Spring Break

Friday is the last day before spring break. When we return, we will have about 30 days of the school year left. If I think I've had a hard time motivating you up until now, just wait until April 12th!

It has been a difficult year in advanced class. I can't seem to get some of you to understand the importance of deadlines, of the responsibility of doing a service for our school, the concept that once you miss something, that's it...it's over..you can't recreate it; like the entire swimming season, for instance, the relationship between shooting outside school events and the quality of our senior video; our ONLY fundraiser of the year for us.

We're missing taping opportunities and news stories right and left. Senior nights, the teachers cheering on juniors last week during testing week, plays and chorus concerts, GE tutoring for juniors and the list goes on and on. These are stories that are laying down right in front of your feet, and you have to practically trip over them to get to the computer to check your email.

All that being said, I'm still optimistic. There is so much incredible talent in the room, that there just has to be some way to tap it. I can nudge you by saying, "hey...why not do the best news story of the year in the next few weeks?" or "you can hardly believe the power you hold in your hands by doing this news story on the dangers of....fill in the blank!" "The entire school will be looking at our senior video and I hope that you're proud of it." "You have the Eagle TV legacy in your hands, let's go out this year with a bang!"

Yes, I know you have senioritis....it's a bad case, but we still have work to do. In fact, it's more work than we've had all year. When all other classes are winding down, we are ramping up. We have another package to produce, a senior video segment, a report on our favorite news story, videos for Mr. Hosey and others, preview DVD of the senior video, the DVD format for the senior video to begin, the VO/SOT that is due, more Friday Live! shows and Morning Updates to do. Your senior video needs to be complete in about 15 days after we return from Spring Break!

So, finish this week up by turning in a great assignment. Then, take your much-deserved spring break and rest up. because you will be doing your best work in the next couple of weeks. You're going to need to show me what you got; and I don't mean the sand in your shoes!

What Will You Make of It?

Time is blowing by. Before long, many of you will be walking across a stage and shaking hands with our principal and dreaming big dreams. Eagle TV will be in your rearview mirror and the image will get smaller and smaller. Although, hopefully, it will never disappear!

There is no denying that we've had our ups and downs this year. For the first year in the last 5, we were not able to go to the STN Conference; an amazing experience for any young broadcast student. I regret that we weren't able to attend and that we missed that opportunity to jump start and re-energize our skills as student journalists.

I also regret that, nationwide, they have done away with the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Student (Emmy) Award competition. I'm afraid that our economy hits us all hard and because of that, there will be many missed opportunities to showcase our best work.

We've had a few tense moments and disputes within the four walls of our classroom, a process that happens to the best of ALL families. Many times those disagreements have had a negative impact on our work and our productivity.

Eagle TV members have experiences grief in the loss of a couple of our teachers and a couple of our friends. On top of all that, each one of us has had many a personal crisis that we've dealt with that we can't help but carry into the school with us every day. We've had a change in administration and the school "feels" different. It's been a very difficult year.

But I refuse to have a "bad" year. My 2009-2010 school year will not be defined by what happened to me, but how I react to it. The richness of the experiences that I've had can't be denied. We all have plenty of time left in the year to build many more good memories and fuel numerous personal successes.

I can't ask for a better group of students and a better program to be in charge of. Eagle TV has given me so many profound experiences as a teacher, colleague, friend, mentor, mother, coach that my life is so much richer because of it. Because of you. Because of the wonderful opportunities I get by spending time seeing you, my students, succeed. By seeing you stumble, but get up again to brush yourself off and plow ahead to try again. By the intense drive to "move on" that you exhibit when things don't go your way or succeed the way you hoped it would. By the support that you give to each other and to me. Complete with our ups and downs that we experience together, we are the Eagle TV family.

So, with months left to go, I intend to make the most of it. I will continue to push you to do better, to try harder, to experiment and to plow ahead when you feel like giving up. The best part of the year is coming up. I feel it. Just like I felt the energy in the show on Friday. It was palpable and electric. No one had to say anything....it was a common electricity felt by all of us. We are linked to each other. We are a team and we have to keep moving ahead together. Let's let go of the petty stuff and grab hold of the powerful. I can't wait to see what you bring to the TV screen! What you do to move people, to make them laugh and cry and then laugh again with your stories. The power you have to move people with your video and your writing can't be denied. You have the power, use it!

So I leave you with two things: the first is the question....what are you going to do with the time you have left this year in class to make your mark? To make the best of the semester? To produce your best work? Can you feel the energy? I can.

The other thing is a story that I got from Dave Davis, video production teacher from Hillcrest High School who recounts on his blog a comment made by the Nebraska football coach, Tom Osborne at their football banquet. He was recalling a conversation that Osborne had with another high school football coach in the area and Osborne had asked that coach what kind of year he had. The high school coach listed the wins and losses and commented that they just missed the playoffs.

Osborne looked at the other coach and said, "I didn't ask how many games you won. I asked you what kind of year you had."

Despite wins and losses, what kind of year will you have?

Good News....

No Blog this week.