SPOKANE, Wash. – “Let’s brainstorm really quick on stories,” Chris Trechter tells his Salk Middle School students standing outside their classroom-turned-news studio.
The ideas come rapid fire from the enthusiastic middle school journalists.
While the whiteboard inside the classroom is divided into three categories – Investigative, Hard News and Fluff – on this last Friday in May, the students focus on ideas that seem to put a bowtie on the year and look ahead to next year.
It is their last edition of the “Spartan News,” after all.
“Prepare 7th grade for 8th grade, I like that,” Trechter tells one student while reminding him the initial idea of letting 7th graders know which teachers should want to have isn’t exactly in the spirit of a middle school news program.
“Let’s keep it positive,” Trechter reminds them.
After settling on the stories of the day – a tour of the studio, things to do over the summer, preparing 7th graders for 8th grade, and the school-favorite “Lord of the Beans” (a man-on-the-street interview segment where interviewees have to guess the flavor of jelly bean they are eating) – the class is ready to record their final “Spartan News” of the year.
“When I was in high school, we had school news,” Trechter recalls as he simultaneously navigates an interview with me and students asking important questions about headsets and camera setup. We had video production, and it was awe-inspiring.”
So, six years ago, Trechter tested the waters of a school news program at Salk.
It was a hit.
“(The students) were coming in 6 or 7 hours outside of class time on just a club basis. That just inspired me to keep pushing.” Trechter said. “I started with just a little bit of my own equipment. A camera, some lights, etc. Every year, we’ve been building it and growing in equipment.”
While Trechter has had some help going from a single green screen to a full-blown news studio thanks to funding from Spokane Public School’s Career and Technical Education program, he’s also had plenty of help from the students who have come through his class.
“We built most of it by ourselves,” 8th-grade anchor Delia Stahl points out. “We built the sound booth and the stage and it just brought a lot more feeling into it.”
The sound booth in the back of the studio is lined with green and black (school colors) rigged foam and a state-of-the-art microphone that allows students to track stories and put together their “Reading Spartan Warriors” segment (think Reading Rainbow).
The anchor desk is adorned with a Spartan News Network banner as Stahl and her co-anchor, Keren Anach Verdecia, get set to record their part in this week’s newscast: tossing to the aforementioned stories their classmates have put together.
Stahl and Anach Verdecia sit in their chairs, ready to roll. Well, almost.
“Hey Brooklyn, can you fix my hair?” one of them calls out to Floor Director Brooklyn Thompson.
“Can you fix mine too,” the other quickly echoes. “Mine’s really boxy today.”
Thompson smiles and obliges before walking back behind the camera, where she gets cues from Trechter and the other students in the control room on the other side of the wall.
“Quiet on set!” Thompson announces before holding up her hand and giving the familiar countdown every anchor hears before the camera rolls. “5, 4, 3, 2, 1…”
Thompson points to the anchors, and Stahl and Anach Verdecia give the students of Salk Middle School a little tease about what’s coming up in this week’s episode.
For the next hour, Stahl and Anach Verdecia perfect their reads and tosses to other reporters. There are hiccups and stumbles on unfamiliar words, but the pair press on, and their fellow students support them.
During one particular read, Anach Verdecia gets stuck on one particular word. Stahl, Thompson and the rest of the production students watch with patience and encouragement. It takes several takes to get it right, but once she does, there are smiles and high-fives in the control room.
“Tell her we have to redo. We weren’t recording” Trechter relays to Thompson with a smile.
“Did you say redo?” Anach Verdecia shouts. “No!”
There are laughs all around as the kids move on to the next segment.
Even with the laughs, there’s a tinge of emotion in the air as the class winds down. Stahl and the crew know this is their last taping of Spartan News before the end of the school year and they move on to high school.
“I’ve dedicated two years to this class and it’s my favorite thing, so it’s just hard to say goodbye to it,” Stahl says.
When the last segment is recorded—a student tribute to Trechter—the 8th graders of the Salk Video Production class gather on set for one final sign-off.
Stahl is crying.
“Why are you guys crying?” a student yells from the back of the bunch.
“Because it’s our favorite class!” Anach Verdecia quickly responds.
Trechter claps from the back of the room. The kids go silent.
“Take that deep breath,” he says.
“I stopped crying, so we need to do this!” Stahl announces.
The cameras record.
“That was all for this year, Spartans,” Anach Verdecia says.
“Bye!” the entire class shouts and waves as Stahl begins to cry again.
There are hugs and smiles as the group of kids say goodbye.
Trechter reflects on the year and the program as a whole.
“At the beginning of the year, there are growing pains, but toward the end of the year, they’re coming to me with a lot of ideas. It’s no longer me pushing them to get things done. They’re pushing themselves to get things done.” he says. “I see that passion and they want to continue on with it past middle school.”
Trechter says that along with work ethic, the class teaches the kids to work effectively in teams to create a product while also learning to give and receive feedback constructively.
“I know a lot of 6th and 7th graders who are really excited when they finally get to participate in it,” Anach Verdecia says before laying out exactly what she hopes to leave for those same students. “We have things to work on but I feel like we left behind a really good example for them.”
“Every single thing I’ve done in this class creates new opportunities,” Thompson says, standing next to her camera. “I know that the things I want to do, like acting and journalism, I’m going to be able to get to that because of the opportunities in this class. It was a lot of fun.”
“It’s my favorite part of the day,” Stahl says, reflecting on the class and her own future. “I really want to be in the news industry when I get older.”
Trechter watches the kids celebrating their last broadcast and accomplishments over the last year with a smile.
On the other side of the room, “How to carry your backpack” sits written under the “Hard News” section.
What’s the answer?
Trechter and next years Salk Middle School journalists will have some work to do. Tune in next year.
