I admit it, going into this assignment, I felt that my school, Cartersville High School, would be head and shoulders above everyone else with video distribution. In some aspects, I was right; however, in some, I was very, very wrong. We have a closed circuit cable system, and we also have a network video distribution system. Score one point for CHS. Our network video distribution system, however, doesn’t work! Score one for Dr. Cooper! (How did he know to ask that question!?) I learned from interviewing both my library media specialist as well as our Video Productions teacher, Marc Collier, that CHS does not really have the bandwidth to use our network video distribution system. Therefore, when teachers try to use it, it is not reliable and doesn’t work properly; for example, the audio may not match up with the video. In addition to these woes, our network at CHS restricts its usage. Obviously, there are major glitches!
Cartersville High School mainly uses our closed circuit video distribution system. It is used to show classes the school variety show, a product of the popular Video Productions Class, called “Seeville Productions.” We show school news, important announcements like our registration process, how to register to vote, the benefit of driver’s education, etc. The productions are filmed by, edited by, and star students in Mr. Collier’s class. In fact, Mr. Collier is the ONLY teacher that has any input on what is shown on our closed circuit system. We use our cable and/or broadcast for important national events like Presidential inaugurations, watching CSPAN for Congressional Sessions, etc.
How do we compensate for lack of network video distribution system? Cartersville High School, like all public schools in Georgia, has access to the GPB Education website. In fact, our social studies department uses the Discovery Education streaming videos with almost every unit they cover. This extensive website has tremendous resources for teachers and all subject areas. However, for the sake of length, I’m going to focus on three areas in particular.
GBP has also been an excellent resource for the upcoming implementation of the Common Core Standards.
This link provides the viewer with a recorded message from the State School Superintendent, John Barge, on the new Common Core Standards. On this link, too, are webinars broken up by subject and content area to help classroom teachers with the implementation of Common Core.
GPS has a link called Stem Central.
This link is an excellent resource for Science, Engineering, Math, and Technology teachers. During my program at West Georgia, I have discovered that there really are not a great deal of online sites devoted to science and math. Therefore, I hope that all teachers in these fields will take advantage of this great resource. This site focuses on preparing students for real world experiences with science, math, technology and engineering.
Finally, the last link is called Count On It for K-3.
I have to admit, I teach high school, and I was so amazed at this site. I think that it is very user-friendly. The students may click on their grade level and practice skills for telling time, measuring, using and counting money, and even geometry. This is an excellent resource for students to use on their own, and it truly makes learning fun.
As a media specialist, it is important to stay on top of great resources and the ability to reach out to all teacher via television or closed circuit viewing. Through collaboration with Mr. Collier, this is possible at Cartersville High School. By subscribing to GPB Education, all of the teachers, in each content area, will be able to enhance their lessons through video streaming and interactive games.
Wow…..I have used Discovery for a while now and have quite a selection in my content for Science (Earth Science) and Social Studies (Europe, South / Central America, Canada and Australia (Oceania)). However, I was not aware of the Common core information, the STEM or the GPB_kids parts of the site. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteI am certified in Technology Ed and have taught it at several middle schools. One of the functions at these schools was to run the Morning Show. We had budgeted for some nice equipment and had good shows using the 32 inch televisions in each classroom. We shared one of the channels with the Media Center (usually 7 or 9). This was before Promethean Boards. In fact, I was initially hired at Langford to teach Technology Education. They hired me on Monday and told me on Friday that they were no longer funding Technology and Food and Consumer Science. So, I have taught Math, Science, Social Studies and Language Arts.
Last year, I tapped in to a channel within the Media Center and put up the Bus numbers as they were called over the intercom, from my classroom. It helped reduce some missed buses due to talking. With a little effort, we could have done a morning show from my classroom (Video Camera and a back drop). We did shows at Windsor Spring Elementary with two video cams, an AV switch from Radio Shack and a VCR. The Principal did her thing most mornings and the students did the news, weather, sports and school news. It worked very well. I have always done a live show, because of the added time required to do an edited show. Yes, we had a few incidents, but nothing of consequence. I was always there during the whole show to preclude much from happening that wasn’t planned.
It’s too bad that we have not produced a show at Langford. The problem is that with all of the extra meetings from NCLB and the new Teacher Evaluation system, there isn’t really much interest or incentive for a teacher to do more than they are already doing. Additionally, Televisions are of the older variety (heavy) and are not being updated. I believe we could hook the system up through the overhead projectors and use the Promethean boards to project upon. However, I have yet to try that.
If you ever decide to do a Morning show, train plenty of help and vary your teams. All good things get old and students need to be able to do other things in the mornings on occasion. Always have anchors and trained backups for every position (camera, sound, news casters). The students really liked the notoriety of being known by everyone. And it is a great way to promote the Media Center.captive audience for Library News (training, new acquisitions, special promotions).
I'm so impressed that you have done live shows with your kids. Most of our are taped and edited, unless there is a last minute, important announcement. I'm impressed, too, that you did so much with elementary level. Thanks for the tips! I love the bus idea. What a great way to dismiss! I think that anything we, as teachers or library media specialists, can do to help take some stress off of the principal would be great!
DeleteI agree that it is important to stay on top of great resources and the ability to reach out to all teacher via television or closed circuit viewing. My school, like yours, has issues with bandwidth and this causes trouble for us. This summer the bandwidth is being upgraded so I hope things will improve next school year.
ReplyDeleteMy elementary school does not make use of a morning show, but, as the media specialist, I have hopes of getting this started. I think students would really pay more attention to the morning annoucements if we incorporated video. It would also give students great experience using technology.
Thanks for sharing the website links. These are great! I frequently use gpbkids but didn't know much about Stem. These are great resourcs that I plan to share with my teachers.
I think that my school, too, is supposed to be undergoing some sort of bandwidth upgrade this summer. I hope so. It's a shame to have resources for teachers and students but not be able to access them!
DeleteThe video distribution system is a great way for media specialist to inform students of media center events. Most media specialist in Henry County are in charge of school announcements or the morning news. We all have varying versions of Richardson Systems. My school is 8 years old and has not been upgraded yet, we should be upgraded in the next two years. Our system plays on channel 2 on every TV in the building. Last month we did Black History trivia along with our standard announcements and this month we are doing Dr. Seuss quotes. It can be a lot of fun.
ReplyDeleteYour high school is definitely head and shoulders above mine. We do not have video distribution system at all. We do not even have a class that would support such a thing. I feel this is a great disadvantage to our students. We do have capabilities to access local cable TV in the classroom but that is about it. We are able to broadcast video via the internet so the websites above are excellent resources to use. I would hope that a video distribution system would be something that could be incorporated into my school in order to pass along information to students. Morning announcements can be stale and boring and a video distribution system could help improve the quality of the announcements.
ReplyDeleteIt is so cool that you even have access to Video Distribution System! For most of my teaching career, I have taught at private schools were this is not the case. While I know that there are private schools in the area that have systems, the majority do not. For instance, at the school my mentor is at, they have video equipment to create projects that are uploaded to the school’s server. Teachers can then access the project and show it via their SmartBoard.
ReplyDeleteThe GBP resources are awesome too! It is amazing the information that one can find : )