The Scholastic Book Fair. A fox on the playground. Michigan weather. Chicken Nuggets getting shot into space. An uncrushable beetle.
There is no shortage of important news that is occurring locally and across the world that elementary students are continuing to share as part of morning newscasts.
“My goal is for my students to take a leadership role in the school,” said Flickinger Media Specialist Kathryn Miskokomon. “In addition, I appreciate the technology skills that are being learned in order to accomplish the newscasts and often the parents are a key element to that (including that they have learned many new skills too!) I also like the creative aspect that the newscasters have been developing by trying to think outside the box.”
At Graebner Elementary, the news crew meets every Monday after
school on TEAMS to talk about stories, collaborate on the production and
practice. The news is taped the next day on ZOOM and shared on the school’s YouTube channel.
“The kids LOVE doing announcements AND the community LOVES to see
them!,” Graebner Elementary media specialist Colleen Noechel said. “I have one
boy doing animal facts, another girl doing ‘World News’ which has been about
the elections, we have weather, jokes, trivia, community news, and COVID
updates (how to stay safe). Some students have their own weekly segments, like ‘Mysterious
holidays with Marcus’ or ‘Interesting MI facts with Layla.”
At the Flickinger News station, students take rotating turns for
creating, filming and editing daily newscasts.
“I think that the morning announcements are
important because they give students and teachers information like the weather,
but they also entertain students with segments like the interesting news,” said
Flickinger newscaster Milena Jackman.
In addition to the pledge of allegiance, a
typical daily Flickinger newscast can include birthday announcements, weather,
quotes for the day, fun stories in the news, and coming events.
“One of my favorite stories that I've shared
is the one where I said Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were joined in the history books
by a Chicken Nugget,” said newscaster Tyler
Sutter. “The meteorologist sent a chicken nugget into
space with a weather balloon and at the end of my report I said that's one high flying
chicken nugget. I had to redo the shot so many times because I kept laughing.”
Flickinger students use software called flipgrid to create
their work, where it is reviewed and uploaded into the school YouTube channel.
“I think the morning announcements are important because it gives students and idea of what they should know,” said fifth grader Allison Vavruska.
In addition to sharing important events, the announcements are also a way to provide a familiar link back to their school.
“We think the announcements are one way for us to have a little bit of normal in our school day,” Miskokomon said.