Behind the Scenes: Meet the Chester Elementary School Broadcast Team

Members of the Chester Elementary School Broadcast Team recently released their latest edition of their monthly broadcast, sharing up-to-date information from the school with the Chester community!

In the latest edition, the group had an exclusive interview with music teacher Brandon Sparkman about the winter concert, as well as took a deep dive into the history of Valentine’s Day!

To prepare for the release of the broadcast, the students began by brainstorming ideas for their episode before writing their script. They are able to choose between a variety of roles to help produce the segment, including producer, anchor, writer and correspondent.

“I really try to encourage students to rotate roles, I like them to have different experiences,” said Jennifer Rende. I’ve had students that really want to stick to one craft, and that’s fine too .I just want them to try new things and participate in whatever they feel comfortable with.”

Not only does the team work on producing monthly reports, but they have guest speakers come in to talk to students about the broadcasting industry. They also connect with The Newsies, the academy broadcast team, to see what stories they are working on.

To join the CES Broadcast Team, students must go through an application process, complete with interviews and references. Once interviewed, Ms. Rende will speak with the students’ teacher before deciding if they are eligible to join.

Students are required to maintain their school workload to be a part of the team. If they do not finish their morning work, their teacher will keep them in class until it is complete. This allows students to enhance their time management skills.

“I like that there’s three jobs that we can choose from in the beginning," said Chloe Williams, a fourth grader who is currently a part of the team. “It’s fun to work with a few people in a group and write the script together. I like the February events script that we have been working on.”

In the latest segment, the anchors announced to the audience that they can submit segment ideas to them. To submit suggestions to the CES Broadcasting Team, email Ms. Rende.