First Full Day!

It's easy to be a chaperone and teacher at a conference where all the students are really into what's going on.  The hotel is nice, the food is good, the speakers and the breakout sessions are really interesting and our kids are so stoked about the competitions!

There are 1250 students, representing 33 states here at the conference.  The opening ceremony was packed with students as far as the eye could see, nearly everyone of them aiming a camera.  There's no "what happens in Orlando, stays in Orlando" here.  EVERYTHING is being video taped, produced, edited and broadcast!  It's a little like being followed around by paparazzi.  

Today and tomorrow are on-site competitions where the students have a limited time to produce, shoot and edit their videos, which they don't even know what they will be until the initial competition meeting.

Anchor John Roberts of CNN was the keynote speaker and gave the students a lot of advice about the journalism field.   The STN Student of the Year said a little something and then it was off to the races.  Luckily, the competitions are staggered so when they are not in the middle of shooting or editing, they are attending workshops.  The rules are strict and the competition is stiff and they are not even allowed to speak to me while they are working, lest they be disqualified.  We have students competing in Public Service Announcement, Music Video, Commercial, Music Soundtrack, Live Reporting, Anchoring, Broadcast News Writing and Documentary.  Tonight the deadline for one of the competitions is at 11:30pm and then reporting time for another competition tomorrow is 7am.  There is no rest for the weary or weak here; just like the broadcast field.  You have to run fast just to keep up with the guy next to you.  It's a very good learning experience.

Our kids have made friends with students from around the country and that has fueled a little bit of personal challenge among competitors.  Darius Marcus is taking part in the Live Reporting competition tomorrow, one of the most challenging of the on-site contests.  Students have to write a news story with a little bit of Associated Press wire copy, present it on camera live to an imaginary "anchor back in the studio" complete with live interview with a newsmaker involved in that story.  That "anchor" asks a question of the anchor who then has to ad lib an answer to that question correctly and then "tosses" it back to the studio.  It's a competition only for the student with nerves of steel.  Darius got into a discussion with another student  who seemed overly confident in his abilities to defeat Darius and everyone else.  It has stoked Darius' competitive nature and he's fired up about going toe to toe with this kid.  If you know Darius, you know he doesn't get to excited about a lot of things...he's one of the most laid back kids I teach.  I can't wait to see what happens! 

Les Rose from CBS news presented several great workshops and Al Tompkins from the Poynter Institute will be here on Saturday.  There are professional journalists all over the place... just hanging out with the kids.  Our students are involved, engaged, working hard and very proud of what they are doing and like I said earlier, it makes a chaperone's job very easy.

Having a big hot tub doesn't hurt either.