February 27, 2024 • 48 mins
This week meet Tech High School students Zam Zam Hashi, Romeriah Ellis and Umayma Abdi, the driving and powerful force behind the Tech Morning Show: hosting, producing and editing each weekly segment. And we will also hear from Dr. Matt Keil, their mentor and advisor.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The 742 Coffee Cast is your ultimate destination for
insightful conversations,thought-provoking ideas and
innovative strategies in StCloud Area School District.
Your host is Director ofCommunity Engagement and
Communications, tammy Dilan.
Grab a cup of coffee and joinus.
Welcome to Episode 2 of the 742Coffee Cast.
(00:29):
Our guests today are threeamazing students from Tech High
School Zamzam Hashi, rameriaEllis and Umeema Abdi.
Thank you all for being here Tobegin today.
Could you just introduceyourself, tell us what year you
are in school and how longyou've been working with the
Tech Morning Show?
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Hi, I'm Zamzam.
I'm a junior at St Cloud Tech.
I've been with the Morning Showfor about three years but I was
just a little bit involvedbeforehand.
My sister was a part of thecrew that first created the
Morning Show, so she's likealumni to the show and, yeah, I
guess the second I got into highschool she kind of told me if
there was one club that youwould want to join, it's the
(01:12):
Morning Show, and took it fromthere.
The rest is history.
Speaker 4 (01:15):
Hi, my name is Rameria Ellis.
I am also a junior from TechHigh School.
I decided to join the TechMorning Show because I always
wanted to do something a littlebit of similarity when I was
younger.
I wanted to be a person thatdid kind of like the morning
type of thing.
So I was like you know whatmight not just give it a try,
(01:36):
and I've been enjoying it eversince.
Speaker 5 (01:38):
Hello, I'm Umea Abdi and I'm a junior at Tech High
School and I've been doing theMorning Show.
This is my first year and Ireally enjoy getting into like
production and directing and Ilove like making little creative
clips for school and I thinkthe Morning Show is the perfect
place to do that and I'menjoying it so far.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Wonderful.
So who wants to kick us off bysaying just telling us what is
the Tech Morning Show?
Speaker 3 (02:07):
The Morning Show.
It's a group of productionsdone by students.
Dr Kyle is there to advise andto give us advice, but most of
the work is done by us students.
We take random projects.
You know, it could be themagazine project, it could be a
nonfiction project, it could bejust like a daily report of the,
the winter week or, you know,sports activities and stuff like
(02:28):
that going on, but it's justthe way for students who maybe
want a career in videoproduction one day.
It's like their club.
You know, you see other clubsout there, like there's MSA,
there's GSA, there's also an artclub.
You know, there's all theseclubs for kids to show what
their passion is.
So I think that the MorningShow is definitely just like a
club to show kids' fashions.
You know, it's something thatintrigues them, it's something
(02:49):
that they're interested in.
Speaker 5 (02:51):
One thing to add is the Morning Show.
There's like a lot of diversitykids.
There are kids from everybackground, kids who have like
different interests, likerobotics into writing or any
other stuff they like orsubjects, and I think that's a
place, good place to cometogether and join our ideas and
make little fun skits that thewhole school can enjoy.
(03:11):
And yeah, I really appreciatethat.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
What's your process?
So you actually have a studioat Tech?
Right, yeah, we have like astudio, it's big it's.
Speaker 5 (03:20):
When I first walked into it I was like oh my god,
this looks so big.
I was so excited.
It looks so fancy.
It's still, yeah, it looksfantastic.
Really professional, right itlooks, and yeah the equipment we
have and the cameras, thedevices and then the setup is
really your video, your?
Speaker 1 (03:36):
audio.
So talk to me about actuallythe process.
So a little bit we jumped ahead, but a little bit about how you
choose the topics, who youchoose to interview, how long
does each show take?
This is all the productionstuff, but when do you actually
drop an episode?
Talk about all of that.
Speaker 5 (03:55):
Well, so usually I focus majority on hosting kind
of from time to time.
But in the beginning of ourmeets we usually have our
meetings every Tuesday weusually start like putting
points we want to talk about inour videos and like who wants to
do what and then who wants tocome and like record or set up
or check the mic and stuff andwho wants to also host, and
(04:15):
usually we have like two people,two main hosts, talk about
certain subjects.
But it takes time and I thinkDoc has like this ability to be
patient.
He's very patient, he's likeyou know what you got this he's
very supportive, I would say.
And then hosting wise, it's funtalking about topics like
school activities, like spiritweeks, homecoming, all these
(04:36):
stuff that students out theremight want to know about.
And usually when posting, oh,somebody has to edit the videos.
Has anybody done editing before?
Speaker 4 (04:45):
I do a lot of the editing.
Sometimes I'm not really like apart of, like the morning show
as much of now.
I do enjoy editing.
When I decided to do themorning show, I was like I want
to dip my hands in everything.
I've always been like that, soI did not want to change from
just being like the editorbackstage type of person to just
being a person that's on thecamera.
I wanted to do to do it all.
(05:06):
So with the editing process it'svery tedious.
I get kind of aggravated withit.
Sometimes I'm like, oh my God,this software is not working
with what I wanted to do.
And then other times I justhave to talk to Dr Kyle and he's
like, okay, you can do thisinstead of doing this.
I'm like you're right.
So it really just depends on,like, what type of editing style
we're going for.
(05:27):
We also discuss that in ourmeetings.
We also discuss the type oftype of look we want to go for
and also we have free reign ofthat, as long as it's, of course
, school appropriate.
We also decide where to putlike the editing process and
where to put like the littledetails and all of that stuff,
and then we also talk about thatwhile we're filming.
(05:48):
So then we all are on the samepage.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
How many students are involved in the Tech Morning
Show?
Speaker 5 (05:53):
This year we had like a big increase in the people
who were there, especially likenew kids coming from different
schools Like me and Marmeriajust transferred from other
states.
So it was like really nice tojust dip in and like see how the
morning show worked.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
I think I'm speaking mostly from like past experience
, because this year I took onone of the biggest projects Tech
Morning Show has ever seen.
Since the beginning of theschool year, Since the middle of
August, I've been working on asoccer documentary and you know
that finally dropped.
So it's like now I'm kind ofgetting back into the basic
whole.
Get in the studio, do a sportsreport, do you know?
Like a whole bunch of otherstuff.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Let's put a pin in that, because I want to come
back to this documentary.
That sounds really exciting.
Who is your audience?
Who is the audience for TechMorning Show?
Everyone, all Tech students.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
I think that the morning show, although, like, we
do put like a really big pushout there, you know our views do
they're not what we want themto be.
You know we want higher numbers, of course, and we're doing
everything in our power toadvertise it as much as we can.
But I think that maybe if wecould make a shift in our
schedule and play in an advisoryor if we could, you know, add
something in there where it'slike kids can come during tiger
(07:02):
time to come watch it at like aspecific place, our main goal is
to get it out to everybody, thewhole, you know tech community,
parents, family, guardians,everybody can watch it.
You know that's that's ourmission, that's our goal,
because the information we haveon there is predominantly
surrounded about schoolinformation, like important
information about, like upcomingevents, you know, like a past
events and stuff like that wehave.
Speaker 5 (07:23):
Tuesday and we record and try to get as much footage
and clips as we can editing done.
I think it takes about twoweeks to get the video out and
we usually have a deadline.
We're trying to push for it andwe usually do make it.
We're good on doing that, butother than that I feel like it's
twice a month.
(07:44):
It just depends on the monthand the activities are happening
during that month.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
And listening to the three of you.
It sounds to me like there areall different types of skills
that are needed for the TechMorning Show.
I heard we have acting, I heardwe have editing, I heard we had
the broadcast hosting, butobviously they're scripting to
(08:09):
be done too, which must be partof your Tuesday meetings.
Speaker 5 (08:12):
So are scripting.
So for me I'm the host, random.
I'm like Doc just stands thereand I'm in the host chair just
looking straight at him and I'mlike, okay, doc, throw it at me.
It takes me about 30 minutes.
And I'm like, what did you justsay?
Can you repeat yourself rightnow, because I don't know what
you're saying.
And then we do it like, oh, butit takes for like a long time,
just so I can understand it.
But usually we know our topic,but the words that we are like
(08:35):
saying is not scripted, it's allnatural.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Now, zam Zam, you just completed a big project.
That's a soccer documentarythat could not have been random,
that had to have been scripted.
Talk to me about thisdocumentary.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
In the beginning I think it was back in 2023,
probably like April 2023.
The year prior I did not reallyhave the best experience with
the soccer team.
It was my first year managing.
You know, I was joking aroundwith the head coach, dan Stodoro
, and he was kind of like, yeah,you're coming back next year,
right, we have so much more workfor you.
And I was like, oh, I'm notcoming back next year.
(09:10):
But he just he politely askedme to like come to one, you know
, summer practice or whatever.
And I, before even the summerpractice, I was talking to Dr
Kyle I was like I want to takeon a big project before my high
school years are like over, youknow, like I want to take
something huge on.
He's like think about it, thinkit through.
So then, over the summer, whenI went to summer practice, and
it was just a completelydifferent vibe, it was
(09:31):
completely different feel and Iwas like, okay, cool, you know,
this team is actually a teamthat I can work with and this is
a team that if I'm willing togive everything up for it, I'm
willing to give it all up for it, because that's, that's like
four months of straight editing,cutting, interviewing, like it
was.
You know, the whole process ofthe documentary was just a lot
to take in.
I I would never want to put myhard work, sweat and tears into
(09:52):
something that goesunappreciated or something that
people like we just didn't getalong.
You know, I guess I brought itup to Dr Kyle in August.
I saw him, I sent him a remindmessage.
I was like, hey, I have an idea.
And he's like let's hear it.
And I was like I want to do adocumentary and he's like okay.
And I was like this is the partwhere you give me advice.
Dr Kyle was going on.
(10:14):
He's like figure your storylineout.
You know, figure out a wholebunch of these things.
But me I have my own way ofdoing things.
I'm definitely not a rulefollower at all and I think
that's why last week was themost dangerous week ever for
this documentary.
But it was like I don't knowhow to explain it.
But it definitely wasn'tscripted.
Technically it was scriptedbecause you know everything had
a timeline and stuff like that.
But at the same time I don'tthink it was scripted because
(10:36):
this is a story that I neverknew was going to happen.
