FORT BENNING, Ga. - When the video production club at Faith Middle School died out four years ago, few knew if it would come back. Thanks to the persistence and determination of a handful of student volunteers and staff, the video production group has not only been brought back to life but also added to the school's course electives.
"We worked hard last year to get a live feed up and going," said Angie Cotton, the school's vice principal. "At the time, we were using an intercom to give out the morning announcements. We had a great crew of students who volunteered to wire the equipment and camera and that's how we started."
But at the close of the 2008-2009 school year, Cotton said she felt a rushed read-through of the announcements in the morning before class wasn't enough and creating a video production class would benefit the students and give them more time to prepare the daily pieces.
In September, the video production club was reborn as an official course elective. The class is student-led with the assistance of three teachers, Libbie Kurinec, Cindy Givens and Paula Baca, who offer expertise in public speaking, script-writing and technical knowledge.
In its inaugural year, six eighth-graders were selected for the course, said Kurinec, a research project teacher for gifted students.
Kurinec said students and teachers alike have been learning "on the job" as they hone their trouble-shooting skills and grapple with technical difficulties.
The three-minute morning show is anchored by two students while the remaining students are responsible for aiming the camera, conducting sound checks and running audio tracks. Following the show, they gather to update the next morning's script, arrange for guest speakers and work on special production projects.
"They are tech-savvy, digital children and they get hands-on training in what a studio looks like and what happens behind the curtain," said Dr. Julio Gonzalez, Faith's principal. "The beauty of it is the students have taken ownership of the program."
One project the students are working on is an orientation video for students new to the school.
"It's a major project," said Will Ostlund, 13. "A bunch of troops from Fort Knox are coming here and we will get a lot of new students. We wanted to make this video to welcome them and show them what Faith is like because all new students wonder what a new school is like."
The eight-minute video is expected to be finished in February and will be sent to Fort Knox. The video will also become part of the orientation offered for families new to post, Kurinec said.
The principal said he hopes the class will continue to be a part of the school's elective offerings.
"It's a very important part of this school," Gonzalez said. "A lot more goes into it than what you see on camera and it's giving these students a life-learning opportunity to explore a video production career in the future."
Kurinec said the class would begin looking for seventh-graders to learn video production skills this spring for admission to next year's course.
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