Just For TV Teachers

Depending on your point of view, you either think Simon Cowell, the now-departed judge from “American Idol,” is a jerk, or a genius. Or you might just think he’s mean, arrogant, cruel, entertaining, usually right, often wrong, or a little of bit of each.

While I agree with almost everybody that Cowell phoned it in last season as he prepared for his departure, I have been pondering this question in recent days: Is there a lesson or two or three we educators, er, teachers, can take from this bratty Brit? Maybe.

Teachers can not treat kids like Simon treated contestants on “Idol.” If we did, we would be in the principal’s office the next day, explaining why we told Tommy he was dreadful at Math, or had the writing skills of a toy poodle, or needed to think about NOT moving onto the 11th grade because it would be a colossal waste of his time and ours. Can you imagine? No, we can’t, and shouldn’t, “go there” as teachers. Mr. Cowell went there regularly in front of 20 million viewers. Ouch.

On the other hand, Simon was also brutally honest, and often correct about the wannabe singers he judged each week. So what exactly is wrong with a cup of honest feedback? Nothing, really. It is what we should be providing our students all the time.

When I was coaching, a parent who was also a highly-placed administrator in the school district told me this the day before baseball tryouts began: “If my kid is ever average, cut him from the team. He needs to move on and find something he is good at. Just cut him.” That happened ONCE in all my years of coaching.

Each week on “Idol,” I saw Simon try to explain to numerous singers that they just did not have it. His message, it seemed to me, was to keep looking for something you can excel at, but this music thing isn’t it.

Should teachers do something similar in the classroom? Sometimes, maybe we should. I have had a number of kids in broadcasting who really needed to move on to something else. I mean, fine, take the class, enjoy the experience, but seriously, do not pursue this as a career. Most figure that out on their own, by the way. It does not mean they are failures.

I have no problem criticizing my kids’ work, and challenging them to step it up. In fact, most of them find out early on I am very hard to impress. Lillian Olive and Rachel Miles, two of my top students in 2007, won the RFK Award. They claim the first time I said anything nice about their winning story was on our way out of the ceremony that night in D.C. I still deny that, but I also can not prove them wrong.

So should we channel our inner-Simon in the high school setting? Now and then, yes. I think students deserve total honesty most of the time when it comes to their work. But I have had teaching and coaching colleagues through the years who have had a very difficult time providing such feedback without making it personal, or coming across as cruel.

That is why getting honest with kids requires us to get honest with ourselves. Criticism should only be offered as a way to help someone improve. Otherwise, we’re just being mean. They do not need us for that. Too many of them get that at home, or in the hallways, everyday.

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I got such a nice response a few months ago when I posted a “Q and A” with former HTVer Ashley Reynolds, now a professional TV reporter in Kentucky, that I thought I’d tap into my alumni network once again.

This time I visited with Grant Reed, a 2007 grad who is now working on a degree in film at Chapman University in southern California. Grant was the News Director of “HTV Magazine” his senior year, and won several national honors for his broadcast journalism efforts. But now he is pursuing his passion, which is making movies. I wanted to check in with him about the film track he has chosen, and pick his brain a bit. So read on and learn from someone not that far removed from his high school broadcasting experience:

You are attending Chapman University in the southern California. That seems like a huge leap from Springfield, MO. How did you decide to go there, and how has it worked out so far?

Deciding to go to school in California was a very big decision, but it felt like the right one (and still does). I had an interest in film ever since I was little and created shorts with my grandmother’s videocamera. You know, the one with the tapes that fit into a specialized VHS tape. So my interest had been growing for a long time. By the end of my first year on the staff of HTV, I knew that I wanted to study film. When I began researching schools, and asking around for advice from people in the field, the big topic that kept coming up was “connections.” In the film industry, the pay scale isn’t based on how many years of school you’ve had. You get a job if you have experience and you’re known to be reliable, and you need people who can verify that. I knew that if I stayed in Missouri, or the midwest, for that matter, that I would be at a disadvantage if I decided to move to LA at a later date. So I began researching film schools in California. I was attracted to Chapman because you start the major as a freshman, unlike many of the other programs, including those at UCLA and USC. I visited the campus while on a trip to the STN Convention, and I fell in love with the campus. The school is small, and the surrounding area is fairly quiet, which provided a smoother transition from Springfield. I’ve had a great time so far, and I’m very happy I made the decision I did.

You just directed a student film, “Yes Man.” What were some of the obstacles you didn’t anticipate, or any surprises along the way as you finished the project?