I was thinking tech boy socceris coming off of five years of
winning a section championship.
They've been to state fiveyears in a row and out of
nowhere we're going to stateagain, but we're going into
state with the worst record ever.
So nobody's expecting us to gointo state.
And then I don't know where webeat clokate again in the
quarter state quarter finals.
And then I don't know wherewe're playing in US Bank, and
(10:58):
I'm just sitting there and I'mlike I'm so thankful that I
chose this year to film adocumentary and I didn't wait
for my senior year.
But then season did end, wetook fourth in state and the
process of editing begun the daythat the soccer season did end.
It took a lot of hard work,sweat and tears for us to get to
this point with the soccerdocumentary.
Now that it's over, it's reallysad.
I kind of miss the late nightsstaying up wondering if it's
(11:20):
worth it.
Speaker 5 (11:21):
When I first got into the story I thought it was such
a beautiful story to tell.
Like the way she doesn't talksabout it, she talks about it
like with a passion.
I think she talks about likeher, like filming the whole
documentary, the whole likeprocess is like a passion.
I'm like that's awesome to see.
I think you can see that inlike different individuals in
the morning show who care aboutwhat they do and I think, if I
(11:44):
think it's a very importantelement and I think editing wise
, it was terrible, it was hard.
I the amount of time she wentto cry and I went to cry with
her.
It was, it was a lot, but Ithink, down to it, she made it,
she made it, she did it yeah wehad like everything done.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
It was just we were having such a difficult time
with like cutting interviews andthen putting interviews into
place and having these audios goover the interviews and, like
I'm, I never edit.
That's one thing about me thatthis project has taught me the
hard way is you need to get yourhands dirty for you to get the
outcome that you want.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
And that's a question that I have and it sounds like
it might be similar for allthree.
But pipe up what's the hardestpart?
I've heard editing quite often.
Speaker 5 (12:26):
I think the hard part is like when it's repetitive,
when it gets so weird, like yousay, oh my God, I don't know
what story to tell, I don't knowwhat's going on and I lose,
like the focus of the mainobjection.
I'm just like what's going onand I feel like you have to have
the willpower to continue, likesee it through the point where
you see the outcome.
Because you want to see theoutcome, I feel like the outcome
is worth it.
(12:47):
It's always worth it, becausewhen you see a production come
together and you saw it from thebeginning, always towards the
end it's like oh my God, this issuch an incredible process,
even though it has its hardtimes, for sure.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
I think I was one of the first classes that saw Dr
Kyle.
He, I love him.
He, literally.
When I told him because I was amanager for basketball I told
him, hey, I'm not going to beable to do this for the time
being.
He was like I'm going to sendyou up for my advanced
videography class and I said,okay, sir, okay, didn't believe
him and then I saw it on myschedule.
(13:17):
I was like, okay, so when youguys talk about editing, I want
to face you guys for this.
When you guys talk aboutediting and especially you, when
I saw that video, I was glued.
I was glued.
I could not stop looking at thatdocumentary and then when I saw
that Umea was a part of it,first of all I want to give you
your kudos, because being amanager, then also doing other
(13:38):
things for the school and thenalso doing this documentary, I
don't know how she could do it.
Oh my God, I would lose itbecause I'd be so sad.
I would be like I cannot dothis anymore, like I just I need
a break, I need a nap Like thatwould be me.
You guys were amazing.
Like that was really good.
Speaker 5 (13:56):
Watching Zimzim go through all the stadium.
She was going through, I think,like stages every year.
I was there and I was I washelping with editing and writing
the story and I was like yougot a girl, like you got this,
and she knew what she was doing.
I just took her a while to getthere.
And I think it's amazing how,like I think in the beginning
she was like okay, you know what, I'll delay for a while.
(14:17):
She's like you know, the lastweek pulled up, you know what I
got to get to it right now andshe got to it.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
So I have to ask this question because the process
you've done such a great job oftalking about the process from
beginning, middle and end whatthe challenge is, what the
passion is.
So the obvious question is areany of you, or are all of you,
thinking that you're experiencedwith the tech morning show
(14:44):
could lead to a career?
Are you thinking aboutjournalism or broadcasting or
anything along those lines?
Speaker 3 (14:52):
For a very long time.
I really like, even to this day, I still tell people what do
you want to like?
When they ask what do you wantto become when you leave high
school, I'm kind of like oh,respiratory therapist.
You know like I want to go intothe medical field.
But I feel like there's stuffin the medical field that
includes videography.
Videography, you know, there'slike those who record surgeries.
However, I could see myselfgoing into video production if
(15:15):
all doesn't work out, but Ithink that it's honestly just a
really great skill to have ingeneral.
You know, like putting videostogether, being able to edit all
of it and to make a productionat the end of it.
I'm a recipient for the UpperMidwestern Emmys and it's like
knowing that my video gotawarded for being a really good
music video.
I guess it gives you a sense ofcomfort knowing that you have a
(15:37):
skill that you can rely onlater on in life.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
And the Tech Morning Show has one more than one Emmy,
correct?
Yes, what does that feel like?
A high school production getsEmmy awards?
Speaker 3 (15:49):
Talk to me about this , it's called a crystal pillar
for high school productions andcollege productions.
However, if you do go tonationals and you win nationals,
then I think they give you afull on Emmy award.
But it's through the Emmyacademies it's really good.
Last year I went and I won, andthen the year before that I
believe there's a video that Iwas involved in that I also won.
However, I wasn't really asinvolved in the morning shows I
(16:10):
was last year than I was myfreshman year but it's one of
the best feelings in the world,like walking up on that stage
giving a speech, you know, likesitting there and actually
knowing hey, I went through theprocess of struggle for and my
process is being rewarded, andnow you're a national qualifier.
Everybody who wins in theirregion they get qualified for
nationals.
So it's like now you just gotto hope, pray and put all your
(16:34):
faith in being a nationalfinalist and stuff like that,
being a part of a crew that isso talented and it shows based
off of like numbers.
Just our awards Freshman year,my sophomore year, I don't
remember which, but we broughthome the most Emmy awards in
high school.
Like history and like statehistory, it's a nice flex to
have, honestly to be like.
I would say so I have a crystalpillar and they're like, oh,
(16:55):
what's that?
And I'm like the Emmy awards.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
You know I'm listening to you talk about this
experience and you went tocompetition.
You won, you had challenges,you had passion.
I mean it sounds like otherextracurriculars, right, like it
sounds like it could be soccer,right, could be basketball or
something else.
How is this experience?
(17:19):
Both alike and not like anyother extracurricular you could
be involved in oh my gosh.
Speaker 4 (17:25):
Okay, as I'm going to speak from like a first time
manager aspect, also with boysbasketball and then also doing
something like this.
It's a state of euphoric.
That's how I would explain it.
It's nice to have a passion forsomething that other people
would find weird and like, andit's just like people would
think that it's for like boys tobe like into something like
(17:48):
this and to have like threegirls.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
I do want to point out that I have three young
women in front of me.
Speaker 4 (17:57):
Yeah.
Yeah, it's nice to like feellike we're doing this for the
school, but we're also doing itfor ourselves for later on in
life, especially like when youwere talking about is this
something that we want to do inthe future?
I love dipping my toes indifferent things, and this was a
learning experience to dip mytoes into something that I did
(18:18):
not know anything about, andthat's why I really do
appreciate Sam.
Sam I'm like she was my idolwithout even knowing it.
Speaker 5 (18:25):
When I first saw her walk in like I remember our
first meeting you were boththere and she walked in and she
was holding a camera.
She was trying to upload somestuff, he's like, and that's
what she was like.
Oh yeah, she's working ondocumenting.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
She's.
It's good having, you know,this type of reputation with the
morning show and it's good toknow that I at least have you
know, because I always, I alwayssaw my work as going, you know,
kind of unnoticed, like I'mthere just to be there.
I didn't see myself, as youknow, helping people out or
being somebody that peoplelooked up to, up until probably
this year when I like met Umaymaor whatever, and she was just
(18:55):
always like dude, like you do sogood in the morning show, like
I, like you know you do great.
And I'm just kind of like, oh,it kind of changed my
perspective a bit, you know,because I'm like okay, well, now
I have people looking up to me.
I want to be the best version ofmyself, knowing that they can
also be the best version ofthemselves when they're with me
and without me.
And it's like being in a groupwith a lot of people who are new
(19:16):
to the morning show.
Um, it's, it's like a learningcurve almost, because it's like
the other day we were filming anepisode and I got paired up I
don't do sports reports withanybody else but myself Like
that's like my territory.
I'm very protective over sportsreports.
It's not that I do like it atfirst.
It's just like a learning curve.
It also kind of taught me it'slike you can't have everything
(19:36):
that you want you know like itcan teach you valuable life
lessons and it's just goodhaving like knowing that there
are people who genuinely see meas like something or someone to
look up to.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
Do you get recognized in the halls?
Do people?
Speaker 5 (19:50):
say oh so I'm new to school, right, and I was walking
to the hallways and I just see,right, because, like you know,
you're new, you're a new student, you see people and they just
see you from somewhere andthey're oh yeah, oh yeah, that
girl from the morning show.
I'm like huh.
But I think it's fun gettingthe recognition because then you
feel like, oh, like somebody'swatching, there's an audience
watching my like what I did orwhat I put my effort into, and I
(20:11):
feel so rewarding.
But I think but majority of thepeople that come up to me are
very sweet.
The students who watch themorning show, majority of them
want to get involved.
I've seen students like hey,like how do we join the morning
show?
What is do I have to?
Like.
I think it's very exciting tolike hear people watch our
production and be like hey, Iwant to be a part of it.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
What advice would you have if someone showed interest
or was just curious, likeRumira?
You said oh, I didn't know thatI would be interested in this,
but I went for it.
What advice would you have forsomeone who is like well, I
don't know about that?
Speaker 4 (20:50):
Honestly, the advice that I give anyone when they
like, are unsure about anythingand I work, and I still give the
same advice to people that comeinto the store that I work at
just do it.
Just do it, because exactly atthe end of the day, you won't
know until you try.
You don't want to end notknowing what could have been
there.
Something my parents always sayis there is no what ifs in life
(21:13):
.
You have to at least tryeverything to know, if you even
like it.
And if you can do that, thenwhat are you doing?
What are you doing?
