may not always go smoothly. 

Soon I’ll be taking everything off the walls of my classroom. I’m going to be moving from the middle school level to the high school level. I will no longer fully control my program and will work with my former t.v production teacher and mentor. I won’t have the same space I do now; however, my new classroom will be just as special. I won’t have a planning room or a studio attached to my main room. It’ll be down the hall. I won’t be the only person teaching the TV students how to use the equipment. It’ll now be teamwork. It’ll be a new adventure, and I’m sure I’ll have a thing to be my favorite in the classroom. 

Lent, Teaching

Day 22: There’s no room for your opinion on my newscast

Alexandra Diane

There is a disturbing joke that is all too real that describes the modern journalistic world: “never let the truth get in the way of a good news story.” And doing the opposite of this is something that I stress to my news students. I constantly tell them your opinion has no place in the newsroom. We are there to present facts. It doesn’t matter if the on-air talent enjoys the story or not because they are not there to sway the audience one way or another. We are conducting a newscast, not a talk show, and even though this is lost upon many professionals, as of late, I’m doing my part in instilling it into my students. 

This week all my students were put to the test. We indeed had to practice what I preach. There is a new club starting on campus, one that not everyone agrees with. Quite a few of my students were very vocal in opposition to the club, while others did support it. I made a quick announcement before all hell broke loose. 

I asked my anchors what the point of the news is? They said to present the facts. I asked them whether they liked the club, a fact or their opinion. Quickly they answered with an opinion. I said good, because your opinions have no place in my studio. I told them all opinions are kept outside my classroom walls. Just like their discussion of their latest boy/girl friend has no place in my class, neither does their attitude toward a story we’ve been asked to cover 

This is where I reminded them that we have two religious clubs on campus. I asked my students if they knew my feelings about those two clubs, and everyone in my class said no. And I said good because my opinion on those clubs or any club does not matter, nor does my opinion on this new colorful, open to all safe space club matter. Because I’m there to teach just like they are there to report on what is happening at the school. Everyone nodded in agreement. 

When my anchors read the story about the new club, you could not tell how they felt about it.  Could they have had more personality in the newscast… Sure, of course, they could have, but I just chewed out the whole class for getting an attitude with each other. I swear World War three was about to go down over a rainbow club, and I was not about to have that. 

My students know that I believe in the freedom of the press and how important it is to have journalists. But I have also taught them how to look at a new story and break down whether the reporter is presenting facts or facts with a bias. My eighth graders have gotten good at pointing out opinions in a news story and my seventh graders are getting there. If my students never progress more in their TV Production career, I hope they learn one thing: how to analyze a story, discover what the facts are, and break them away from the on-air talents’ opinions. 

Lent, Teaching

Day 17: Controlled Chaos in the control room

Alexandra Diane

When I asked one of my students what I should write about today, she said, “write about us!” I told her that I had before. However, I didn’t think today would turn out to be such controlled chaos.

Today was a hot mess express. Actually, the whole week has been a shit show and a half. Students are losing their damn minds with the full moon. If you don’t think the moon controls the kids, you haven’t spent enough time around hundreds of students on campus. But today was probably the most hilarious of them all. Usually, my students run the newscast by themselves without any assistance. But since the computer that usually does graphics died, and the replacement needs to have my profile on it, they can no longer do their job adult free. Not that I don’t fully trust them not to change their grades, but I’m not giving them the opportunity. 

Today’s class that handled the newscast has nine very vocal females and one far less vocal male. We had a guest classmate come in and add some testosterone to the room. It didn’t help much. The girls are still in complete control of the chaos. We did a few run-throughs of the script before recording. This gives everyone in the control room a chance to get familiar with what graphics will be coming up, who is tossing to weather, and setting the audio levels. Well, today wasn’t our smoothest rehearsal. 

First, we had audio issues. For some reason, the student running the board thought she should start the show with the volume faders all the way up. The moment the anchors’ mics came on, it sounded like our speakers were blown. Everything was overmodulated. She started screaming, confused about why everything was so loud. I told her to look at her levels and bring them down. Instead of bringing them down, she kept yelling over the anchors. Finally, the line producer leaned over and dropped their audio to a manageable level. 

