WKBT La Crosse, WI-NewsChannel 8-Assignment Education: WES-TV School Broadcast

Reported by Lisa Klein

Assignment Education: WES-TV School Broadcast

The morning broadcast at WES-TV Channel 2 in Westby has drawn quite a crowd.

"It's become our morning event for the entire school," said Mark Anderson, Westby Elementary School principal.

The student-run broadcast began in the fall when the library media specialist at Westby Elementary School helped set up the school's very own television studio run by the entire fourth grade class.

"This year we started having all of the teachers turn on their TV's in their rooms, and have the fourth grade students deliver the announcements live," said Kelly Ahnen, Westby Elementary School's library media specialist.

In the past, the principal and a few volunteer students would deliver the morning messages over the intercom system. Now the staff at WES-TV, with the help of students in grades kindergarten through three, are producing their own daily reports.

"I get to sit back and watch the morning announcements," said Anderson. "It's great!"

The staff is made up of many different positions from anchors to directors. They work together to provide their fellow students with information including the lunch menu, high school sports scores, the day's weather and birthday greetings.  However, the program is offering the students lessons on more than just public speaking and grammar.

"The technology applications that the kids are experiencing... the keyboarding, the teleprompter, using the tricaster and the computer and all the associated prompts that are used by TV studios all over just to name a few," said Anderson.

And with all of this training at such a young age... I'm going to need to watch my back.

"I thinK I can already see a couple news anchors in the future," said Ahnen.