You're wasting a good hobby.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
I think a piece of advice that I'd also give just
to bounce off of her is you knowit's the worst that can happen
is you don't like it, theabsolute worst that can occur,
and you can always leave.
We don't make you sign acontract, none of that.
I remember my first day on themorning show.
I show up on a Tuesday and theythrow me on camera right away.
(21:48):
No doubt there was no way,nothing.
It was like I still rememberthe first episode.
All I said was hi, I'm Zam ZamHashi, and this is the Tech
Morning Show.
And they put it in.
They literally put it in.
And then the next one they gaveme a much more difficult task,
which was going and interviewinglike really big basketball
player at the time, and so Itook all the tasks right here
(22:08):
and I was like I got it.
You know, like I think themorning show will give you a
sense of determination, like you.
They give you a tough task andyou it's like it's not make it
or break it, but at the sametime it's almost like if I did
that, then I feel like I can domore.
So do you?
Speaker 1 (22:23):
feel like you have to have confidence to be part of
this team, or do you learnconfidence as you go?
Speaker 5 (22:30):
I think you learn confidence.
All you need is courage.
If you have courage to be thereand be like, hey, I think if
you have courage, you haveconfidence.
I feel like if you're there andyou're like, oh, I want to be a
part of this, you're going toslowly.
I think, whatever part positionyou are, whatever part you want
to be involved in, you're goingto slowly develop a confidence
over time.
Speaker 3 (22:48):
Not everything is like on camera, like there's so
much background work that goesinto it.
You could work lights, youcould work microphones.
You can do so much outside ofthe camera A very small fraction
.
I'm one of my favorite episodesout of from like my freshman
years probably.
We did a behind the scenesepisode where we show all the
work that goes on behind thescenes.
You know, and like they turn,they're like what are you doing?
(23:09):
Cause I'm filming.
And then the other girl turnsaround and she's like but I'm
filming it and it's like it justkept going in a circle.
Yeah, I think that there'sthere's so much work behind the
screen and you don't have toalways be on camera and stuff
like that.
I think it's just if you'recomfortable enough to be with a
new group of people and to wantto like start a big project or
even a little project with them.
But you have to have like areally good idea of what
(23:31):
teamwork is, because that's allthe morning shows about.
Speaker 4 (23:33):
It's about teamwork, I think also to piggyback off of
them.
I I would say that I learnedconfidence with the morning show
because I also did somewhat ofa big project with a boxing
video that I did with aclassmate, a fellow classmate,
and I was so nervous on doing itbecause I've never edited by
(23:53):
myself, never done it.
So with the morning show beinglike kind of a hand in it, it
gave me a little bit ofconfidence on like I can do this
.
I'm just scared to do it and Iknew that.
Dr Kyle, if I ever needed athing, I can ask him.
You just have to push yourselfin order to gain the confidence
(24:14):
and even if you aren't sure,there's so many people that can
help you and you can never feelafraid to ask, asking is always
going to be your best friend,especially if you don't know
anything.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
And I feel like we just have got to talk about this
.
Dr Kyle, his name keeps comingup.
Speaker 3 (24:32):
Dr Kyle is by far one of the most influential,
motivational, kindest, just like.
I tell him this all the time.
He shows you what your worth isand he will put you in tough
positions on purpose for you toeither learn really hard lessons
or for you to at least be ableto know that you know there's
(24:56):
someone always there for you.
During this documentary I feltlike I was kind of secluded in a
way, like, yeah, I had supportsystems but he was like my go-to
person with everything and hemade it possible.
But he's honestly just like oneof the best advisors ever and I
kudos to him.
Honestly, he's just one of theone of the nicest teachers
you'll ever meet.
Speaker 5 (25:15):
When I first met him I walked into first period and I
think it was my first likeinterest in videography.
That was the class and it waslike my first ever period, my
first ever class in high school.
And I just walked in I was likeso nervous and I just sat at my
seat and he just came up.
He's like presenting andintroducing himself and he's
like mentioning all these greatthings he's accomplished and he
(25:36):
was so genuine and kind and whenhe was starting talking about
hey, there's the morning show asan option but he was mentioning
it I was like, oh my god, Imight be interested.
He was a cool person.
He was a cool teacher and agood advisor, I think, and I
feel like having him, with hischaracteristics and everything,
just be there for us and supportus through every stages of
(25:57):
production, just being and evenas our personal lives too.
I feel like you can definitely,like Dumb Dumb said, we can
definitely go to him forpersonal situations as well and
I think if you feel stuck,especially if you're in the
morning show, you can definitelygo to him.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
What are some topics going forward that we can look
forward to on the Tech MorningShow?
Speaker 4 (26:17):
You will have to just wait.
I'm kidding, honestly, I likethe teasers.
I don't want to spoil anything.
I don't like spoiling.
No, honestly, I think they havereally good ideas.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
That is pretty amazing that you've created
something that all students inthe high school are going to
take a look at.
How's that feel?
Speaker 3 (26:41):
Well, in short, I'm very excited that the school
gets to see it.
I think it's a story thateverybody should hear and
everybody should see.
This year, actually, a lot ofpeople riled around soccer.
I've never seen it like thisever before.
I think it's because we had areally big social media
population now and the diversityon the team definitely had a
lot to do with it.
But I give credit to myselfwith the social media part
(27:04):
because I ran every single teamaccount.
So if there's one person thatgot people there, it was me.
You'll take credit.
I do take credit.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
All right Well deserved Thank you.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
Do you feel that your experience in high school is
unique because of the TechMorning Show Like how many high
school kids get to do this?
Do you think?
Speaker 4 (27:28):
I think, as a military kid, being in a school
like Tech High School, it reallyopened my eyes to the
possibilities of what can becomehonestly, because even in the
age of social media, now we haveso many possibilities to gain
so much experience and bewhatever we want in life.
It's absolutely crazy.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
Rameria, I know you don't want to be an editor, but
what are your career aspirations?
Speaker 4 (27:56):
I want to be a criminal justice lawyer.
Like Zam Zam said with hercareer aspirations, there is
videography in everything thatyou do honestly.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
You've learned multi-skills and they're
transferable.
That's part of the lesson right.
That's part of the value.
Speaker 5 (28:15):
For me, when I was getting into video production, I
saw it as a hobby.
It was like a hobby.
It was such a good interest.
I might need this later in life, even though I'm not going to
go into a career field that hassomething to do with videography
or directing, which I think.
Doing those elements or doingthose little parts and playing
these roles in the morning showwill teach you stuff.
(28:35):
It will teach you things thatwill open your eyes.
But for me, I want to go intoeither go to the medical field,
like Zam Zam said, and I reallythink we all have different
passions.
I think when you come into themorning show, you have something
in the back of your mind.
Speaker 3 (28:50):
I think that it's a really unique situation to be in
, because I don't know manyschools that have video
production, like clubs and stufflike that, going around the
privileges that we have atTechDog the privileges,
opportunity.
You bet Opportunity andprivileges that we have at Tech
is completely unmatched to otherschools.
I think that we should just bethankful that we do have a
(29:11):
morning show and be thankfulthat we're able to have these
stories to tell.
It's a way to be thankful, in away.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
I think that we should have a feed for the
morning show right here into thedistrict office.
Speaker 4 (29:23):
I do want to say that , although us three don't want
to become anything that has todo with videography or video
editing, I do want to say,especially from just listening
to you guys and from myexperience, anything that you do
feeds into later careers andlater options in life.
Like Zam Zam was talking abouthow she normally does the sports
(29:46):
, her allowing another person toalso have a say into what they
want to do within the TechMorning Show allows her to have
team building skills.
You need team building skills.
It works it works.
Speaker 1 (29:59):
This show wouldn't be possible without teamwork.
Speaker 3 (30:02):
Exactly Everything revolves around teamwork, Like
no matter what happens with themorning show.
It's a team of editors thatwork together to get it out
there.
It's a team of hosts that worktogether to get it out there.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
I just want to thank you all for being here today.
What a delight, and I'm a bigfan of the Tech Morning Show.
Have been since it got started,big fan of Dr Kyle.
So I want to thank you.
It was really wonderful and Ihave a gift for you.
Speaker 3 (30:33):
Oh, I'm excited.
Watch what we got right now.
Oh my god, it's a coffee chatmug.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
Those are so cute 742 coffee chat mugs Nice.
Speaker 3 (30:47):
All right, look at this oh my god, can we come back
?
Are we allowed to come back anddo a podcast episode with you
again?
Speaker 1 (30:53):
You know, what I would love to have you back.
Speaker 5 (30:57):
I feel like we have a lot of things coming this
morning show.
There's always progression andwe always have things like we
have students who are smart andthere's like multiple things
that we want to do and we'regoing to make that a reality.
We're going to, we're gettingto it.
So I hope you guys are excitedfor that.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
We are here now with Dr Matt Kyle at Tech High School
.
First of all, thanks for coming.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
No problem, tammy, I'm happy to be here.
My name is Matthew Kyle and Iam a teacher at Tech High School
and I teach video productions,photography.
I'm the advisor for theyearbook and I'm also the
advisor for the Tech MorningShow.
I'm also the advisor forrobotics, and that doesn't seem
(31:39):
to fit in there, but it'samazing that I have half of my
robotics.
Students are also part of theTech Morning Show.
I found a way to recruit fromevery look and cranny.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
Multitasking Both the students and you for recruiting
.
I want you to know that thosethree outstanding women have
nothing but kudos for you.
They are so appreciative, sograteful and really just so in
awe of the coaching and theleadership that you've shown
(32:14):
them.
You're going to have to listento the podcast because they are
your biggest fans.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
Oh, that's amazing.
Speaker 1 (32:22):
Thank you for that feedback, yeah well, thank you
for sending them our way,because it's clear why the Tech
Morning Show is such a successbecause they are so animated and
have such great ideas and theyplay off each other so well.
If you don't mind, they told me, from their point of view, the
(32:47):
Tech Morning Show and itsevolution, but you're the guy
you want to tell us how this allgot started.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
Absolutely, yeah, sure, so really, the idea
started when we were at the oldtech and we started to look at
the designs for the new studio,where it would be located.
Meeting with community, meetingthis was back with Charlie
Eisenreich and a whole team ofarchitects and designers that
(33:16):
were like, what is the dream, ifyou could have any resources
out there, what would it be?
And it's like, well, we need adesignated studio space.
