Tag: cte

Lent

Day 37: STN: Closing Time

Alexandra Diane

During the first night of STN, we celebrated our awards. Seminole Ridge took home two third place and one second place awards. This is nothing to scoff at. Our kids worked their asses off this year. The news kids far more than the film kids. As we waited our turn to take pictures on the stage, the DJ began playing closing time. Part of me wanted to yell at him because one we earned our time to take this picture and two, the song isn’t about the bar closing. It’s about a chapter of the songwriter’s life ending. He was becoming a father and welcoming his baby girl into his life. But as I thought about that, I couldn’t think of a more appropriate song.

My students who are graduating this year are closing a giant chapter in their life. In three short months, a large portion of the thirty students I chaperoned will be heading off to college, while others will attend vocational school. But it doesn’t matter where their future is. They all have the same thing in front of them. The world is for them to take.

 I saw students that have screwed around for most of the year create an amazing news package. And with all honesty, I really wanted to smack them. Their work was professional. In all honesty, it surpassed some of the news packages that aired on the news station where I worked. I just wish they put the same effort into my film class as they did during this competition. Unfortunately, they didn’t even earn an honorable mention. 

Another pair of students that I watched worked took home honorable mention. Watching somebody who is usually a goofball transform into a professional was astounding. To see him work as a photographer like I have seen other seasoned photographer’s work gave me hope. He listened to everything his partner asked him. He never once changed her story, but he provided her with ideas about how the camera should be placed. But the moment the shoot was over, he went back to being a goofball. Which is pretty appropo for a photog. You should see what type of hungry fiends they turn into during the political season. No pizza is safe. 

Some of our young female journalists did not make the cut to place this year. And my heart breaks for them because this was their last year to win. In the past, our school brought home a truckload of awards. However, the judges were different this year. They critiqued much harder than the previous years. Even the board of directors, who is a friend of my co teacher, said that this year’s winners were quarters of a point off from those who didn’t place.

That’s amazing and depressing all at once. The bar has been raised and we need to work harder. That means that the sophomores that we brought with us are going to have to work three times as hard as those that are graduating this year. My juniors had a hunger as we flew home to Florida. They know the work that they have to put into it. Some sophomores seemed to not care while others showed a passion and a drive that is going to make them placed in the years to come. 

Unfortunately, judging is not everything that held us down. We shot ourselves in the foot from the beginning. Our vlog team kept fighting. And by the time they could finally sort things out and put egos aside, they wasted far too much time. It wasn’t just in California that they battled it out. Who would be on camera and who wouldn’t? They wasted a bunch of time back home, given the chance to practice. Aside from them, our film team was green. Not just age wise, but experience. Part of the fault is mine. This was my first time in a major competition, so I did not know what to expect. Two of our seniors, this was also their first time. And while we had someone experienced on our team, jealousy and anxiety overtook their ability to perform. The student also lost my trust. Sadly, this student got caught up in gossip and started a rumor of their own. They claimed that our strongest editor wasn’t skilled in their own right, but I did the work for them. 

This rumor was nothing more than utter nonsense. That student has heard me say time and time again, “if I wanted to edit I wouldn’t be teaching.” Which is 100% the truth. It’s just sad that I have gone out of my way for this student and in a moment of weakness, they had to bring down someone on their team. What’s even worse is I heard it on an accidental recording and that student lied to my face when confronted. 

But I will not let this moment or our lack of awards bring us down in the future. 

In the next two years, we have an advantage. Instead of Long Beach, California, we’re going to be in Tampa Bay, Florida. It’s just a quick drive across the state and one that we will scout out locations. One that we know the history of the city and all its dirty secrets. However, we’re not the only ones with the advantage. Over 200 awards were given out in Long Beach, California, with more than half awarded to students living in southeast Florida. Every single one of those schools has the same opportunity as we do. And I know a bunch of schools will take advantage of that opportunity.

So now, as closing time plays on my radio, all I can think of is that the chapter is closed. The point where we could take home award after award is over. Students from across the country, and now internationally, have come to compete. Our students have to step up. But I have 100% know that our kids are competitive. They have a drive needed to win. And for those students graduating, becoming young adults, they are going to do amazing things.

So who are we?! 

Hawks!!! 

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 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.