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Clover Communications provides new opportunities for middle school students
CLOVERDALE -- When Dawn Tucker took over as principal of Cloverdale Middle School in the fall 2014, she was confident she was taking over a good school.
"I feel like I walked into a good situation here," Tucker said.
However, she had certain goals for the school, such as bringing back academic teams and improving enrichment opportunities inside and outside the classroom.
"It's not just athletics, I really wanted to get more academic offerings," Tucker said.
With opportunities at CMS like FFA, a strong band and choir, a drama club and the newly re-formed academic team, Tucker has already seen some of these goals come to fruition.
A group of students is getting another important opportunity this year with the Clover Communications class taught by social studies teacher Sam Jones.
An elective for seventh-grade students not in need of remediation, the program allows the students to have their voices heard (literally in some cases) by publishing a school newspaper and airing a daily news broadcast.
"I'm excited for the kids," Jones said. "It's great. They seem to enjoy it."
The newspaper is facilitated through a web-based program that keeps Jones and the students connected. All stories are submitted through Google Drive, and the teacher is able to make comments on stories from which revisions can be made.
"They have really taken to the idea of being paperless right up until printing," Jones said.
Once stories are completed, Jones handles the design, publishing the Green Out News three times each nine weeks.
The more visible element of the class's multimedia approach is the daily news broadcast, which takes something as simple as the daily announcements and turns it into a learning opportunity for the students.
With the broadcast staffed by students on both sides of the camera, Jones tries to be as hands off as possible. He prints off the announcements and then tries to stand back until time for final edits.
"I tell them, 'With great power comes great responsibility,'" Jones said.
The 15 students involved seem to take this seriously.
"They have to understand they are student leaders," Jones said. "They aren't just seen on screen, they are seen in the classroom and in the community. And they represent our program."
Shown in each class at the beginning of homeroom period, the broadcasts have grown from simply the daily announcements to now include transitions with graphics and music, challenges for students to encourage positive behaviors, short on-screen interviews and features such as "this day in history."
Starting the semester with students who were too quiet and too rushed in their delivery, Jones is amazed at the growth.
"Just to see them grow in their confidence in talking in front of others, just in one semester, has been awesome," Jones said. "They really enjoy representing their community."
The program itself is also growing, with four new students coming on board at the end of the semester.
Jones said the current students have also asked if it can be added as an elective for eighth-graders as well.
He also has a goal to begin upload videos to YouTube so that parents and others can watch the broadcasts.
"As much as we've accomplished this first year, I'm anxious to see what we can do in the next couple of years," Jones said.