And they were right on boardbecause it looked like it was
already in the plans and theideas and the location being
right in the central area of theschool, right above the
(33:38):
comments, located by our highvisibility.
High visibility.
You can't walk by that roomwithout seeing students with
cameras all the time, whether itbe photography or video.
The studio is enclosed, withoutwindows to the hallways, thank
goodness, but because you needthat privacy to get the stuff
done.
But looking at the history ofhow it all came together, going
(34:00):
back to that, really with theidea of doing this and having to
actually come through fruition,it's just awesome.
And once we got all theequipment in with the first year
at the school, we reallystruggled to figure it all out
at first.
(34:20):
You know and for any educatorgoing into the school year.
You're running on limited time,you're going 110% just trying
to get ready for that schoolyear and now they have a new
building, new studio, newequipment.
To try to figure it all out onyour own without being able to
get in there during the summeris a huge challenge.
So my idea was like well, whyhave the students wait for me to
(34:45):
figure this stuff out?
Let's figure it out together,let's go in and just figure it
out together.
So we were hooking up equipmentand we were just playing around
and I did that with my videoclasses, with some of my
photography classes and justgetting everything to work and
get and start the ideas flowing.
So the idea for the TechMorning Show really started
(35:08):
years before but we didn't getit going until halfway through
the first year in the new TechHigh School.
And that new crew, that firstcrew, was absolutely amazing and
it was the right people to justcome in and figure it out.
Speaker 1 (35:25):
And I think Sam Sam said one of the original
students was her sister, correct?
Speaker 2 (35:30):
Yeah, samiro is one of her, since she has a couple
older sisters and Samiro is heroldest sister that was in there
the first year with Winston.
Speaker 1 (35:38):
Oh sure, I remember Winston.
Speaker 2 (35:41):
And they just made it work.
The Tech Morning Show did runin the mornings.
We don't run in the morningsanymore, but we ran in the
mornings before school andreally tried to pull off
everything we needed to do inthat limited time.
And the reason we don't run inthe morning anymore is because
it just was limited time and ifyou have anybody that shows up
later you're waiting on somebodyyou can't extend the time.
(36:03):
First period is going to startat 8.30, when it's supposed to,
so we can't extend into theschool day.
But when we do it after schooland we do a lot of segments
throughout the week here andthere to put it all together,
then it just really, it reallyworks.
If we need to go beyond time,we can, and some of the students
will take the work with themand they'll work throughout the
(36:24):
night.
We have deadlines that theyhave to turn in their segments.
They're able to edit from homewith all our cloud-based
software that the district hasprovided us and the Chromebooks,
and so they're able to work intheir in whatever environment
they want to work in when itcomes post-filming time.
Speaker 1 (36:40):
So it really evolved from the kernel of idea.
Out of necessity it evolved,and for the better, is what I
hear you saying Absolutely.
Because it gives them moreopportunity to develop
storylines and to spend the timethat they need to, that's on an
interop day, yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:58):
And you hear of all these good stories that come out
of COVID phase, when we weregoing through distance learning
and we were going through ahybrid, and the positive
trade-off to all that is we hadto function from everywhere.
We couldn't rely on just usingthe studio.
So students had to have theirown ways of setting up their own
(37:20):
green screen, set up their ownchroma key, editing on their own
, having their own resources.
And they did it and they did it, they did it and we did it
completely separate, and then wedid it in the hybrid phase.
And now we're doing it still inlike a hybrid phase, because
we're filming what we can wheneverybody's there, but also
there are multiple students thatare doing things on their own,
(37:41):
separately, on their own time.
Whether that time is 11 o'clockat night, whether that time is
on a Saturday afternoon, they'regetting it done on their own
time, because most of thestudents that are involved in
the show are involved ineverything.
Sure, that's how they're wired.
They want to be part of theshow, but they're part of
(38:01):
student council, they're part ofdifferent sports, they're part
of different activities, and Idon't want to push them away and
be like, no, you'd have to behere every time we meet because
we wouldn't have a show if thatwas the case.
We've really been able tofunction with flexibility and
just be able to do what we can.
Students that are notnecessarily part of the crew
(38:26):
part of throughout the year.
I have students come to me fromthe hallway and be like, oh, can
I be on the show?
Absolutely, you can be on theshow.
Do I have to come in afterschool?
Well, that's ideal.
But what works for you?
Well, can I come in duringlunch?
Sure, come in during lunch,bring your lunch in.
What are you going to do?
I don't know.
I would like to do a gamereview or something.
Yeah, sure, do a game review.
(38:47):
And then we start working itout and if we flop, we flop, you
know, and it happens.
It happens a lot where studentshave dreams of I want to do
this and can I do this for theshow?
Sure, let's do it, give it atry, and we fall flat on our
face and it's like, okay, whatcan we do different?
Because I don't want to holdtheir hands through all this.
I want to give them as muchpower as possible and we have
(39:09):
multiple projects that have beenvery successful Zam Zam's
project with the soccerdocumentary.
Yeah, she talked about that yeahshe had this big dream and I
said, okay, go for it.
And she was like okay, well,where do I start?
Grab a camera, carry it andrecord everything.
And she did that for fourmonths, starting in August at
(39:34):
5.30 in the morning, getting outto the fields with the boys
when they had practice, becauseit was too hot in the daylight
and so they started practicingearly, early mornings.
That's in the documentary andyou see the film footage and so
you know, it's those types ofprojects that I feel are going
to get the students further inlife, no matter what field they
go into, when they're in controlof it.
(39:56):
When they fail, they just haveto overcome it if they want to
continue and they do, and I hopethat they fail.
I hope that they fail atcertain points to learn from
those experiences and to getbetter.
Yeah, it's kind of like theengineering design process,
where you're constantlyredesigning it over and over
again to get better and betterand better, whatever that
(40:17):
technology is.
That's what we're doing withour projects we're going back
and we're doing it again.
Speaker 1 (40:21):
You know, one of the things that we talked about was
how unique this opportunity is,that not all students get a
chance to do this.
Can you expand on that a littlebit?
Speaker 2 (40:37):
It's something really cool, really unique.
It's great for the students,but it's also great for myself
to be able to get involved in itand have the opportunity to,
because not every educator hasthat opportunity, and also for
our community, to, you know, ourstaff, our students.
If there's certain things thatthey want to get out there and
(40:57):
get on the show, they can do it.
You know it's like all right,yeah, national Arts Study.
They want to come in and do anannouncement?
Yep, they come in, they'reready to go and they do it.
They might not have the editingskills and stuff, but I'll show
them right in front of them.
Here's what, here's what we do.
Maybe next time you can do it.
Maybe next time you edit itThey'll come in with a script
and everything.
But I would like them to seethe whole process because, as
(41:20):
you know, in the media field,most of the hours are spent
behind the scenes on everyproject.
Not when you're on camera or onair or you know.
It's really the magic thathappens behind the scenes that
makes it work.
Speaker 1 (41:35):
We talked about challenges too, and they all
agreed.
Everybody talked about editingand how difficult it can be and
how time consuming, and I can'tremember who but one of them
mentioned and it gets boring.
You know, there's this hugepart of the process that's just
getting the work done.
Speaker 5 (41:56):
Correct.
Speaker 1 (41:56):
And one of the things that I asked them because,
besides seeing it's challengingthey all said how important it
was that they learned that skillthat they know.
And they know that skill no,even if it was difficult,
they've got it.
And so I asked them.
I said you know, with thisunique opportunity and all the
skills that you've learned, areyou going into broadcast
(42:18):
journalism?
And nope, none of them.
But you know what they said?
It doesn't matter, becausethere's not a job that you do
that we can't bring this skillinto it.
The medical field has videotechnology.
It was incredible to hear themput those pieces together and
(42:38):
say, yeah, everything I'mlearning in this really unique
environment is going to betransferable somewhere else.
Speaker 2 (42:45):
And the soft skills that they're learning from it.
You just hear so much aboutthis generation of how they're
always late and they're quittingon the job and you hear all
this negative stuff.
But it's not the entiregeneration, and these girls are
proof of that, because Zam Zam'sproject was not a class project
.
It was not a tech morning showproject.
(43:08):
It was a Zam Zam project.
It was hours of work that shebrought upon herself because she
was motivated to do it.
And isn't that what it's allabout?
That's what it's all about isfinding those connections.
What is going to inspire thatstudent to gain all these other
(43:29):
skills we need through whateverthey're motivated with.
Romaria did a boxing video,went down to downtown St Cloud,
downtown boxing, and filmed oneof our other students who is
very inspired and motivated withboxing, and both of them worked
on that, and that was aclassroom project that they
worked on.
Romaria really wanted to dosomething unique and develop
(43:54):
something that has not beendeveloped before.
And then we had Isaac that wasin class that is in the boxing,
and he was in the video classand he didn't have any idea of
what he wanted to do as aproject, and so they were
sitting next to each other, noteven knowing each other, and we
just made together.
Okay, you're driven, romaria,you want to really put some
(44:17):
effort into this huge project.
And Isaac, you're thinkingabout boxing after school and
that's all you're thinking aboutright now.
Why don't you blend this into aproject?
And Romaria went to the gym andfilmed and they turned it into
a sport type video that is alsocommercial for the St Cloud, the
studio.
(44:37):
Yeah, for the St Cloud downtownboxing.
And then and it's just a greatdemonstration of what skills we
hope that they will get out ofthe class, and sometimes it
takes a whole trimester,sometimes it takes a project
that they're motivated in.
And our third lady, uma, youknow, she just she just got
pulled in by Zam Zam into thesoccer documentary and is
(45:02):
amazing.
Speaker 1 (45:02):
She's all in.
Speaker 2 (45:03):
She will go all in, no matter what it is.
She's my go to for, like, canyou help with this?
We need somebody to go takesome pictures in the auditorium
today for for this project, orgo take some video over.
Yep, yep, yep, I'll be thereand and she's there and she'll
do it, and she'll deliver everysingle time, no matter what else
is on her plate.
(45:23):
And so, looking at the threeladies that you had here are
just wonderful examples, justamazing Of what we are capable
of, what every single student iscapable of doing with the
resources we have in ourdistrict.
It's just you just have to findthe connection.
You have to find what is thespark, what is going to get them
to be motivated to enough tofollow through.
(45:48):
And I was just so thrilled, youknow, with what.
They completed it.