The technical director rolled on our first take with the audio crisis averted. It should have been our only take since everything was going smoothly. That was until the audio operator forgot to unmute the weather anchor. Everyone in the back started yelling at her because we were only a story and a half away from being done with the newscast. My students pride themselves on being able to record in one take. They do their best to record live to tape and try not to leave anything for me to edit. They also know that the moment they mess up something, the ball starts rolling, and so many other things start to mess up.

And that is precisely what happened. 

The anchors flubbed their lines a few times, and I threatened to fire them. They quickly switched roles, so the other was now reading the names from the basketball game. Things seemed to be going great until our audio person became distracted and forgot to mute everyone while the weather opening played. The recording started over, and anchor one sounded dead while anchor two sounded like he took speed. I told them they were both about to lose their jobs, and they promised they’d do better. 

The line producer called standby and began the countdown. Then all hell broke loose. The floor director was in her own world and forgot to count the anchors in. So we just had the boys staring at the screen while the lounge producer started shouting in the head seat. Anchor one lost his shit, and my director ran out, nearly jumping up and down. She told him, “now read the announcements with that energy,” and he did. We were almost done with a great take until my audio operator squealed so loudly and threw up her arms that my weather anchor thought she had done something wrong. Everything was lost in the moment. We tried to pick up the take from the weather opening, but it was lost. We had to start over. 

At this point, we had fifteen minutes left of our fifty-minute class. The new floor director counted in the on-air talent, and Anchor one sounded like he could pass for a zombie while anchor two, well, he could read the names, so we just had to roll with it. 

I think I was ready to give up on the day. Everyone was out of sorts and making careless mistakes. We didn’t have time to switch, and the two that usually were my go-to on-air talent decided that today they were protesting because “like we always do it.” 

We finally got a passable take. There were some graphic errors because the right arrow became stuck. That problem was the only one that could be fixed in post, so we kept it. 

I really can’t be too frustrated. The kids did great. Repeating the script, punching the show, and rolling with tech issues with a fair amount of emotional control. I worked long enough in the professional world to know that not many adults could keep their composure as my 12 & 13-year-olds did. 

Lent, Teaching

Day 15: Fire (not a drill)

Alexandra Diane

In the last ten to fifteen minutes of school today, my building had to evacuate. When the fire alarm went off, all the students froze and looked at me. We weren’t sure if it was a drill, especially with how close it was to dismissal.

My class is usually organized chaos. My TV production students tend to be all over campus recording projects and being a little boisterous because they’re acting in their films. So for them to automatically stop what they were doing and look at me for guidance made me proud. As the alarm drilled over our heads, I picked up my walkie and listened. This was clearly not a drill.

At our last staff meeting, they made it very clear that if we were ever to evacuate our building or had to leave campus Because of an event, all students in staff members should have their cell phones. They even told women to grab our purses just in case we wouldn’t be allowed back on campus or into the building to get our keys. So I told all my students to grab their phones and throw them into their back pockets, and we waited for the announcement to dismiss us. South Florida schools no longer automatically run out of their classrooms when the fire alarm is pulled. We remain until our building is dismissed because we want to be sure it is a real fire or a drill, not someone who has decided to play a prank and pull the alarm or something more horrendous.

While we waited, there was a knock on my door. I looked through the gap, and it was two of my three students who were out filming. I asked where student C was, and they said he went to the building two office. Usually, that is not a wrong decision on his part, but today that was the wrong choice. That office, which is over the classrooms next time mine, is where they suspected the mechanical fire was coming from.

When they dismissed us to our location, there were only three classrooms who are dismissed. I watch students who usually constantly misbehave and act out, walking single-file lines and listening to their teacher without having to be told multiple times to behave. I cannot say how proud I am of each and every student that was at my school that took the situation seriously.

Students usually complain about the fire drills and ask why we do them. But today shows why they were important. Every student knew precisely where they needed to go. Every student knew how to handle themselves appropriately and listened when the teachers called roll to ensure we were all accounted for and present.

As we waited, my students asked if this was why I always asked them to create a schedule breakdown with their locations. I said besides that, it was an industry standard, but it also helped me locate them in case of an emergency like today.