The partnership began last year, when, as Access Montgomery executive director Richard Turner said, ‘‘we found them, they found us, and it became a unique opportunity” to find ways for the students to bring what they learned in the classroom into the real world.
This year, Access Montgomery is focusing on getting the Chelsea School students certified to work as volunteers at the Rockville site, where they will work on putting programming — including shows of their own — on the air.
‘‘You get to know what it’s all about,” said Demitri Pappas, 18, of Olney. At the station last week, Pappas said the best part was seeing the finished product. The students’ work over the two days contributed to a series about nonprofit organizations that will air on the station.
‘‘It makes you feel important,” Pappas said.
While the station allows anyone to become certified to volunteer for Access Montgomery, the partnership with the Silver Spring school is unique, said Patricia Stewart, the research, evaluation and development director with the station. The Chelsea School, for high school-aged students with language-based learning disabilities, is the first to partner with Access Montgomery and incorporate that relationship into their media curriculum.
‘‘It’s a huge chance for us,” said Daniel Bell, the media production teacher at the Chelsea School. ‘‘[Students] can actually see now, and put to use, what we’ve been teaching them.”
Turner said the studio placed the same demands on the Chelsea students as any other volunteers wishing to become certified. Any language-based disabilities had little, if anything, to do with what students were capable of behind the camera, in the control room or on the set, he said.
And students’ work in the studio could help them improve their communication skills, since the job requires teamwork, he said.
‘‘They’re well-suited for this,” Turner said. ‘‘Television builds on oral traditions. ... It’s a unique, holistic kind of learning.”
The Chelsea School has offered a television production class for the last three years, Bell said. The program was created to boost the school’s offerings in technical education, he said, and gives the students a different way of expressing themselves.
Stefan Becton, 16, of Washington, D.C., was most interested in the station’s control room. Last week, the students were instructed by Access Montgomery staff on ‘‘trucking,” or ‘‘moving,” video cameras to pan for wide or close-range shots, working on graphics and credit sequences and running a control board.
The students will now not only be better prepared to use the equipment when they return as a class, but also will be able to visit on their own time.
‘‘It’s about trying out new things,” Becton said.