The biggest issue: money. Films are not cheap. I’m very grateful to have very supportive parents who believe in what I’m trying to do. My film was done for a class called Advanced Production, which is biggest production class you take before your thesis. My film was only 10 minutes, but it took three days to shoot. I had to feed my crew all three days, I had SAG actors, so I had to pay for SAG insurance, two of the locations where we shot wouldn’t allow us to plug anything into their outlets, so we had to rent a generator. We also rented a lot of extra equipment. The school provides a camera and some minimal equipment, which is very helpful, but a lot of times it isn’t enough. We also shot on film, so there were processing fees, costs for transferring the footage, extra. There are a lot of small things that add up. But if you’re satisfied with the end results (as I was), then that struggle is justified.

You were a busy broadcast student in high school, shooting, editing, and leading a very successful news staff. What lessons from your broadcast journalism experience have helped you in your work as a film director/student?

Although broadcast journalism and narrative film are two very distinct mediums, both rely on telling a powerful story. Working on HTV, I learned how to create a compelling story out of interviews and B-roll. With film, you’re creating the story ahead of time, and planning everything in advance. But broadcast journalism gave me a great advantage in knowing what will be effective for the audience. And one of the rules that made me hate Coach so many times was “Kill the puppies,” and it is also one of the rules that has helped me tremendously in film school. For my Advanced Production, there was a 10 minute limit for the screening. Our first cut was 13 minutes. I ended up cutting out an entire scene, and cut out enormous portions of others. And it ended up being a better story because of it. There was no excess. I included what was needed for emotion of the story, and cut out the rest. And in world of films where studios rule, no one is going to say, “I liked it, but I wish the movie was a little longer.” You’re always going to be asked to make cuts. So, as much as it hurts to “kill the puppies”, it is ultimately for the better.

A lot of high school students are interested in film, but may have limited opportunities to get involved. Any suggestions for them as they consider movie-making as a career?

The great thing about today is that anyone can be a producer. With sites like Youtube and Vimeo, and the low cost of digital cameras, filmmaking is no longer restricted to those with large budgets. Don’t wait to go to film school. I surely didn’t. I was creating music videos and participating in short film contests like the local SATO48 here in Springfield, and that experience has been very valuable. There was almost no crew, just me, a camera, some co-writers, and a few actors. And that was all we needed.

Finally, who are the filmmakers you look up to, and how important is it for young directors to study the work of others?

My favorite filmmaker would have to be Paul Thomas Anderson, director of “There Will Be Blood”, “Boogie Nights”, “Magnolia”, and “Punch Drunk Love.” All of his films are focused on characters, and telling their stories. Unlike many films today, he doesn’t rely on action sequences or gimmicks to keep the audience’s attention. His great strength is in making the audience care for these (sometimes selfish and outrageous) characters, and I greatly admire him for that. When it comes to a film that most represents my style of filmmaking, I would have to choose “Election” directed by Alexander Payne. That film is brilliant. It takes the simple premise of a high school election, and turns it into a scathing satire with a sharp script, hilarious but believable performances, and a fast pace that keeps the audience invested. I think humor is a great medium for the discussion of serious issues, and that has become my goal as a filmmaker: to entertain the audience without that entertainment being mindless, as much of it is today (we have Michael Bay and reality TV to blame for that).

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Okay, one of my students hassled me a couple of weeks ago about my recent complaints regarding her blog. I kind of criticized her lack of “voice” and “honesty” in her latest post.

So we bickered back and forth, and finally I told her I would do a blog soon that would provide my reader(s) with more details about me. Kind of a put-up-or-shut-up thing. So this is it, my true confessions blog. Things you may not know about me. Brace yourself.

*I do not go to movies. Modern movies almost always disappoint me. I see one a year, maybe.

*I do not read the newspaper anymore. Our local paper is now just a shadow of its former self. I check it out online maybe twice a week. Maybe.

*Regarding local news, I am tired of the young reporters they bring in from other places who know nothing about this town or the Ozarks.

*I never watch network news unless I know Les Rose or Steve Hartman have something coming up on CBS. I do like “Sunday Morning” with Charles Osgood. I DVR it now and then, but it is a little artsy for me at times. I am not artsy.

*You could not pay me to watch CNN, MSNBC, or Fox News. And PBS? Not my cup of tea, but I admire the effort. I tried to watch Ken Burns’ “Baseball” and “Civil War,” but got bored after a while.

*He’s obnoxious, and often childish and crude, but I do listen to Imus in the Morning almost everyday.

*Jim Rome cracks me up, and is one of the better interviewers on the radio. I listen to his show when I can.

