TV Studio Sign Ups and Planning

As part of my responsibility as the School Library Media Specialist, I am one of the facilitators of the Pine Road TV Studio.  Last year, with each class, I would have them sign up during class with me typing their names into the schedule.  This year, I streamlined the process.  Students can sign up for the studio on a Google Docs Form on our Library Website under the tab TV Studio.  From the spreadsheet I receive, sorted by Library Day, I fill in the schedule.  The master schedule for October is also linked on the website so that students can pro-actively see what day they are scheduled to complete each job.  Additionally, instead of sending reminder slips through homeroom, students receive their reminder slips in the library.  This helps me to ascertain if a student is absent and their job needs to be filled by a different student.  We have aligned the taping days with library days so that I can remind students the day of that they are taping in the studio.  Throughout the year, I will add more to our blog about the inner workings of our TV Studio.  Prior to beginning taping, we needed to complete some "behind the scenes" work.  Throughout September, I utilized teacher anchors for the morning show, which was fun for them and for the students and took some pressure off trying to get the students ready to produce a show during the first month of school.  During the last two weeks of September, students who volunteered to do so, came in EVERY DAY to help tape classes saying the Pledge of Allegiance, and the Pine Road Pledge; voice recording our different patriotic songs and poems; taking pictures with the document camera of some illustrations to accompany those songs and poems; taking pictures for our opening sequence, selecting a new song for the opening and credits, and putting it all together in Animoto; and learning more about the editing process.  We have an amazing group of students who are excited about the learning that is occurring in the studio.  Last year was my first year helping to facilitate the TV Studio and three students emerged to assist with the final editing and production of a morning show.  This year (so far) we have well over 20 students interested in learning all the nuts and bolts of putting a show together.  I feel very fortunate to have such an eager group of students and I know this year's shows will be even more dynamic as a result.  Last year, we were all learning.  This year, we are moving forward in bigger and better ways!