REPORTING ON THE SCENE AT FLOYD MIDDLE SCHOOL…

         So, I interviewed five of my colleagues. Based on a sampling of five Cobb middle schools, all have and utilize a video distribution system with an average of three or four channels.  The consistency in systems led me to wonder if this is a standard set by and supplied by the county, but I was unable to confirm this among any of the LMS with whom I spoke.  I did determine with a search of my own school’s purchase orders that our “new” mixing board was purchased two years ago with $1000 in LMC funds.  While it is in use… it clearly has capabilities of which I as yet, still ignorant. The responsibility for distribution of the closed circuit systems rested primarily with the LMS though at two schools, I am thankful to say my own is one of these, there were other staff members that took part. 

         Use of the systems among the schools was likewise fairly standard. One station is usually connected to a computer dedicated to slide shows or school videos looping throughout the day. At Floyd we have televisions mounted in two lobbies, the front office, and the LMC as well as connections to LCD projectors in every classroom on which broadcasts may be viewed.  For example in the last few weeks, I produced a movie maker video composed of photos and video footage from our recent Hispanic Heritage celebration, a slide show of the Game Truck visit (part of a fund raiser), and an infomercial for parents on the common core that has been looping throughout conference week.  Teachers submit requests for materials they want to share school-wide and these are accommodated. At another school Pandora was streamed along with these broadcasts.  Generally two or three channels are used for DVD/VHS closed circuit viewing at teacher requests.  The other LMS indicated this use tends to come in waves, especially around holidays and the end of the quarter.

        News broadcasts across all five schools were standard. Three of the schools hosted video announcement three days a week.  The other two  – again, one being my own – have daily video announcements. As my respondents are all in middle schools, all the news programs were student produced. At my own school, I assist the news crew in filming and editing prerecorded segments. The ability to prerecord segments allows the team to cover a broader range of events and topics of student interest.  We have an outstanding morning news show for which I can take no credit. The show belongs to our PE coach who volunteered to make it Her Baby this year. As the new LMS I was VERY HAPPY to abdicate this one. I act as technical advisor and train the students in the equipment and programs for video editing. Additionally, I act as an interview coach for the student staff and a collaborative partner for our Coach.  In my interviews, I found one school that records and archives their productions. I plan to share this idea with our own broadcast team.

        In addition for begin grateful for the reprieve of one more item to attempt to master in my first year, I am thrilled to have one less task in the mornings.  Our LMC is extremely busy at that time of day and being freed from supervision of the actual broadcast (and having a limited role in planning and coordination) has freed much needed time to be The Librarian in the mornings… something both I and the large number of visitors we have each day enjoy.

         I found no use of digital TV distribution. At my own school, I know little except that the preceding LMS indicated last year Cobb went to digital and that our system is analog. She did not know if there were plans for the county to update our equipment. She did indicate she felt there was little use of the channels when we did have them, but that she had taken a survey of teachers each year to determine what the channels would be.

         GPB’s Discovery Education/United Streaming collection of videos is used by approximately half of the staffs. To varying degrees, inservices were given some years ago and little has been done since. New teachers generally get their information on this resource from their colleagues.  Now knowing this, I personally plan to include it as a link on my LMC website and add a TechHelp guide on the Tdrive (teacher communal drive).  The system is free for teachers to create an individual login (with the county code).  Material may be searched by topics, grade level, media, and more.