*I hate beets and broccoli. I can stand broccoli if it is smothered with melted cheese. I also don’t like most fruits.

*TV shows I never watch: Lost, CSI, Grey’s Anatomy. TV shows I always watch: Friday Night Lights, 24, House.

*I do not like animated movies. Never seen: Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Up, Toy Story, WALL ‘E’, The Lion King, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, etc.

*Student and faculty IDs are a waste of money.

*I hate politics and can barely make myself vote. I skip some elections.

*As I get older, I get less and less excited about broadcast contests and awards, and more excited about just doing good work. We need to be better in May than we were in September. That is pretty important. Contests are often about the teacher’s ego, not the kids.

*I think young teachers are probably better than we veterans give them credit for, but experience does bring wisdom, which is something the 20-somethings should keep in mind.

*I feel like we have turned the presidency into the office our best and brightest will never seek.

*I don’t drink, and I do think it’s probably wrong. But I don’t hold it against those who do partake. Just don’t hold it against me that I don’t.

*People who smoke should stop. They are dying a little every time they light up. But I do realize it is one of the hardest habits to break, and I really admire those who have quit.

*People blame the media too much. Really, you don’t have to watch it, listen to it, or read it.

*The far right and the far left are both wrong. Most of the time, the truth is somewhere in the middle. It always has been.

*Cars are a necessary evil. I know little about them, and care little about how they work. Just get me there and back in one piece.

*Simon Cowell was almost always right on American Idol. They can not replace him. Instead, they should replace the entire panel of judges. The show needs a total overhaul.

*I like dogs, not cats. But I wouldn’t have either.

*Lawyers are smart, doctors are smarter.

*I get paid about what I should. I’m a teacher, not a doctor.

*Patriotism is important, but we should respect those who question authority and take the government to task when it screws up.

*I hope we go to the moon again someday.

*Kids are lazy because parents are lazy.

*Educators like to start new programs to attract the smart kids. Parents will always go for those. We also have tons of programs for the low kids, or the mean kids. We just don’t have a lot for the kids in the middle.

*Inflated grades and weighted grades have made it bad to be a “B” student these days. Most of us really are “B” and “C” students, no matter what you put on our grade card.

*NASCAR is boring on TV.

*Tiger Woods is a foul-mouthed jerk. I felt that way a year ago.

*I don’t hunt or fish. My brother does.

*I was more in my element in the dugout than I have ever been in the classroom.

*My best friends are still the friends I had when I was 12.

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Colleges and universities do it all the time. Shamelessly.

They contact graduates via mail, e-mail, phone calls, whatever it takes to solicit donations. I have an undergraduate degree from one institution, a master’s degree from another, and I hear from both of them regularly as they try to raise money for this or that good cause.

Six years ago, a few of my HTV alums decided to raise money each year and provide a $1,000 scholarship to a graduating senior on the HTV staff. In 2004, Jeremy Wells walked away from our year-end banquet with a very nice check.

Since then, we have maintained the yearly scholarship, but wisely changed it from cash to a laptop computer, which will last a lot longer than a thousand bucks in today’s world of higher education.

I encourage all broadcasting teachers to keep in touch with their alumni. Now, thanks to Facebook, it’s easier than ever. We started a page last year and it’s been a great avenue for publicizing the scholarship drive, and other activities such as last October’s big reunion where we celebrated HTV’s first 20 years. We had about 200 former students show up.

You do not have to constantly raise money and beg for donations. There are other reasons for keeping your alumni involved. It says a lot about your program, and how it impacted the students, if they feel it is important to stay involved after high school, and give back in some way. It also sends a clear, strong message to your current students. Sure, some will be “too cool for school” and will avoid you and high school in general in the years ahead. That’s fine. There are plenty who will want to do something to say “thanks” for the experience you provided, and the memories they value.

Make the most of the time you have with your students, and then, when they leave, don’t say “goodbye.” Instead, say, “I’ll see you later.” Or maybe more appropriately, “See you on Facebook.”

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Colleges and universities do it all the time. Shamelessly.

They contact graduates via mail, e-mail, phone calls, whatever it takes to solicit donations. I have an undergraduate degree from one institution, a master’s degree from another, and I hear from both of them regularly as they try to raise money for this or that good cause.

Six years ago, a few of my HTV alums decided to raise money each year and provide a $1,000 scholarship to a graduating senior on the HTV staff. In 2004, Jeremy Wells walked away from our year-end banquet with a very nice check.

Since then, we have maintained the yearly scholarship, but wisely changed it from cash to a laptop computer, which will last a lot longer than a thousand bucks in today’s world of higher education.

