Profile: Chief Kanim Video Club: No Kidding Around

Organizing and running a video club at school is no easy task, but it can be a great benefit to the students and the community.

How many seventh-grade students do you know who want to go to school before classes begin? Not many, I'm sure. But at Chief Kanim Middle School in Falls City, WA, there's actually a list filled with the names of students who can't wait to enter the empty, early-morning halls. And the reason for this uncharacteristic behavior is one close to the hearts of everyone reading this magazine: video.

Forty-five minutes before the entire student body starts its day, about a dozen teens run around, hooking up cables, punching buttons and editing videotape, preparing a short televised news broadcast. These energetic and dedicated kids are members of the school's video club, now more than a year old. And, just as with professional newsrooms, there is a deadline.

The students type school and community announcements onto a computer, and then display the text on a television that acts as a teleprompter for one of the student anchor reporters. Others in the class mix the video images coming from the two-camera setup and add computer graphics to the production. Sound and lighting checks are also part of the morning regime, which usually requires several takes to satisfy the students.

After taping the show, the crew must complete a final edit before the prompt 7:45 am show, which they broadcast to every classroom in the building.

"It gets a little insane in here, but the kids are very responsible," says Joe Dockery, the teacher behind this very progressive, in-school video-education program. As Dockery explains it, the impetus to the video club was Principal Scott Poirer's discovery of a modulator that allowed for broadcast transmissions throughout the school. Poirer recognized the potential for success because of a similar program he helped found at his former school in Clarksto…