Over my two and a half years of writing for the Online Tritonian I have already written three stories about the developments of the morning announcements show at NDA. This is because I have been involved with the show for all of its time on air, and I am extremely passionate about the project. 

Whereas last year participation in the show was treated as an extracurricular activity, this year it has become an actual class for junior and senior students. I wrote a story about those developments in a feature story earlier this year which can be found here. Now that I’ve gone through a full semester of the new class I would like to share what makes it so special to me. 

The first thing anyone will notice from the moment they step into the classroom is the amazing tech equipment behind the show. I feel that it is difficult to recognize the amount of technical prowess that has gone into the crafting of this room from just watching the morning show. 

Someone walking in for the first time will immediately be greeted with various large televisions, multiple laptops scattered around the room, bright green and blue lights, an expensive looking camera, a confusing looking soundboard, and more. 

Being able to use equipment like this is a great privilege, and this is thanks to our hardworking technical director, Jake Gerlikovski, who helped to build this room from the ground up. 

This equipment may look daunting at first, but after the first couple weeks every student in the class will be proficient in using it. This is because every student will get to in some way experience every position in the room. On top of the two anchors that present the show every morning, there are also eight technical positions that students are somewhat randomly assigned every day. 

The first thing you will do when walking into the classroom is check where you are assigned that morning and go to that position. These positions could be as simple as working the teleprompter (simply pressing a button to move through a google slide) or as difficult as the soundboard, which requires an understanding of what the equipment is telling you. 

Each of these positions could be considered minimized versions of technical positions in the real tech world. On top of these positions, each student is also responsible for writing scripts for the show and creating slideshow presentations to be played behind the anchors when on air.. 

But this is only what transpires DURING the show. What about after the show ends? This is a first-hour class after all! 

The period will be used for various things. First, it may be used for students to prepare content for upcoming shows. Second, the class is filled with a variety of creative assignments. These assignments, brilliantly crafted by Frau Laaksonen and Jake Gerlikovski, are both fun, yet educational. 

My favorite assignment had us replicating foley artists—the people who create noises for movies and TV shows by using unconventional methods. This allowed us to be creative while also teaching us about audio recording. 

Finally, class time also might be spent on personal projects that each student decides to create. This year many students in my class spent hours of their time creating the Veterans Day documentary that was played during advisory earlier this year. 

I spent time helping the school to create a video for preview night, and it was extremely rewarding to see my video played during the event and reused at later occasions. 

Despite all of this the most valuable part of the class for me was the memories and the relationships made along the way. 

Never in my life am I going to forget our class’s trip to the Meyer theater where I starred in a small murder mystery video we made as the main villain. I won’t forget having my own segment on the show in which I dressed up as an elf and took pictures all around the school. I won’t forget the times I spent laughing and having a good time with the students in the class.

At the start of the year there were many students in that class that I didn’t know very well, but as I worked more and more with them we all began to get to know each other. I have never seen students and teachers get so sad about students leaving the class in the second semester until now. We truly created a family together in this class, and I hope it continues to be as successful as it was for us.