Comedic Silent Film

One of my favorite projects that I assign kids to do is a "silent" film. "Silent" as in no dialogue is allowed. Sound effects, natural sound and music are allowed to tell a story. Check out this movie from a talented group of juniors.

Commercials.

This is another example of my students' work. Please feel free to comment. And again, can you believe these are juniors in high school? Amazing.

Class projects

As you may know, I teach a video broadcasting class. Many times, my kids amaze with the projects they produce. Look for more in the coming weeks. Until then, enjoy the following. Please feel free to leave a critique. The first music video is a song by Blink 182 and the second is by a group called Frou Frou.

Leave Britney alone!

Ok, it's officially gotten out of hand. Have you seen the video of Britney Spears shopping at Target? Some shoppers actually got in front of the media horde and yelled for them to "leave her alone!" I applaud that.

This weekend, I attended a media law seminar at Kent State University. It was thought provoking. We spent a decent amount of time on "invasion of privacy." Two things factor whether or not an invasion of privacy is justifiable. One, is it newsworthy? For example, publishing Cleveland school shooter Asa Coon's school records. And the the second thing that can justify an invasion of privacy is the public's right to know or our demand for the knowledge. I brought up the Britney Spears shopping at Target episode. Why is it our right to know that she shopped there? And WHO is demanding to know this? Is her life that important that we know that she shops at Target?????

Larry King

So Larry King jumped on the Britney bandwagon Monday night with a huge panel of folks discussing the ramifications of Spears losing custody of her children to Mr. Ward Cleaver himself, Kevin Federline. Is it just me or has Larry King lost whatever credibility he had? I cite recent examples of my thinking that he has slipped as his softball interview with Paris Hilton when she was released from her short jail stay. King failed to follow up several times with on several items that were crying out for tough questions. No doubt, Larry's audience was huge that night as Paris was the main draw. My wondering is this...is Larry trying to widen his demographic? I highly doubt many people in the audience even watch King on a regular basis. And certainly his audience isn't full of 12-25 year olds.

O.J.

Just when I was hoping for a break from the non-stop Britney Spears coverage, I got it! But now, I have non-stop O.J. Simpson coverage. Another angle involving Simpson is the release of his book, "I Did It," as released by the Goldman family, who now own the rights to the book. The book has gone staight to the top of the Amazon book sales charts.

My question to you, the blogging public is this: what will it take for us to be satisfied and be done with O.J.? If O.J. ends up going to jail for the charges he currently faces, will you feel some sort of satisfaction because he didn't get convicted of the double-murder back in 1995?

Internet. Good or bad?

Do you think the creation of internet many, many years ago has benefitted our society overall? Or has it been a huge negative?

The FCC does not regulate the internet. Should it? If so, how do you propose the FCC regulate the world wide web?

Personally, how has the internet made an impact on your life? Please explain how it has been a positive and a negative force, if applicable.

Labor Day Weekend News Item

As a news junkie, I am always amazed at the "seasonal" stories that make the headlines each year at certain times. As is the case with Labor Day weekend, the AAA always makes the news with a story about the number of people travelling and whether that number is up or down from the previous year and the gas price for the weekend.

I have the following question...how much does the average person care? If you are likely to travel by car somewhere, will you be thinking about the amount of cars on the road nationwide? Either way, you will travel. Oh, and by the way, how does the AAA arive at their traffic estimates?

Also, whether or not gas costs more or less, people will still drive.

Get ready to dust off this story come Thanksgiving time, except it will include air travel.

Coverage of a contestant.

Has there ever been this much attention paid the Miss Teen USA contest? I played this video for my students and generally, the same two reactions were: "stereotypical blonde" and "she just panicked." However, when she gave her "take two" answer on the Today show, the class said it appeared as though she had practiced it for hours. What do you think?

What do you think?

This video was made by three of my students last year. The star of the video goes by the stage name of NFamiz (pronounced like the word "infamous"). NFamiz is about to graduate from Richmond Heights High School. He is a great young man who I hope has a bright future.



Please feel free to post your review of "Best In the Midwest."

Your news source?

Where do you get your news? Internet (and specifically where on the internet)? TV? Newspaper? Radio? Or do you have another source for current events?

Do you really care about current events? Why or why not? How important is news in your life?

Video produced by Excel TECC seniors.

The video below was produced by my senior EXCEL TECC class. The assignment came from my supeintendent, Mr. Russ Bennett. Mr. Bennett proposed that my class produce a public relations video that highlights the achievements and great things going on in the Aurora City Schools. This video was fun to do because the staff in the separate buildings is always so cooperative.



The narration in the video was done by Mr. Rob Albrecht. He teaches English and is the faculty advisor for the drama club at Aurora.

Hello.

Welcome to my blog! A little about myself. I am a media junkie. I watch the news everyday. I read six newspapers a day (three of those are online). I also listen to quite a bit of radio to and from work. I worked in radio and tv for 11 years before I left to go into education, which I really love. Where did I work? Here's a list of my stops. In radio, there was WNCG FM in Clyde, Ohio, WQKT FM and WKVX AM in Wooster, WHBC AM and FM in Canton, WJER AM and FM in Dover, and WCER AM in Canton. On the tv side, I worked for four years at WAKC TV 23 in Akron as a news/sports producer.

I want to use this blog as an educational tool for the classes that I teach at Aurora High School in lovely Aurora, Ohio. I teach three classes. The first period class is an elective of just Aurora students. The second class is three periods long and consists of junior students from different schools. And the last class I teach is made up of senior students from different schools. I see the senior consortium students twice a week in class and the rest of the week, they work at internships.

Working with students is great because I see the hunger to be successful. I get so much enjoyment in seeing projects go from storyboard to final export to a dvd.

In the photo above, that's Cleveland Cavaliers legend Mark Price on the left. I interviewed him when he was being honored as part of the Cavs' 35th anniversary team. I'll upload more photos of my past in future posts.