I encourage all broadcasting teachers to keep in touch with their alumni. Now, thanks to Facebook, it’s easier than ever. We started a page last year and it’s been a great avenue for publicizing the scholarship drive, and other activities such as last October’s big reunion where we celebrated HTV’s first 20 years. We had about 200 former students show up.

You do not have to constantly raise money and beg for donations. There are other reasons for keeping your alumni involved. It says a lot about your program, and how it impacted the students, if they feel it is important to stay involved after high school, and give back in some way. It also sends a clear, strong message to your current students. Sure, some will be “too cool for school” and will avoid you and high school in general in the years ahead. That’s fine. There are plenty who will want to do something to say “thanks” for the experience you provided, and the memories they value.

Make the most of the time you have with your students, and then, when they leave, don’t say “goodbye.” Instead, say, “I’ll see you later.” Or maybe more appropriately, “See you on Facebook.”

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We wrap up our last monthly magazine by this year’s staff on Friday. That means our April show will be done, and my senior HTVers will draw the curtain on their high school broadcasting careers.

The last show by this year’s seniors should be pretty good. We didn’t make a big deal out of it being their finale. We just wanted to do some interesting stories, meet some interesting people, and let the chips fall where they may. After all, the class of 2010 is almost out the door. Some felt the screen door slam in their minds right after spring break, but that’s a topic for another day.

Each year, after the current staff wraps its last program, I turn over the production of our May edition to the new, incoming staff of “HTV Magazine.” That gives the newbies a chance to see what the production cycle is really like, and just how different the expectations are for a newsmagazine that airs on the local CW, and not just inside the walls of our school.

I’m taking the newbies “on the road” for that May show. We are fortunate to live about 40 miles from Branson, MO, and having taken numerous groups of TV teachers there during “Camp STN” in the summer, I am fairly confident we can find plenty of stories on or around historic Highway 76, aka “Country Music Boulevard.”

In addition to shooting an entire show, we plan to play a little, eat a lot, and hopefully, build some team spirit. While these kids go to school together sometimes for 13 years straight, it does not mean the are all “friends” or even very familiar with the personalities of those around them.

So B-Town, here we come. Let’s hope this is the just the first leg of a longer journey, as the new HTV staff comes together and creates some memorable shows to share with the audience in the months ahead.

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Okay, I’m a former college baseball player, and a former high school baseball coach. So as I sit here watching “Baseball Tonight” on ESPN, which will be followed by the first game of the 2010 season, featuring the Yankees against the Red Sox, permit me for this digression from TV teaching topics for this “baseball blog.”

I simply must make my 2010 predictions, just for the heck of it, and so in October we can re-visit this blog and see how wrong I was. Okay, here we go.

AL East: Yankees
AL Central: Tigers
AL West: Angels
Wild Card: Rays

NL East: Phillies
NL Central: Cubs
NL West: Dodgers
Wild Card: Cardinals

World Series: Rays vs. Phillies
World Series Winner: Phillies in seven games

Of course, I will root hard from my Cards, and hope like heck that the Cubs fail to live up to my prediction. After all, they are the Cubs.

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We go on spring break this Friday. That means when we return, my seniors will have about 35 days of high school left. Wanna know how motivated they will be to produce another TV show?

One thing we do each year as our monthly broadcast winds down is to turn over the last show of the school year to the incoming staff. That means in April the current staff, which is senior-dominated this year, will do its very last “HTV Magazine” before the new crew takes over.

Fighting the malaise that sets in after the break is a yearly challenge. It isn’t just in broadcast classes. It’s a school-wide problem that afflicts all teachers with 12 graders. How can we keep the class-of-this-year productive in the closing weeks of their secondary education?

To complicate things, the kids all know their semester grades in January are the last ones the colleges look at, so this last semester is even more insignificant. Nice.

I have tried several things through the years. Guilt. It works a little. “Johnny, after all we’ve been through, I’d sure like to see you show enough pride to do your best on your last show ever….” Or better yet, “Mandy, how can you not do one more great story after all the passes I’ve written, all the off-campus food runs I’ve let you go on, all the times I’ve loaned you a camera for those non-school projects you’ve done for your team and your youth groups and….”

If guilt fails, there is always the legacy thing. “I’d sure like this staff to leave behind one more great show for everyone to see.” Yeah, that rarely works.

Then there is the threat. You know, the ole “I still get to give you a grade, young lady, and while you may not care, your mom will.” Not a nice way to say goodbye, is it?

