Starting with Green screen

The Synergy project is continuing and the class is really starting to get their heads around the idea of news stories in our school.  One item that has been intriguing for them is the green screen.  I have it open in my classroom all the time because I can't figure out how to fold it up  so the kids see it all day long.  It has also lead to many other kids in the school asking questions about it.  So as we continue to learn about how to make news stories I decided to let the kids play.  I gave them the iPads and showed a couple of kids how to use the DoInk Green Screen app.  I really only showed them the basics and let them go.  The students spent the next 45 minutes just setting up scenes and having fun with the screen and the app.  The scenes were very simple but it led to a lot of learning how to use the different technology in the class.  Next up we will be working on practicing interviews so the newscasts can change from fun to more sophiticated.

Newscast Brainstorming and Understanding

This is one of the follow up posts I will be doing as I continue to explore newscasting in my class.  We now have the padcaster and Ipads but are just waiting for cases so that the Ipads are safe in the students hands.  This week I will be finally opening the padcaster equipment to see how it all works and I look forward to trying it all out.  In the classroom we are starting to explore what the newscast will look like.  I gave the students a general chance to brainstorm ideas.  I also handed them out my starting personal brainstorm on topics as well as my starting criteria.  The hopes are that during class the students will expand on my brainstorm and we will make adjustments to the criteria. 

After students brainstormed they came up with some new and interesting ideas that I hadn't thought of.  They were very interested in creating with the green screen some comedy skits and try to make some sort of news article out of it.  Such as walking on water and have the a water scene in the background and the kids walk across.  This lead to many different ideas that involved some fun content.  That being said I then talked to them about articles that we could do that would be newsworthy for our school.  Students struggled a bit with this idea. 
After our brainstorm I felt I needed to give my students an idea of what does something mean to be newsworthy.  I had no idea how to do this but luckily I was able to quickly find a series of lessons by PBS on exactly this topic.  Anyone interested can follow this link.  PBS Student Reporting Lessons

I adapted the first lesson a bit so that it fit into what I wanted to accomplish but generally the students had to write down news that has been  important to them.  Students wrote down things about wildfires , hit and runs, the death of an athlete, how safe is our school in case of an earthquake, and of course Donald Trump.  From our list we were able to come up with things that make news worthwhile.  Our list basically followed the list by PBS 

• Timeliness Proximity
• Conflict and Controversy
• Human Interest
• Relevance

There job now is to find different news articles or television reports that fit into these four categories.  I am going to follow a few of the lessons here by PBS that will hopefully give my students a better scope on reporting news.  Our newscast may have already changed to include some comedy along with some newsworthy items.  I am also finding that starting this it may take a little longer than my original plan to get the first newscast complete.

Synergy Newcast

I have been lucky enough to be selected by SetBC to take part in a classroom project.  Our class goal is to create a newscast for our school.  It is something that I have thought of in the past but just needed a little push and some of the technology to make it happen.  SetBC is able  to provide a lot of the technology that will help out and we will be doing group discussions throughout the year.
  Most of the summer this project was in the back of my mind and how I could do it and make it meaningful for the class.  The great thing was when I told my class about it most of the students were genuinely excited and are offering ways to help, which is a great start!  Next my team of teachers put in place time in our schedule so that we can involve as many students as possible.  In the coming week the class will be brainstorming the types of news items we would like to produce and begin to find our tech team that can help with filming, lighting, and editing.  There are so many positive aspects to this year long project and I am looking forward see how it will develop as we go.  Giving a lot of the power to the students will be an important piece.  This blog will transform for time being as I document how things are going.