And I tell Zam Zam, I said,because she was like, you didn't
think I was going to be able topull it off, and I said, with
the time frame, you are exactlyright.
I did not think you were goingto be able to pull it off,
because that is a huge projectthat you had to accomplish and
the goal was to complete itbefore the end of 2023.
(46:10):
And you did it and that's whatmakes me so proud of you.
Because did I think you werecapable of pulling it off?
Yes, but within the time frame?
No, because that is so muchwork behind the scenes with
editing and for Uma and Zam topull in all the players that
they did, and coaches to film inthe studio, again on their own
(46:34):
time yeah, during lunch periods,during tiger time.
Every single tiger time forfive weeks was spent doing those
interviews and editing and itwas just.
You know, I'm just blown awaybecause, again, it's not a class
project.
It's not.
It's not for a grade.
Speaker 4 (46:52):
You know so many students say is this going to be
graded.
Speaker 2 (46:57):
Here's the opposite.
They knew this is not going tobe graded.
This was assigned to them.
They just they just brought itupon themselves, and that's that
is for any educator.
That is the one thing you wouldhope for every student that you
have, but if you just have one,do it in your entire lifetime.
(47:19):
You feel successful, and sothey just.
They motivate me more than youknow.
Speaker 1 (47:25):
They ever once before .
Yeah, yeah and so rewarding.
Yeah, absolutely.
Do you have a great podcastidea?
Submit your idea tocommunications at ISD742.org and
thank you for listening to 742Coffee Cast, the best place to
stay informed and be inspired bySt Cloud Area School District.
The 742 Coffee Cast is your ultimate destination for
insightful conversations,thought-provoking ideas and
innovative strategies in StCloud Area School District.
Your host is Director ofCommunity Engagement and
Communications, tammy Dilan.
Grab a cup of coffee and joinus.
Welcome to Episode 2 of the 742Coffee Cast.
(00:29):
Our guests today are threeamazing students from Tech High
School Zamzam Hashi, rameriaEllis and Umeema Abdi.
Thank you all for being here Tobegin today.
Could you just introduceyourself, tell us what year you
are in school and how longyou've been working with the
Tech Morning Show?
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Hi, I'm Zamzam.
I'm a junior at St Cloud Tech.
I've been with the Morning Showfor about three years but I was
just a little bit involvedbeforehand.
My sister was a part of thecrew that first created the
Morning Show, so she's likealumni to the show and, yeah, I
guess the second I got into highschool she kind of told me if
there was one club that youwould want to join, it's the
(01:12):
Morning Show, and took it fromthere.
The rest is history.
Speaker 4 (01:15):
Hi, my name is Rameria Ellis.
I am also a junior from TechHigh School.
I decided to join the TechMorning Show because I always
wanted to do something a littlebit of similarity when I was
younger.
I wanted to be a person thatdid kind of like the morning
type of thing.
So I was like you know whatmight not just give it a try,
(01:36):
and I've been enjoying it eversince.
Speaker 5 (01:38):
Hello, I'm Umea Abdi and I'm a junior at Tech High
School and I've been doing theMorning Show.
This is my first year and Ireally enjoy getting into like
production and directing and Ilove like making little creative
clips for school and I thinkthe Morning Show is the perfect
place to do that and I'menjoying it so far.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Wonderful.
So who wants to kick us off bysaying just telling us what is
the Tech Morning Show?
Speaker 3 (02:07):
The Morning Show.
It's a group of productionsdone by students.
Dr Kyle is there to advise andto give us advice, but most of
the work is done by us students.
We take random projects.
You know, it could be themagazine project, it could be a
nonfiction project, it could bejust like a daily report of the,
the winter week or, you know,sports activities and stuff like
(02:28):
that going on, but it's justthe way for students who maybe
want a career in videoproduction one day.
It's like their club.
You know, you see other clubsout there, like there's MSA,
there's GSA, there's also an artclub.
You know, there's all theseclubs for kids to show what
their passion is.
So I think that the MorningShow is definitely just like a
club to show kids' fashions.
You know, it's something thatintrigues them, it's something
(02:49):
that they're interested in.
Speaker 5 (02:51):
One thing to add is the Morning Show.
There's like a lot of diversitykids.
There are kids from everybackground, kids who have like
different interests, likerobotics into writing or any
other stuff they like orsubjects, and I think that's a
place, good place to cometogether and join our ideas and
make little fun skits that thewhole school can enjoy.
(03:11):
And yeah, I really appreciatethat.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
What's your process?
So you actually have a studioat Tech?
Right, yeah, we have like astudio, it's big it's.
Speaker 5 (03:20):
When I first walked into it I was like oh my god,
this looks so big.
I was so excited.
It looks so fancy.
It's still, yeah, it looksfantastic.
Really professional, right itlooks, and yeah the equipment we
have and the cameras, thedevices and then the setup is
really your video, your?
Speaker 1 (03:36):
audio.
So talk to me about actuallythe process.
So a little bit we jumped ahead, but a little bit about how you
choose the topics, who youchoose to interview, how long
does each show take?
This is all the productionstuff, but when do you actually
drop an episode?
Talk about all of that.
Speaker 5 (03:55):
Well, so usually I focus majority on hosting kind
of from time to time.
But in the beginning of ourmeets we usually have our
meetings every Tuesday weusually start like putting
points we want to talk about inour videos and like who wants to
do what and then who wants tocome and like record or set up
or check the mic and stuff andwho wants to also host, and
(04:15):
usually we have like two people,two main hosts, talk about
certain subjects.
But it takes time and I thinkDoc has like this ability to be
patient.
He's very patient, he's likeyou know what you got this he's
very supportive, I would say.
And then hosting wise, it's funtalking about topics like
school activities, like spiritweeks, homecoming, all these
(04:36):
stuff that students out theremight want to know about.
And usually when posting, oh,somebody has to edit the videos.
Has anybody done editing before?
Speaker 4 (04:45):
I do a lot of the editing.
Sometimes I'm not really like apart of, like the morning show
as much of now.
I do enjoy editing.
When I decided to do themorning show, I was like I want
to dip my hands in everything.
I've always been like that, soI did not want to change from
just being like the editorbackstage type of person to just
being a person that's on thecamera.
I wanted to do to do it all.
(05:06):
So with the editing process it'svery tedious.
I get kind of aggravated withit.
Sometimes I'm like, oh my God,this software is not working
with what I wanted to do.
And then other times I justhave to talk to Dr Kyle and he's
like, okay, you can do thisinstead of doing this.
I'm like you're right.
So it really just depends on,like, what type of editing style
we're going for.
(05:27):
We also discuss that in ourmeetings.
We also discuss the type oftype of look we want to go for
and also we have free reign ofthat, as long as it's, of course
, school appropriate.
We also decide where to putlike the editing process and
where to put like the littledetails and all of that stuff,
and then we also talk about thatwhile we're filming.
(05:48):
So then we all are on the samepage.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
How many students are involved in the Tech Morning
Show?
Speaker 5 (05:53):
This year we had like a big increase in the people
who were there, especially likenew kids coming from different
schools Like me and Marmeriajust transferred from other
states.
So it was like really nice tojust dip in and like see how the
morning show worked.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
I think I'm speaking mostly from like past experience
, because this year I took onone of the biggest projects Tech
Morning Show has ever seen.
Since the beginning of theschool year, Since the middle of
August, I've been working on asoccer documentary and you know
that finally dropped.
So it's like now I'm kind ofgetting back into the basic
whole.
Get in the studio, do a sportsreport, do you know?
Like a whole bunch of otherstuff.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Let's put a pin in that, because I want to come
back to this documentary.
That sounds really exciting.
Who is your audience?
Who is the audience for TechMorning Show?
Everyone, all Tech students.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
I think that the morning show, although, like, we
do put like a really big pushout there, you know our views do
they're not what we want themto be.
You know we want higher numbers, of course, and we're doing
everything in our power toadvertise it as much as we can.
But I think that maybe if wecould make a shift in our
schedule and play in an advisoryor if we could, you know, add
something in there where it'slike kids can come during tiger
(07:02):
time to come watch it at like aspecific place, our main goal is
to get it out to everybody, thewhole, you know tech community,
parents, family, guardians,everybody can watch it.
You know that's that's ourmission, that's our goal,
because the information we haveon there is predominantly
surrounded about schoolinformation, like important
information about, like upcomingevents, you know, like a past
events and stuff like that wehave.
Speaker 5 (07:23):
Tuesday and we record and try to get as much footage
and clips as we can editing done.
I think it takes about twoweeks to get the video out and
we usually have a deadline.
We're trying to push for it andwe usually do make it.
We're good on doing that, butother than that I feel like it's
twice a month.
(07:44):
It just depends on the monthand the activities are happening
during that month.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
And listening to the three of you.
It sounds to me like there areall different types of skills
that are needed for the TechMorning Show.
I heard we have acting, I heardwe have editing, I heard we had
the broadcast hosting, butobviously they're scripting to
(08:09):
be done too, which must be partof your Tuesday meetings.
Speaker 5 (08:12):
So are scripting.
So for me I'm the host, random.
I'm like Doc just stands thereand I'm in the host chair just
looking straight at him and I'mlike, okay, doc, throw it at me.
It takes me about 30 minutes.
And I'm like, what did you justsay?
Can you repeat yourself rightnow, because I don't know what
you're saying.
And then we do it like, oh, butit takes for like a long time,
just so I can understand it.
But usually we know our topic,but the words that we are like
(08:35):
saying is not scripted, it's allnatural.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Now, zam Zam, you just completed a big project.
That's a soccer documentarythat could not have been random,
that had to have been scripted.
Talk to me about thisdocumentary.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
In the beginning I think it was back in 2023,
probably like April 2023.
The year prior I did not reallyhave the best experience with
the soccer team.
It was my first year managing.
You know, I was joking aroundwith the head coach, dan Stodoro
, and he was kind of like, yeah,you're coming back next year,
right, we have so much more workfor you.
And I was like, oh, I'm notcoming back next year.
(09:10):
But he just he politely askedme to like come to one, you know
, summer practice or whatever.
And I, before even the summerpractice, I was talking to Dr
Kyle I was like I want to takeon a big project before my high
school years are like over, youknow, like I want to take
something huge on.
He's like think about it, thinkit through.
