There is now a weekly video newscast posted on the Curtis High School website that is a round up of the morning announcements.

Curtis has had a newscast over the morning announcements every third period. These announcements usually contain a fair share of pertinent information concerning school news, and national issues as well. The announcements are read by members of the student body.  On Fridays, for the past year there is also a newscast  read by a journalism students that covers entertainment sports and national news. There is also a copy of the news that was recorded and posted on Soundcloud, a free music streaming site.

The video cast adds a new dimension to the journalism class. Teachers describe the video newscast as a great opportunity. Mr. Farrell describes the newscast as, “a great way to improve on the student’s skills with editing video and writing news reports.” The newscasts also provide the chance to learn about script writing and compiling video data into a coherent and visually appealing report. The montage for the beginning of the video consists of panning and time lapse shots of Manhattan, the school football field, and the Statue of Liberty from the Staten Island Ferry. These are all edited into a single set of transitions, which then cascades into the actual news report with a participating student acting as the anchor.

The reports detail school occurrences, local news, and recently, they’ve been covering the national election. These newscasts continue to be produced and are displayed on the Curtis High School website, they can also be found on YouTube.

The video news reports are an engaging way to deliver the morning announcements. They convey the news in a way that is ever more relatable to other students than the PA broadcast throughout the school. If this is the goal then it has been accomplished, but of course as the years progress, only time will tell how the cast advances.