Greetings from Room 14! I suppose it's a little strange to start something new like this at the end of the school year, but the idea hit me some time ago, and now I have the time to pursue it, so here we go!
I think I'll start this off with a retrospective on some of the highlights from Room 14 this year. For now, let's look at some of the cool stuff that happened in Media Studies class back in the Fall.
In addition to text readings covering the history and current status of various media industries, students were happy to see me move into the 21st century by introducing Power Point presentations for each chapter. These presentations increased student interest and facilitated more discussion and participation from them.
More exciting though, was the wide variety of guest speakers the students were able to hear and the projects they completed. Some guest speakers were local, and they came into the classroom in person. I would like to thank Penny Weaver from the Mattoon Journal Gazette and Greg Powers from Lake Land College's Radio/TV program for taking time to visit with us.
Other speakers came to Room 14 via Skype video conferencing. These guests included Rick W., an advertising executive who visited us from his high-rise office in Atlanta; Scott Licina, former owner of Fangoria magazine and current owner of music news website Kikaxe Music, came to us from his basement office in Chicago; and Tyler Bates, one of THE TOP movie and TV soundtrack composers in Hollywood, took time from his super-busy schedule to speak to us from his studio in Hollywood!
As for projects, we did several of those as well. Students learned to use music production software, Sony Acid, to compose songs and record their own DJ introductions. Also going along with our radio and recording industry curriculum, I shared my collection of music from independent bands and indie labels, as well as introducing them to Pandora Internet radio.
Best of all, in connection with our discussion of the TV industry, the students created their own 1950's style sitcom! They wrote it, shot it, edited it . . . they did it all! It took a lot of time and effort to get this one done, but it turned out really cool! If I can figure out how to do it, I'll upload the video here for you all to see.
Stay tuned for future posts about my other classes.