So then, over the summer, whenI went to summer practice, and
it was just a completelydifferent vibe, it was
(09:31):
completely different feel and Iwas like, okay, cool, you know,
this team is actually a teamthat I can work with and this is
a team that if I'm willing togive everything up for it, I'm
willing to give it all up for it, because that's, that's like
four months of straight editing,cutting, interviewing, like it
was.
You know, the whole process ofthe documentary was just a lot
to take in.
I I would never want to put myhard work, sweat and tears into
(09:52):
something that goesunappreciated or something that
people like we just didn't getalong.
You know, I guess I brought itup to Dr Kyle in August.
I saw him, I sent him a remindmessage.
I was like, hey, I have an idea.
And he's like let's hear it.
And I was like I want to do adocumentary and he's like okay.
And I was like this is the partwhere you give me advice.
Dr Kyle was going on.
(10:14):
He's like figure your storylineout.
You know, figure out a wholebunch of these things.
But me I have my own way ofdoing things.
I'm definitely not a rulefollower at all and I think
that's why last week was themost dangerous week ever for
this documentary.
But it was like I don't knowhow to explain it.
But it definitely wasn'tscripted.
Technically it was scriptedbecause you know everything had
a timeline and stuff like that.
But at the same time I don'tthink it was scripted because
(10:36):
this is a story that I neverknew was going to happen.
I was thinking tech boy socceris coming off of five years of
winning a section championship.
They've been to state fiveyears in a row and out of
nowhere we're going to stateagain, but we're going into
state with the worst record ever.
So nobody's expecting us to gointo state.
And then I don't know where webeat clokate again in the
quarter state quarter finals.
And then I don't know wherewe're playing in US Bank, and
(10:58):
I'm just sitting there and I'mlike I'm so thankful that I
chose this year to film adocumentary and I didn't wait
for my senior year.
But then season did end, wetook fourth in state and the
process of editing begun the daythat the soccer season did end.
It took a lot of hard work,sweat and tears for us to get to
this point with the soccerdocumentary.
Now that it's over, it's reallysad.
I kind of miss the late nightsstaying up wondering if it's
(11:20):
worth it.
Speaker 5 (11:21):
When I first got into the story I thought it was such
a beautiful story to tell.
Like the way she doesn't talksabout it, she talks about it
like with a passion.
I think she talks about likeher, like filming the whole
documentary, the whole likeprocess is like a passion.
I'm like that's awesome to see.
I think you can see that inlike different individuals in
the morning show who care aboutwhat they do and I think, if I
(11:44):
think it's a very importantelement and I think editing wise
, it was terrible, it was hard.
I the amount of time she wentto cry and I went to cry with
her.
It was, it was a lot, but Ithink, down to it, she made it,
she made it, she did it yeah wehad like everything done.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
It was just we were having such a difficult time
with like cutting interviews andthen putting interviews into
place and having these audios goover the interviews and, like
I'm, I never edit.
That's one thing about me thatthis project has taught me the
hard way is you need to get yourhands dirty for you to get the
outcome that you want.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
And that's a question that I have and it sounds like
it might be similar for allthree.
But pipe up what's the hardestpart?
I've heard editing quite often.
Speaker 5 (12:26):
I think the hard part is like when it's repetitive,
when it gets so weird, like yousay, oh my God, I don't know
what story to tell, I don't knowwhat's going on and I lose,
like the focus of the mainobjection.
I'm just like what's going onand I feel like you have to have
the willpower to continue, likesee it through the point where
you see the outcome.
Because you want to see theoutcome, I feel like the outcome
is worth it.
(12:47):
It's always worth it, becausewhen you see a production come
together and you saw it from thebeginning, always towards the
end it's like oh my God, this issuch an incredible process,
even though it has its hardtimes, for sure.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
I think I was one of the first classes that saw Dr
Kyle.
He, I love him.
He, literally.
When I told him because I was amanager for basketball I told
him, hey, I'm not going to beable to do this for the time
being.
He was like I'm going to sendyou up for my advanced
videography class and I said,okay, sir, okay, didn't believe
him and then I saw it on myschedule.
(13:17):
I was like, okay, so when youguys talk about editing, I want
to face you guys for this.
When you guys talk aboutediting and especially you, when
I saw that video, I was glued.
I was glued.
I could not stop looking at thatdocumentary and then when I saw
that Umea was a part of it,first of all I want to give you
your kudos, because being amanager, then also doing other
(13:38):
things for the school and thenalso doing this documentary, I
don't know how she could do it.
Oh my God, I would lose itbecause I'd be so sad.
I would be like I cannot dothis anymore, like I just I need
a break, I need a nap Like thatwould be me.
You guys were amazing.
Like that was really good.
Speaker 5 (13:56):
Watching Zimzim go through all the stadium.
She was going through, I think,like stages every year.
I was there and I was I washelping with editing and writing
the story and I was like yougot a girl, like you got this,
and she knew what she was doing.
I just took her a while to getthere.
And I think it's amazing how,like I think in the beginning
she was like okay, you know what, I'll delay for a while.
(14:17):
She's like you know, the lastweek pulled up, you know what I
got to get to it right now andshe got to it.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
So I have to ask this question because the process
you've done such a great job oftalking about the process from
beginning, middle and end whatthe challenge is, what the
passion is.
So the obvious question is areany of you, or are all of you,
thinking that you're experiencedwith the tech morning show
(14:44):
could lead to a career?
Are you thinking aboutjournalism or broadcasting or
anything along those lines?
Speaker 3 (14:52):
For a very long time.
I really like, even to this day, I still tell people what do
you want to like?
When they ask what do you wantto become when you leave high
school, I'm kind of like oh,respiratory therapist.
You know like I want to go intothe medical field.
But I feel like there's stuffin the medical field that
includes videography.
Videography, you know, there'slike those who record surgeries.
However, I could see myselfgoing into video production if
(15:15):
all doesn't work out, but Ithink that it's honestly just a
really great skill to have ingeneral.
You know, like putting videostogether, being able to edit all
of it and to make a productionat the end of it.
I'm a recipient for the UpperMidwestern Emmys and it's like
knowing that my video gotawarded for being a really good
music video.
I guess it gives you a sense ofcomfort knowing that you have a
(15:37):
skill that you can rely onlater on in life.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
And the Tech Morning Show has one more than one Emmy,
correct?
Yes, what does that feel like?
A high school production getsEmmy awards?
Speaker 3 (15:49):
Talk to me about this , it's called a crystal pillar
for high school productions andcollege productions.
However, if you do go tonationals and you win nationals,
then I think they give you afull on Emmy award.
But it's through the Emmyacademies it's really good.
Last year I went and I won, andthen the year before that I
believe there's a video that Iwas involved in that I also won.
However, I wasn't really asinvolved in the morning shows I
(16:10):
was last year than I was myfreshman year but it's one of
the best feelings in the world,like walking up on that stage
giving a speech, you know, likesitting there and actually
knowing hey, I went through theprocess of struggle for and my
process is being rewarded, andnow you're a national qualifier.
Everybody who wins in theirregion they get qualified for
nationals.
So it's like now you just gotto hope, pray and put all your
(16:34):
faith in being a nationalfinalist and stuff like that,
being a part of a crew that isso talented and it shows based
off of like numbers.
Just our awards Freshman year,my sophomore year, I don't
remember which, but we broughthome the most Emmy awards in
high school.
Like history and like statehistory, it's a nice flex to
have, honestly to be like.
I would say so I have a crystalpillar and they're like, oh,
(16:55):
what's that?
And I'm like the Emmy awards.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
You know I'm listening to you talk about this
experience and you went tocompetition.
You won, you had challenges,you had passion.
I mean it sounds like otherextracurriculars, right, like it
sounds like it could be soccer,right, could be basketball or
something else.
How is this experience?
(17:19):
Both alike and not like anyother extracurricular you could
be involved in oh my gosh.
Speaker 4 (17:25):
Okay, as I'm going to speak from like a first time
manager aspect, also with boysbasketball and then also doing
something like this.
It's a state of euphoric.
That's how I would explain it.
It's nice to have a passion forsomething that other people
would find weird and like, andit's just like people would
think that it's for like boys tobe like into something like
(17:48):
this and to have like threegirls.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
I do want to point out that I have three young
women in front of me.
Speaker 4 (17:57):
Yeah.
Yeah, it's nice to like feellike we're doing this for the
school, but we're also doing itfor ourselves for later on in
life, especially like when youwere talking about is this
something that we want to do inthe future?
I love dipping my toes indifferent things, and this was a
learning experience to dip mytoes into something that I did
(18:18):
not know anything about, andthat's why I really do
appreciate Sam.
Sam I'm like she was my idolwithout even knowing it.
Speaker 5 (18:25):
When I first saw her walk in like I remember our
first meeting you were boththere and she walked in and she
was holding a camera.
She was trying to upload somestuff, he's like, and that's
what she was like.
Oh yeah, she's working ondocumenting.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
She's.
It's good having, you know,this type of reputation with the
morning show and it's good toknow that I at least have you
know, because I always, I alwayssaw my work as going, you know,
kind of unnoticed, like I'mthere just to be there.
I didn't see myself, as youknow, helping people out or
being somebody that peoplelooked up to, up until probably
this year when I like met Umaymaor whatever, and she was just
(18:55):
always like dude, like you do sogood in the morning show, like
I, like you know you do great.
And I'm just kind of like, oh,it kind of changed my
perspective a bit, you know,because I'm like okay, well, now
I have people looking up to me.
I want to be the best version ofmyself, knowing that they can
also be the best version ofthemselves when they're with me
and without me.
And it's like being in a groupwith a lot of people who are new
(19:16):
to the morning show.
Um, it's, it's like a learningcurve almost, because it's like
the other day we were filming anepisode and I got paired up I
don't do sports reports withanybody else but myself Like
that's like my territory.
I'm very protective over sportsreports.
It's not that I do like it atfirst.
It's just like a learning curve.
It also kind of taught me it'slike you can't have everything
(19:36):
that you want you know like itcan teach you valuable life
lessons and it's just goodhaving like knowing that there
are people who genuinely see meas like something or someone to
look up to.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
Do you get recognized in the halls?
Do people?
Speaker 5 (19:50):
say oh so I'm new to school, right, and I was walking
to the hallways and I just see,right, because, like you know,
you're new, you're a new student, you see people and they just
see you from somewhere andthey're oh yeah, oh yeah, that
girl from the morning show.
