Crofton students anchor interest in news on TV
By Joe Parrino, NEW ERA STAFF WRITER
Monday, April 23, 2007 12:27 PM CDT

The small room between the school library and the computer lab is crowded but quiet. It’s so quiet that every ear can hear the whine of the camcorder’s zoom and a few whispered instructions.

“Don’t shake your feet. Don’t move the clipboards around. Everything comes through the microphone. Smile.”

One last cue, and the Friday newscast from Crofton Elementary School goes live.

“Hello Crofton, my name is Kirsten Dulin, and I will be your anchor for this edition of the WCES broadcast,” says a confident fifth grader.

Dulin’s co-anchor, fourth grader Autumn Reece, introduces herself. The two chat about spring break adventures trying to make their scripted lines sound natural, and then launch into a loaded newscast. The news team has 20 minutes to accommodate 12 segments.

The WCES broadcast requires collaboration and commitment. Each week about a dozen 4th and 5th graders meet twice per week — sometimes sacrificing recess — to prepare for their Friday reports. One meeting is a news conference to assign stories and allow for research. Another meeting is a rehearsal of the broadcast.

The demands have not deterred interest in the slightest, says Amanda Wagoner, who runs the school’s computer lab and coaches WCES reporters.

There are so many applicants that Wagoner holds tryouts at the beginning of the school year. For the auditions, students prepare their own reports and read them on camera.

Wagoner says those who make the cut tend to get attached to the team, at times too attached.

“Some of them, we have to tell, ‘Go to recess. You do not have to be in here today,’” Wagoner said.

Sportscaster Tate Baker loves sports, on television and on the playground, so he didn’t take the loss of recess lightly. But in the fourth grade, Baker decided to give a WCES a try because his older brother had done it.

The news bug bit Baker quickly. Wagoner taught him to glean the most interesting facts from endless online information. He learned how to condense his sports stats and commentary into a crisp two-minute report.

Baker liked the company of other reporters like weatherman Logan Hurd. Perhaps the biggest thrill is Fridays when his face and report — this week about new University of Kentucky basketball coach Billy Gillespie — gets beamed to all Crofton classroom televisions.

“Sometimes the kindergarteners see me and say, “Hey, that’s Tate Baker.’ It’s cool,” Baker says.

But the visibility comes with a lot of pressure. Kirsten Dulin says she is normally comfortable speaking in front of a group. But the camera and the task of moderating between 10 other reporters, make it easy to get lost.

Her remedy for stage fright is to pause for a few seconds, calm herself and find her place in the script again.

Brittany Fiese, who read off the 16 names of students and staff with April birthdays, said she joined WCES to rid herself of shyness. Fiese often turned red when she started. But a year on the broadcast, public speaking has become much easier.

Principal Neil Hight called the broadcast “a wonderful confidence builder.”

“Being on television is intimidating,” Hight said.

Hight appears on the broadcast and — to put the students more at ease — allows them to ambush him with questions.

“They’ll ask me things like, ‘So Mr. Hight how would you have answered that test question,” Hight said.

He and Wagoner credited former computer teacher Donna Kirby with starting WCES three years ago as a way to let the students more ownership of the school. They try their hand at reporting, editing, producing and anchoring as well as handling the technical side of the broadcast.

Joyce Sholar, the school’s library media specialist, oversees the students who set up the broadcast room and who get behind the camera.

Camera and set-up is a way for students who aren’t as comfortable in the spotlight to be involved with the broadcast, Sholar said. They practice different camera angles, zooming in and out at the right speed, and framing the shot.

“We don’t want any floating heads,” Sholar tells her crew.