News Show

Drakes Creek News Show
Rhiannon, Esther, Addisyn, Reese, Demera
Drakes Creek Middle School
News Show

Welcome to Drakes Creek News Show. Each week we produce a news show. Our news show shares information about our school and upcoming events with teachers, students, and parents. We have several weekly segments including weather, sports, trivia, name that tune, guess the teacher, art tutorials and announcements.

Our news show team has 7th and 8th grade students. Our team has filmers, editors, interviewers and producers. 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 and 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. This document shows how we produce our news show like our weekly schedule, challenges & solutions, how we collaborate and special projects we create for 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! This video shows how we create our weekly news show: WATCH THE VIDEO of how we make the news show.

On Mondays, the main goal is to set up the week. 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. Then we email or call teachers to get permission to interview the students. 

On Tuesday we spend time filming our segments. When we film we are supposed to make sure we have good audio and a good camera angle. We try to film different places around the building to make the show more interesting. Our goal is to film the entire segment. If we cannot finish filming, we write on the whiteboard what camera or iPad we used so our footage doesn’t get deleted or misplaced. Once we’re finished filming, we upload our footage to the computers we edit on. 

On Wednesday we finish filming anything that needs to be wrapped up and double check that our video footage is on our computer. If we have time, we start editing the footage.

On Thursday everyone edits their footage. We add titles, 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. He makes sure everything flows smoothly. He uploads our show to YouTube so it can be watched easily. While he is doing that, we begin the brainstorming process of 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 are going to start keeping a list of all students that have been on the show. The teachers are much happier now that we call or email their class instead of just showing up at the door.

Another challenge this year was keeping track of our video. When we are rushing at the end of class, we don’t pay very much attention to what we are doing. Our teacher will try to help us by uploading our footage but then it is hard to find. To work on this, we are going to work on having weekly folders for each student to drop files into.

We collaborate with different people for news show. Our art teacher requested an art tutorial segment. One of our science teachers gave tips on audio levels. A student who is collecting supplies for the humane society wanted a clip to advertise that. 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 the 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.

Looking ahead to next semester, 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. This semester, our news show has had 2,354 views (and counting) this year! It’s exciting to see that people are interested in viewing our news show.