I'm like huh.
But I think it's fun gettingthe recognition because then you
feel like, oh, like somebody'swatching, there's an audience
watching my like what I did orwhat I put my effort into, and I
(20:11):
feel so rewarding.
But I think but majority of thepeople that come up to me are
very sweet.
The students who watch themorning show, majority of them
want to get involved.
I've seen students like hey,like how do we join the morning
show?
What is do I have to?
Like.
I think it's very exciting tolike hear people watch our
production and be like hey, Iwant to be a part of it.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
What advice would you have if someone showed interest
or was just curious, likeRumira?
You said oh, I didn't know thatI would be interested in this,
but I went for it.
What advice would you have forsomeone who is like well, I
don't know about that?
Speaker 4 (20:50):
Honestly, the advice that I give anyone when they
like, are unsure about anythingand I work, and I still give the
same advice to people that comeinto the store that I work at
just do it.
Just do it, because exactly atthe end of the day, you won't
know until you try.
You don't want to end notknowing what could have been
there.
Something my parents always sayis there is no what ifs in life
(21:13):
.
You have to at least tryeverything to know, if you even
like it.
And if you can do that, thenwhat are you doing?
What are you doing?
You're wasting a good hobby.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
I think a piece of advice that I'd also give just
to bounce off of her is you knowit's the worst that can happen
is you don't like it, theabsolute worst that can occur,
and you can always leave.
We don't make you sign acontract, none of that.
I remember my first day on themorning show.
I show up on a Tuesday and theythrow me on camera right away.
(21:48):
No doubt there was no way,nothing.
It was like I still rememberthe first episode.
All I said was hi, I'm Zam ZamHashi, and this is the Tech
Morning Show.
And they put it in.
They literally put it in.
And then the next one they gaveme a much more difficult task,
which was going and interviewinglike really big basketball
player at the time, and so Itook all the tasks right here
(22:08):
and I was like I got it.
You know, like I think themorning show will give you a
sense of determination, like you.
They give you a tough task andyou it's like it's not make it
or break it, but at the sametime it's almost like if I did
that, then I feel like I can domore.
So do you?
Speaker 1 (22:23):
feel like you have to have confidence to be part of
this team, or do you learnconfidence as you go?
Speaker 5 (22:30):
I think you learn confidence.
All you need is courage.
If you have courage to be thereand be like, hey, I think if
you have courage, you haveconfidence.
I feel like if you're there andyou're like, oh, I want to be a
part of this, you're going toslowly.
I think, whatever part positionyou are, whatever part you want
to be involved in, you're goingto slowly develop a confidence
over time.
Speaker 3 (22:48):
Not everything is like on camera, like there's so
much background work that goesinto it.
You could work lights, youcould work microphones.
You can do so much outside ofthe camera A very small fraction
.
I'm one of my favorite episodesout of from like my freshman
years probably.
We did a behind the scenesepisode where we show all the
work that goes on behind thescenes.
You know, and like they turn,they're like what are you doing?
(23:09):
Cause I'm filming.
And then the other girl turnsaround and she's like but I'm
filming it and it's like it justkept going in a circle.
Yeah, I think that there'sthere's so much work behind the
screen and you don't have toalways be on camera and stuff
like that.
I think it's just if you'recomfortable enough to be with a
new group of people and to wantto like start a big project or
even a little project with them.
But you have to have like areally good idea of what
(23:31):
teamwork is, because that's allthe morning shows about.
Speaker 4 (23:33):
It's about teamwork, I think also to piggyback off of
them.
I I would say that I learnedconfidence with the morning show
because I also did somewhat ofa big project with a boxing
video that I did with aclassmate, a fellow classmate,
and I was so nervous on doing itbecause I've never edited by
(23:53):
myself, never done it.
So with the morning show beinglike kind of a hand in it, it
gave me a little bit ofconfidence on like I can do this
.
I'm just scared to do it and Iknew that.
Dr Kyle, if I ever needed athing, I can ask him.
You just have to push yourselfin order to gain the confidence
(24:14):
and even if you aren't sure,there's so many people that can
help you and you can never feelafraid to ask, asking is always
going to be your best friend,especially if you don't know
anything.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
And I feel like we just have got to talk about this
.
Dr Kyle, his name keeps comingup.
Speaker 3 (24:32):
Dr Kyle is by far one of the most influential,
motivational, kindest, just like.
I tell him this all the time.
He shows you what your worth isand he will put you in tough
positions on purpose for you toeither learn really hard lessons
or for you to at least be ableto know that you know there's
(24:56):
someone always there for you.
During this documentary I feltlike I was kind of secluded in a
way, like, yeah, I had supportsystems but he was like my go-to
person with everything and hemade it possible.
But he's honestly just like oneof the best advisors ever and I
kudos to him.
Honestly, he's just one of theone of the nicest teachers
you'll ever meet.
Speaker 5 (25:15):
When I first met him I walked into first period and I
think it was my first likeinterest in videography.
That was the class and it waslike my first ever period, my
first ever class in high school.
And I just walked in I was likeso nervous and I just sat at my
seat and he just came up.
He's like presenting andintroducing himself and he's
like mentioning all these greatthings he's accomplished and he
(25:36):
was so genuine and kind and whenhe was starting talking about
hey, there's the morning show asan option but he was mentioning
it I was like, oh my god, Imight be interested.
He was a cool person.
He was a cool teacher and agood advisor, I think, and I
feel like having him, with hischaracteristics and everything,
just be there for us and supportus through every stages of
(25:57):
production, just being and evenas our personal lives too.
I feel like you can definitely,like Dumb Dumb said, we can
definitely go to him forpersonal situations as well and
I think if you feel stuck,especially if you're in the
morning show, you can definitelygo to him.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
What are some topics going forward that we can look
forward to on the Tech MorningShow?
Speaker 4 (26:17):
You will have to just wait.
I'm kidding, honestly, I likethe teasers.
I don't want to spoil anything.
I don't like spoiling.
No, honestly, I think they havereally good ideas.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
That is pretty amazing that you've created
something that all students inthe high school are going to
take a look at.
How's that feel?
Speaker 3 (26:41):
Well, in short, I'm very excited that the school
gets to see it.
I think it's a story thateverybody should hear and
everybody should see.
This year, actually, a lot ofpeople riled around soccer.
I've never seen it like thisever before.
I think it's because we had areally big social media
population now and the diversityon the team definitely had a
lot to do with it.
But I give credit to myselfwith the social media part
(27:04):
because I ran every single teamaccount.
So if there's one person thatgot people there, it was me.
You'll take credit.
I do take credit.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
All right Well deserved Thank you.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
Do you feel that your experience in high school is
unique because of the TechMorning Show Like how many high
school kids get to do this?
Do you think?
Speaker 4 (27:28):
I think, as a military kid, being in a school
like Tech High School, it reallyopened my eyes to the
possibilities of what can becomehonestly, because even in the
age of social media, now we haveso many possibilities to gain
so much experience and bewhatever we want in life.
It's absolutely crazy.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
Rameria, I know you don't want to be an editor, but
what are your career aspirations?
Speaker 4 (27:56):
I want to be a criminal justice lawyer.
Like Zam Zam said with hercareer aspirations, there is
videography in everything thatyou do honestly.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
You've learned multi-skills and they're
transferable.
That's part of the lesson right.
That's part of the value.
Speaker 5 (28:15):
For me, when I was getting into video production, I
saw it as a hobby.
It was like a hobby.
It was such a good interest.
I might need this later in life, even though I'm not going to
go into a career field that hassomething to do with videography
or directing, which I think.
Doing those elements or doingthose little parts and playing
these roles in the morning showwill teach you stuff.
(28:35):
It will teach you things thatwill open your eyes.
But for me, I want to go intoeither go to the medical field,
like Zam Zam said, and I reallythink we all have different
passions.
I think when you come into themorning show, you have something
in the back of your mind.
Speaker 3 (28:50):
I think that it's a really unique situation to be in
, because I don't know manyschools that have video
production, like clubs and stufflike that, going around the
privileges that we have atTechDog the privileges,
opportunity.
You bet Opportunity andprivileges that we have at Tech
is completely unmatched to otherschools.
I think that we should just bethankful that we do have a
(29:11):
morning show and be thankfulthat we're able to have these
stories to tell.
It's a way to be thankful, in away.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
I think that we should have a feed for the
morning show right here into thedistrict office.
Speaker 4 (29:23):
I do want to say that , although us three don't want
to become anything that has todo with videography or video
editing, I do want to say,especially from just listening
to you guys and from myexperience, anything that you do
feeds into later careers andlater options in life.
Like Zam Zam was talking abouthow she normally does the sports
(29:46):
, her allowing another person toalso have a say into what they
want to do within the TechMorning Show allows her to have
team building skills.
You need team building skills.
It works it works.
Speaker 1 (29:59):
This show wouldn't be possible without teamwork.
Speaker 3 (30:02):
Exactly Everything revolves around teamwork, Like
no matter what happens with themorning show.
It's a team of editors thatwork together to get it out
there.
It's a team of hosts that worktogether to get it out there.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
I just want to thank you all for being here today.
What a delight, and I'm a bigfan of the Tech Morning Show.
Have been since it got started,big fan of Dr Kyle.
So I want to thank you.
It was really wonderful and Ihave a gift for you.
Speaker 3 (30:33):
Oh, I'm excited.
Watch what we got right now.
Oh my god, it's a coffee chatmug.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
Those are so cute 742 coffee chat mugs Nice.
Speaker 3 (30:47):
All right, look at this oh my god, can we come back
?
Are we allowed to come back anddo a podcast episode with you
again?
Speaker 1 (30:53):
You know, what I would love to have you back.
Speaker 5 (30:57):
I feel like we have a lot of things coming this
morning show.
There's always progression andwe always have things like we
have students who are smart andthere's like multiple things
that we want to do and we'regoing to make that a reality.
We're going to, we're gettingto it.
So I hope you guys are excitedfor that.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
We are here now with Dr Matt Kyle at Tech High School
.
First of all, thanks for coming.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
No problem, tammy, I'm happy to be here.
My name is Matthew Kyle and Iam a teacher at Tech High School
and I teach video productions,photography.
I'm the advisor for theyearbook and I'm also the
advisor for the Tech MorningShow.
