Altadeña students take morning announcements to the next level

Each morning the broadcast club at Altadeña Middle School meets 45 minutes before school starts to prepare for their daily morning announcements, broadcasted live into each classroom during first period.

And they couldn’t be more thrilled.

“Sometimes I have to boot out some students because I don’t want them to burn out,” multimedia teacher Glenn Nienabor said. “I’d rather have them here for all three years then quit when they’re in sixth grade.”

Nienabor worked as sports reporter for the Mesa Tribune for seven years before he began his teaching career at Kyrene de la Colina Elementary School. It was at Colina where the broadcast club originated, and when he was asked to transfer to Altadeña four years ago he had no intent of giving it up.

“One of my conditions, so to speak, was that I could continue doing the morning announcements and the broadcast club,” he said. “I have not regretted it since.”

Thanks to funds from the student council, tax credit donations and the Parent-Teacher-Student Organization, the club has high-end cameras, video and sound mixers, and a new green wall to work with.

“I like being able to see how all this technology works and it’s neat because I know there are professionals at Channel 12 doing the same thing and I think, 'Hey, I’m doing the same things they’re doing but in school,’” seventh-grader Zachary Elwell, 13, said.

The club boasts about 40 members, Nienabor said, and when sixth-graders join, they have a year to gain experience while seventh- and eighth-grade students typically assume the roles of directors and producers.

“The best part is when kids come in and are deathly afraid of computers, but come in and create some animation and find out it’s not as hard as they thought it would be,” Nienabor said.

Since the broadcast club is not part of the curriculum, students meet before school to run through a script written by Nienabor.

“I write the script, otherwise we would never get it completed,” Nienabor said. “With my writing background I can turn it around pretty fast. The kids do their own graphics, they’ve done more interviews this year and we are slowly climbing into covering more hard news.”

This year’s producer, eighth-grader Cory Crowe, 14, said it is challenging and fun to keep everything and everyone in the club organized on a daily basis.

“I step in for Mr. Nienabor and try to round everyone up and organize things and find different projects they can work on,” Crowe said. “I help all sorts of different people try to learn the different pieces of equipment and it’s fun.”

Nienabor said he has already had a few students tell him that they plan to continue with the broadcast club in high school, or pursue graphics or video editing as a profession.

“It used to be you could only do video editing in a TV station or in Hollywood, but that’s different now,” Nienabor said.

“The whole multimedia field is wide open in the future and I’m here to peak their interests of what they like and don’t.”

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