Catalyst Grant Final Report
“MLK Library A/V Club for Morning Announcements”
Please provide a brief narrative explaining your project and its outcomes.
This year I focused on using the equipment to livestream our MLK Morning Show and it went really well! The way it functioned is that I had students apply for a position in the morning show (camera person, computer tech – 2 positions, set up crew, researchers/writers – 3, and anchors – 2 positions). I interviewed students as well to find out who was best suited for what roles. We then used OBS and live-streamed our morning show through YouTube. Some students would run the whole show and others would be writing the script for the next day/week.
Some accomplishments include being able to do it! Also, it was awesome that we were able to include some literacy initiatives that our building has been trying to include, which is talking weekly about a ELA or math word of the week. Some of the things the students included were:
- Vocabulary Tuesday: Students would define an ELA or Math vocabulary word and provide an example if applicable.
- Wise Wednesday: research and share an interesting fact
- Trivia Thursday: students would research an interesting thing and then create a multiple choice question for ask a teacher. They would call a teacher in their classroom on the livestream and ask them the question.
- Riddle Friday: students would find a riddle to read and classrooms could call in to try and answer.
The biggest obstacle we had was being banned from YouTube. I didn’t realize that we were unable to livestream children under the age of 13 without an adult in the frame. This is an important safety feature, but I didn’t realize it would be an issue. I petitioned my school district to purchase a subscription to Panopto which would allow us to livestream and record/store the videos in a password protected program. After several months of waiting and hoping we would get access to the software I started using Zoom to livestream the program. It’s not a perfect system, but at least it’s working for now. Hopefully with the passing of our budget the school district will purchase Panopto for us to use next year.
What is the most remarkable accomplishment or finding of your project?
Seeing our students grow! My principal and I chose to have our 5th graders run the morning show instead of 6th grade as they are a group of students that need more attention and support than our other students. They have more social emotional and interpersonal issues and we sort of agreed it would be a great opportunity for them to do something hands-on that required communication, and real-life skills. It’s been really impressive to see how they’ve grown and matured.
I’m honestly also just impressed we’re able to do it! We start around 8:45 and students are packed out and out of the library by 9:20 for my first class. The students and I have gotten it down to a system and I’m impressed we’re able to get it all done in time!
How did your project differ from what you originally proposed?
Not much, honestly! The only other difference is that I haven’t done MORE with the camera and equipment, but I think for the first year we’re accomplished a lot! I would in the future like to use the camera, green screen, and microphones to have students help me make videos, record interviews, and use it as a learning tool to present what they’ve learned or make a video for graduation. I hope in the years coming to use the equipment for more.
Also, we added a field trip for all of the MLK Morning Show students to visit WKTV, our local news station. We got to see how they use the cameras, equipment, green screen, and what it looks like behind the scenes. It was really neat for the students to see all of the jobs that they are doing are what they actually do at the news station!
Please provide a brief summary of your evaluation activities and/or results, if available.
Nothing at this time. I plan to do an end of the year survey of the classroom teachers. I would plan to ask if they have any suggestions for how to improve the show, the ease of getting the livestream up every day, what their students thought of the show, and lately I am curious if it helps students get into their classroom and seats sooner. historically our mornings started sort of slow with the announcements sometimes starting as late as 9:25 or 9:30 and students taking their time eating breakfast in the cafeteria. I plan to ask if having the show go live every morning at 9:10 helped get their day started and students settled.
Meredith Bruno
Library Media Specialist, Utica Central School District’s Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary
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