At Fort Foote Elementary, announcements are heard, seen

Thursday, Oct. 5, 2006

Click here to enlarge this photo Christopher Anderson⁄The Gazette Sixth-grader Deja Elliott (left), 11, operates the video camera on Tuesday as fifth-grader Crystal Smith, 11, hosts the morning news program televised to classrooms at Fort Foote Elementary School in Fort Washington.

Each morning, sixth-graders Deja Elliot and Crystal Smith join Danielle Elder, a fifth-grader, to present a seven-minute morning newscast to their classmates. For the past two years, Deja has served as the cameraperson, while Crystal and Danielle present the news.

‘‘I was very nervous the first time I went on as second chair and I was in front of the whole school,” said Deja Elliott, a sixth-grader and one of the three-member news team.

Chickquita Jackson, Fort Foote Elementary School’s media paraprofessional, has been working with the television station since it was started 12 years ago. The idea of having a TV station at the school came from former principal Christine Johns, who thought children could relate more to what was going on in the world if their peers were bringing it to them.

Jackson said when the newscast was first started, trivia questions and math skill sets were part of the program. Now it has evolved into a morning newscast where the students read news scripts and the morning announcements, and talk about the weekly character education program. The other pupils watch the newscast from television sets in their classrooms.

‘‘It actually feels like we’re in an actual newsroom,” Elliott said.

She said students who want to present the news have to fill out an application and prepare an audition script. Presenters would then be screened for the job.

‘‘It builds their self-esteem and their character. They are getting very good job skills,” Jackson said.

Jackson said that the new broadcast skills being learned could help pupils who want to pursue a communications major in college. She has had a few students who have gone on to lead the newscast at other schools. Jackson said she has tried to make the news team diverse.

‘‘It increases their reading skills; it increases their responsibility,” she said.

Pupils say working on the newscast for two years has made them better not just on camera, but in class.

‘‘It has taught me to be more fluent when I’m speaking and to give more eye contact and to write more clearly,” Deja said.

Crystal said it has improved her speech and her writing. She said it has taught her about teamwork and helped change her personality.

‘‘I can express myself,” Crystal said. ‘‘When I talk to people and write to people I use words the appropriate way.”

Danielle said people are more willing to talk to her when they see her on the news. She said having her classmates and schoolmates watch her on the news helps her because they can make suggestions.

‘‘My friends when I get back to class tell me how I did. If I did a good job they would tell me and if I did a bad job they would tell me,” she said.

Danielle said she likes being on camera and when she grows up she wants to be either an education reporter or a teacher.

E-mail Tia Carol Jones at tjones@gazette.net.