So teachers, let me know if you have a sure-fire way to make the post-spring break malaise tolerable. I’ve been doing this for 28 years, and uh, I got nothin.’

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I think this is a good time to dig into the archives of this humble blog and re-print the one that got the most reaction.

It originally appeared here on November 22, 2006. With the seventh annual STN National Convention just a couple of weeks away, this seems like a good time to share it again.

“LOSING HEART”

I received an e-mail six or seven months ago from a colleague in Texas. She is someone I can not remember ever meeting in person, but I may have. I meet lots of broadcast teachers at our summer camp, and at the STN Affiliates Convention each year. When I read her note, it really got to me. She basically said, “We have entered lots of STN contests, but we’re losing heart because we never, ever place.”

It was a moment that hit me hard, and reminded me of the double-edged sword scholastic broadcasting contests offer to those who choose to compete. When I was a kid, one of my best friends, Greg, used to say, “It’s a fun game to win.” He was referring to baseball, or poker, or whatever contest he had been enjoying at the time.

One of my college baseball coaches used to say, “As long as someone’s keeping score, you might as well win.” At the time he was playing badminton (no kidding) and doing his best to pulverize his opponent, which in badminton means slamming the birdie to the open court where it makes a resounding “poof” audible only to nearby dogs when it lands. Being competitive is something we Americans perfected a long time ago, isn’t it?

But back to my colleague in the Lone Star State who said she and her kids were “losing heart” because of their frustration in STN contests. What do we do about that? It seems to me one of the biggest responsibilities we have as TV teachers is to make sure every contest experience is educational, no matter what the results are. It’s not always easy. But thank goodness STN provides critiques and judges’ comments in all contests. Sometimes forms get lost, or misplaced, but in every case, a serious effort is made to make sure the contests provide a teaching moment with written feedback, even if it’s just a score and a brief sentence. Sometimes it’s much more thorough.

Preparation of broadcast kids for contests is crucial as well. As a teacher, you simply have to lower the expectations. You have NO idea who is going to enter what, and how many schools will participate. So don’t make remarks to your kids about winning. Why? Because winning is getting tougher. There are more broadcasting programs in the schools now than there were ten years ago, and many have discovered contests like the “STN Fall Nationals,” which recently received just under 500 entries from over 90 schools. If you tell a kid they are going to win or place in a national contest, you are crazy, and you are asking for heartache.

I am a total softy when it comes to contests. I want every kid to win something. It’s so fun to see the STN Closing Awards Ceremony each year at the national convention. The recognition kids receive that day is so fulfilling to those who work so hard to make the contests happen. One of my favorite moments was at the 2004 convention, the first one, when a teacher and her kids went nuts when one of their own got an “Honorable Mention” in an on-site contest. I’m guessing the teacher did not tell her kids to expect any awards that day. When they won, they were truly thrilled.

To sum it up, contests should provide teaching moments about what we need to do better. Written feedback is crucial if that is to happen. Teachers need to lower expectations, and never tell kids they are going to win. They should also make sure they celebrate any recognition students earn in national contests, because these days, it’s only getting tougher.

In the end, yes, “losing heart” happens. For the kids who keep entering, but don’t win, they need to understand that the process of competing, with proper feedback, is worth the effort. It is totally up to the teacher, and to the people running these contests, to make sure that comes through loud and clear.

I finish with remarks I heard the great Nebraska football coach, Tom Osborne, make at a banquet 20 years ago. He was talking about a conversation he had with a high school coach in his area. Osborne asked him what kind of year he had. The high school coach said, “Oh, we went 7 and 3, just missed the playoffs.”

Osborne looked at him and said, “I didn’t ask how many games you won. I asked you what kind of year you had.”

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This NBC fiasco has me thinking about network greed, and how the late-night TV shows have become, in comparison with the Carson and Cavett era of intelligent interviews, humorous sketches and inspired comedy bits, featuring stars and legends that are sadly absent from the landscape today, just weak imitations that actually find their origins in the 50s show hosted by Steve Allen, who was followed by the inimitable Jack Paar, who then stepped aside for Johnny, who sadly left his mantle to Dave, who was then ambushed by the Peacock gang in favor of Jay, who now finds that his recent coup to return to the “Tonight Show” at the expense of the more loved, but less-viewed Conan, has made him unpopular with the general public, and that he may actually take it on the chin when he resumes his role as the “Captain Obvious” of late-night talk, once we all finish watching the winter Olympics and begin looking for the color of spring, which will surely remind us that life is best observed outdoors, when things are coming to life again, and not through the idiot-box in the front room.

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