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| Tuesday, February 9, 2010 |
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Specialized programs in schools are good
Published August 25, 2009
Sometimes this job is difficult.
Writing about fires, car accidents and other horrible things happening to people around you can be hard.
Other times, I get to cover fun and interesting things that kind of remind me why I wanted to be a reporter in the first place.
I went out to the high school last week to do a feature article about a new video production class they’re trying out.
The school’s 12 journalism students edit the submitted news announcement and take turns recording daily “SCT News” broadcasts. After it is recorded, SHS Media Specialist Jennifer Sanders uploads the videos to SchoolTube (a Web site for student video and media sharing both classroom and entertainment purposes) and the high school’s Web site.
Sanders said students particpating in a small video production class will take over her position as cameraman and video editor, and both she and journalism teacher Holly Michaels said they have plans to further incorportate the technology into special projects and with the school’s newspaper. (Side bar: When I visited the school, Ms. Sanders showed me a campaign video a student did last year for the democracy class mock elections. It was a parody of a “Saturday Night Live” skit called “I’m on the Ballot.” I couldn’t find where I had written the student’s name in my notes, but I’m giving him a special shout out because that video may have been the funniest thing I saw last week.)
I was a member of the journalism staff when I was a student at SHS, and that experience was what helped me decide I wanted to major in journalism in college. I also like to attribute my decision to the fact that I like to tell people things they didn’t already know, but until working on the staff of “The Wildcat,” I didn’t think of making a career out of it.
I think this production class is a great thing for the students, and for the whole school (if only because it means you don’t have to hear the daily annoucements over the intercom anymore).
Its another way of opening doors for students to decide what kind of careers they want to pursue after graduation.
SHS already has programs doing that, like the healthcare programs, business classes and opportunties with the Ernest Pruett Center for Technology.
So this week, I just wanted to applaud SHS and all the schools in the county that have implemented programs like these.
With proration and funding situations getting worse, I hope that these career development and more specialized programs classes don’t get cut. I believe they can help a lot of students decide what career paths they want to follow (or, at least help them decide what jobs they may not want.)
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