EDMOND, Okla. — Director Sarah Crain has a lot to keep track of while taping her weekday news show.
She makes sure her anchors are in place and mans the tricaster — which pops a virtual background behind them on video screen. She gets a thumbs up that the teleprompter is working.
"I make sure the cameras are straight and the mics work, and make sure the video plays," Sarah said.
When anchor Brayden Lowry yawns mid-broadcast, it's something Sarah just rolls with.
Brayden is only 11, and it's early morning, before school. Sarah also is 11.
Both are in fifth grade at Grove Valley Elementary School in the Deer Creek School District, where they work on DCGV TV.
The student-run television station broadcasts each school day to all classrooms.
The school's principal, Debbie Straughn, started the station this school year with a $65,000 Oklahoma Educational Technology Trust grant.
Straughn (a former television reporter), second-grade teacher Cheryl Holman and media specialist Wendy Frailey traveled to Overland Park, Kan., to study student-run television stations. They then bought equipment and selected students to run Grove Valley's station.
Frailey said it didn't take the students long to learn their jobs.
"The first week we had the equipment, they wanted to touch everything and see how it works," she said.
Next, the students toured a local television station, where they learned the jobs of everyone involved in a newscast. Now, about 10 weeks into running their own station students are getting more comfortable in their roles.
"It's fun to be able to write the script and to try to add new stuff every week," said fourth-grader Rylie Farr, who served recently as an anchor.
Straughn said eventually all third-, fourth- and fifth-graders will have the opportunity to try out to work on the television station.
Beyond reading the daily lunch menu, leading the Pledge of Allegiance and acknowledging birthdays and weather, Straughn really wanted to focus on sharing lessons between classrooms. So, each class was given video and digital cameras.
At the end of each broadcast, students share what they are learning.
On a recent weekday, students from Tiffany Blake's third-grade class got to watch their work on the morning broadcast. The students made an iMovie, showing Popsicle-stick pilgrims crossing the ocean in colored paper boats before settling into Lincoln Log houses.
Narrators read the script in the background as students around the school watch the production via their classroom Smartboards.
"I enjoyed what we did, and am really happy that it's on the show," said 9-year-old Anthony Glessner.
Frailey said it's exciting to see how quickly the students embrace new technology.
Information from: The Oklahoman, http://www.newsok.com