Jr. High Students As On-Air Personalities

If you're a student at Martinez Jr. High, you know that you have to pick up your cookie dough soon, because there is no place at school to store it. You also know that it is a violation of the dress code to wear spandex or baggy jeans. You know that Peer Tutoring is in Room D-204. How do you know?

You heard it on the news.

For the past two years, school announcements - once the stuff that caused bored students to tune out even more - have been produced by Carmelo Saldago's students. Because teachers have the ability to show videos on a large screen in their classrooms, the announcements are piped in each day and, by all accounts, hold the attention of the students, since it's now students delivering the messages.

The crew at work on the day Martinez Patch came to visit made it look easy. A room has been designated as the video production room. Students Nicole Vargas, 14, Camille Falchettte, 13, Chase Plummer, 14, and Andrew Silva, 13, made the whole process look easy. They managed the lights, sound, camera, and action. The script comes out of the office, generated each day by office manager Sue Gemma. It is then typed into the computer, and on-camera personality Silva reads it for the students. A "green screen" behind him is later filled in with a graphic.

"I started doing this last year," Silva said. "It rocks."

The production is overseen by technology specialist Chris Medina.

"The kids have so much fun doing this," she said. "And it gives me a break from my other duties."

"We're a well-oiled machine at this point," Salgado said. "We have kids working on storyboarding, kids working on the scripts. I consider myself a facilitator more than a teacher. I'm surprised how much they soak up and work with it." 

The kids have access to several kinds of video cameras, computer software to edit their work on, and plenty of ideas they're working on.

"We're continually immersed in some project or another," Salgado said.

And the daily announcement video is having the desired effect.

"From my experience, the students don't pay any attention at all to the announcements over the intercom," said English teacher Angela Henkell. "But on the video, they're captivated. They pay attention. They're a part of it."