Elementary Eagles soar ‘On Air’
Students at Cutter Morning Star Elementary School continue to refine their original weekly news program with highlights from the previous week and stories of coming events.
First-grade teacher KaChera Felts debuted the program in her classroom at the start of the school year in August. Felts said “Eagles on Air” was only intended to be a fun project with students in her room, but it gradually grew to encompass the entire school.
“We started doing interviews with different
grade levels and then they wanted a part in it,” Felts said. “They started taking segments.”
The first episode from Felts’ class was posted to the CMS Eagles Network channel on YouTube on Aug. 26 with a run time of just over one minute. The most recent episode posted Saturday is almost 14 minutes long.
Felts opened the project to older students to take the lead. She interviewed 15 students who submitted resumes.
Sixth-graders Haleigh Halsey and Masann Hamilton were chosen as the project managers. Both students said they felt the opportunity could provide them with valuable experience.
“I thought it would be a good experience to learn about it because I have always wanted to go into film or something when I get older,” Halsey said.
Halsey and Hamilton find students for the corresponding segments, conduct research on the topics, write the scripts, help them rehearse before they record, interview them and film them for the show. Halsey said the extra work is an easy burden because of how much fun they have.
“It’s not really that bad at all, because we still have time to fit it around our schedule at school,” Hamilton said.
Felts said the project is used to help build up students’ confidence in their speech and writing abilities. First-grade students alternate as the anchors for each episode.
“It makes me so happy because kids that don’t have confidence are wanting to do it,” Felts said. “This is a small school. We should know everybody. They are wanting to do it and that is so worth it.”
More than 15 segments involve students in every grade from kindergarten through sixth grade. Felts said the segments were developed based on students’ interests and important topics to cover.
Students watch each week’s episode in their homeroom every Monday morning. The videos are shared on social media and parents can learn more about events at the school.
“Parents are proud and that makes me proud,” Felts said. “You don’t even know what happens in the elementary school when your kids are in school. We don’t know a lot, but now they can watch it.
“You can actually get updates. It goes out to parents, too.”
“On Air” has grown to include more than 15 segments. Felts said the number of segments requires Halsey and Hamilton to rotate through different segments each week to be able to fit them within an episode of about 15 minutes. The last two episodes in December averaged about 17 minutes and were the longest “On Air” videos to date.
Segments include special reports, sports, weather, “Did You Know,” “GT Masterminds,” Middle School Matters,” “Homeroom Hellos,” “Band and Choir Show Biz,” “In the Garden,” “Edtech Intro,” “Readers are Leaders,” Who’s in the News,” “Kindergarten Cares” and an “Innovation Hour.” Some students