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Welcome to Drakes Creek News Show. Each week we produce a new episode. Our news show shares information about our school and upcoming events with teachers, students, and parents. We have several weekly segments including weather, sports, quiz, trivia, and announcements.
Our news show team has both 7th and 8th grade students. All of our teams film, edit, and interview. Everyone has different strengths and we try to make sure everyone feels included. Some students enjoy filming while others like editing, but Mr. Bemiss pushes us to grow so that we learn how to do everything needed on the show.
A lot of time, energy and effort goes into creating each of our news shows. We have a weekly schedule that makes sure everything is organized. We face many challenges, but come up with the best solutions we can find. We have also had many collaborations and special projects with teachers and our principal.
The purpose of the Gator News Show is to share school events in a fun, positive way. We think this helps build school spirit!
On Mondays, the main goal is to set up for the weekly episode. We work in groups to brainstorm ideas and segments. We try to come up with topics by thinking of segments we have never seen before. We write segment ideas on a Google Slide planning document in the news show Google Classroom.
As we plan segments, we decide which students need to be in the segment. Before filming, we make the layout of the segment, so that it’s ready to put our footage in once we get done. Then, we email or call teachers to get permission to interview students.
On Tuesdays, we spend time filming our segments. When we film, we are supposed to make sure that the audio and camera angles are meeting expectations. We try to film different places around the building to make the show more interesting. Our goal is to film the entire segment.
On Wednesdays, we finish filming anything that needs to be wrapped up and double check that our video footage is the correct volume and exactly what we want. If we have time, we start placing the footage into the layout of our segment.
On Thursdays, everyone edits their footage. We add names, cut clips and add music. We will turn the audio up or down to make sure it is at a good setting. Then we add transitions. Once our video is edited, we download it and put it in our Google Classroom. Our show editor downloads each segment and puts everything in order for our show.
On Friday, our teacher does a final check of the show. We watch our episodes to make sure that it all runs smoothly. He uploads our show to YouTube so it can be watched easily. While he is doing that, we begin brainstorming video ideas for the next week.
We have faced some challenges this year. One challenge was that we were using the same students over and over for our clips. Teachers were frustrated because their class kept getting interrupted. We have begun keeping a Google Sheet so that we don’t use the same people every episode. The teachers are much happier now that we call or email their class instead of just showing up at the door.
We collaborate with different people for news show. A social studies teacher requested a shout-out segment, so we created a segment to showcase those students. A leader of one of the school clubs asked if we would make a segment to advertise a summer camp for the group, as well. We also work with the family resource center on a monthly segment to highlight the students of the month.
We also collaborate and work with each other. If a team needs ideas for a segment, we will meet to brainstorm and make suggestions. We also help each other out by reviewing video clips to look for spelling mistakes and audio issues.
This year, we collaborated with STLP to work on creative digital videos. During the news show class, groups spent time in the library and chose projects that interested them. Students could create a PSA, a feature video, or a media literacy video. Collaborating with STLP helped us learn more about editing video in Canva.
This year we have done special projects like creating segments about vaping, class procedures, and we have also helped advertise school events. For Veteran’s day we submitted a clip to share with everyone as well as getting our students excited for the school dance.
Our principal has asked us to create special segments to get our school excited about state testing. We focus on one test for each day. In the videos, teachers give tips to help students stay focused and positive.
We are excited to share our news show process with you. Last school year from August to January our news show had 7,110 views. This school year, we have 27,578 views (and counting). It’s exciting to see that people are interested in viewing our news show.
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