I'm also the advisor forrobotics, and that doesn't seem
(31:39):
to fit in there, but it'samazing that I have half of my
robotics.
Students are also part of theTech Morning Show.
I found a way to recruit fromevery look and cranny.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
Multitasking Both the students and you for recruiting
.
I want you to know that thosethree outstanding women have
nothing but kudos for you.
They are so appreciative, sograteful and really just so in
awe of the coaching and theleadership that you've shown
(32:14):
them.
You're going to have to listento the podcast because they are
your biggest fans.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
Oh, that's amazing.
Speaker 1 (32:22):
Thank you for that feedback, yeah well, thank you
for sending them our way,because it's clear why the Tech
Morning Show is such a successbecause they are so animated and
have such great ideas and theyplay off each other so well.
If you don't mind, they told me, from their point of view, the
(32:47):
Tech Morning Show and itsevolution, but you're the guy
you want to tell us how this allgot started.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
Absolutely, yeah, sure, so really, the idea
started when we were at the oldtech and we started to look at
the designs for the new studio,where it would be located.
Meeting with community, meetingthis was back with Charlie
Eisenreich and a whole team ofarchitects and designers that
(33:16):
were like, what is the dream, ifyou could have any resources
out there, what would it be?
And it's like, well, we need adesignated studio space.
And they were right on boardbecause it looked like it was
already in the plans and theideas and the location being
right in the central area of theschool, right above the
(33:38):
comments, located by our highvisibility.
High visibility.
You can't walk by that roomwithout seeing students with
cameras all the time, whether itbe photography or video.
The studio is enclosed, withoutwindows to the hallways, thank
goodness, but because you needthat privacy to get the stuff
done.
But looking at the history ofhow it all came together, going
(34:00):
back to that, really with theidea of doing this and having to
actually come through fruition,it's just awesome.
And once we got all theequipment in with the first year
at the school, we reallystruggled to figure it all out
at first.
(34:20):
You know and for any educatorgoing into the school year.
You're running on limited time,you're going 110% just trying
to get ready for that schoolyear and now they have a new
building, new studio, newequipment.
To try to figure it all out onyour own without being able to
get in there during the summeris a huge challenge.
So my idea was like well, whyhave the students wait for me to
(34:45):
figure this stuff out?
Let's figure it out together,let's go in and just figure it
out together.
So we were hooking up equipmentand we were just playing around
and I did that with my videoclasses, with some of my
photography classes and justgetting everything to work and
get and start the ideas flowing.
So the idea for the TechMorning Show really started
(35:08):
years before but we didn't getit going until halfway through
the first year in the new TechHigh School.
And that new crew, that firstcrew, was absolutely amazing and
it was the right people to justcome in and figure it out.
Speaker 1 (35:25):
And I think Sam Sam said one of the original
students was her sister, correct?
Speaker 2 (35:30):
Yeah, samiro is one of her, since she has a couple
older sisters and Samiro is heroldest sister that was in there
the first year with Winston.
Speaker 1 (35:38):
Oh sure, I remember Winston.
Speaker 2 (35:41):
And they just made it work.
The Tech Morning Show did runin the mornings.
We don't run in the morningsanymore, but we ran in the
mornings before school andreally tried to pull off
everything we needed to do inthat limited time.
And the reason we don't run inthe morning anymore is because
it just was limited time and ifyou have anybody that shows up
later you're waiting on somebodyyou can't extend the time.
(36:03):
First period is going to startat 8.30, when it's supposed to,
so we can't extend into theschool day.
But when we do it after schooland we do a lot of segments
throughout the week here andthere to put it all together,
then it just really, it reallyworks.
If we need to go beyond time,we can, and some of the students
will take the work with themand they'll work throughout the
(36:24):
night.
We have deadlines that theyhave to turn in their segments.
They're able to edit from homewith all our cloud-based
software that the district hasprovided us and the Chromebooks,
and so they're able to work intheir in whatever environment
they want to work in when itcomes post-filming time.
Speaker 1 (36:40):
So it really evolved from the kernel of idea.
Out of necessity it evolved,and for the better, is what I
hear you saying Absolutely.
Because it gives them moreopportunity to develop
storylines and to spend the timethat they need to, that's on an
interop day, yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:58):
And you hear of all these good stories that come out
of COVID phase, when we weregoing through distance learning
and we were going through ahybrid, and the positive
trade-off to all that is we hadto function from everywhere.
We couldn't rely on just usingthe studio.
So students had to have theirown ways of setting up their own
(37:20):
green screen, set up their ownchroma key, editing on their own
, having their own resources.
And they did it and they did it, they did it and we did it
completely separate, and then wedid it in the hybrid phase.
And now we're doing it still inlike a hybrid phase, because
we're filming what we can wheneverybody's there, but also
there are multiple students thatare doing things on their own,
(37:41):
separately, on their own time.
Whether that time is 11 o'clockat night, whether that time is
on a Saturday afternoon, they'regetting it done on their own
time, because most of thestudents that are involved in
the show are involved ineverything.
Sure, that's how they're wired.
They want to be part of theshow, but they're part of
(38:01):
student council, they're part ofdifferent sports, they're part
of different activities, and Idon't want to push them away and
be like, no, you'd have to behere every time we meet because
we wouldn't have a show if thatwas the case.
We've really been able tofunction with flexibility and
just be able to do what we can.
Students that are notnecessarily part of the crew
(38:26):
part of throughout the year.
I have students come to me fromthe hallway and be like, oh, can
I be on the show?
Absolutely, you can be on theshow.
Do I have to come in afterschool?
Well, that's ideal.
But what works for you?
Well, can I come in duringlunch?
Sure, come in during lunch,bring your lunch in.
What are you going to do?
I don't know.
I would like to do a gamereview or something.
Yeah, sure, do a game review.
(38:47):
And then we start working itout and if we flop, we flop, you
know, and it happens.
It happens a lot where studentshave dreams of I want to do
this and can I do this for theshow?
Sure, let's do it, give it atry, and we fall flat on our
face and it's like, okay, whatcan we do different?
Because I don't want to holdtheir hands through all this.
I want to give them as muchpower as possible and we have
(39:09):
multiple projects that have beenvery successful Zam Zam's
project with the soccerdocumentary.
Yeah, she talked about that yeahshe had this big dream and I
said, okay, go for it.
And she was like okay, well,where do I start?
Grab a camera, carry it andrecord everything.
And she did that for fourmonths, starting in August at
(39:34):
5.30 in the morning, getting outto the fields with the boys
when they had practice, becauseit was too hot in the daylight
and so they started practicingearly, early mornings.
That's in the documentary andyou see the film footage and so
you know, it's those types ofprojects that I feel are going
to get the students further inlife, no matter what field they
go into, when they're in controlof it.
(39:56):
When they fail, they just haveto overcome it if they want to
continue and they do, and I hopethat they fail.
I hope that they fail atcertain points to learn from
those experiences and to getbetter.
Yeah, it's kind of like theengineering design process,
where you're constantlyredesigning it over and over
again to get better and betterand better, whatever that
(40:17):
technology is.
That's what we're doing withour projects we're going back
and we're doing it again.
Speaker 1 (40:21):
You know, one of the things that we talked about was
how unique this opportunity is,that not all students get a
chance to do this.
Can you expand on that a littlebit?
Speaker 2 (40:37):
It's something really cool, really unique.
It's great for the students,but it's also great for myself
to be able to get involved in itand have the opportunity to,
because not every educator hasthat opportunity, and also for
our community, to, you know, ourstaff, our students.
If there's certain things thatthey want to get out there and
(40:57):
get on the show, they can do it.
You know it's like all right,yeah, national Arts Study.
They want to come in and do anannouncement?
Yep, they come in, they'reready to go and they do it.
They might not have the editingskills and stuff, but I'll show
them right in front of them.
Here's what, here's what we do.
Maybe next time you can do it.
Maybe next time you edit itThey'll come in with a script
and everything.
But I would like them to seethe whole process because, as
(41:20):
you know, in the media field,most of the hours are spent
behind the scenes on everyproject.
Not when you're on camera or onair or you know.
It's really the magic thathappens behind the scenes that
makes it work.
Speaker 1 (41:35):
We talked about challenges too, and they all
agreed.
Everybody talked about editingand how difficult it can be and
how time consuming, and I can'tremember who but one of them
mentioned and it gets boring.
You know, there's this hugepart of the process that's just
getting the work done.
Speaker 5 (41:56):
Correct.
Speaker 1 (41:56):
And one of the things that I asked them because,
besides seeing it's challengingthey all said how important it
was that they learned that skillthat they know.
And they know that skill no,even if it was difficult,
they've got it.
And so I asked them.
I said you know, with thisunique opportunity and all the
skills that you've learned, areyou going into broadcast
(42:18):
journalism?
And nope, none of them.
But you know what they said?
It doesn't matter, becausethere's not a job that you do
that we can't bring this skillinto it.
The medical field has videotechnology.
It was incredible to hear themput those pieces together and
(42:38):
say, yeah, everything I'mlearning in this really unique
environment is going to betransferable somewhere else.
Speaker 2 (42:45):
And the soft skills that they're learning from it.
You just hear so much aboutthis generation of how they're
always late and they're quittingon the job and you hear all
this negative stuff.
But it's not the entiregeneration, and these girls are
proof of that, because Zam Zam'sproject was not a class project
.
It was not a tech morning showproject.
(43:08):
It was a Zam Zam project.
It was hours of work that shebrought upon herself because she
was motivated to do it.
And isn't that what it's allabout?
That's what it's all about isfinding those connections.
What is going to inspire thatstudent to gain all these other
(43:29):
skills we need through whateverthey're motivated with.
Romaria did a boxing video,went down to downtown St Cloud,
downtown boxing, and filmed oneof our other students who is
very inspired and motivated withboxing, and both of them worked
on that, and that was aclassroom project that they
worked on.
Romaria really wanted to dosomething unique and develop
(43:54):
something that has not beendeveloped before.
And then we had Isaac that wasin class that is in the boxing,
and he was in the video classand he didn't have any idea of
what he wanted to do as aproject, and so they were
sitting next to each other, noteven knowing each other, and we
just made together.
Okay, you're driven, romaria,you want to really put some
(44:17):
effort into this huge project.
And Isaac, you're thinkingabout boxing after school and
that's all you're thinking aboutright now.
Why don't you blend this into aproject?
And Romaria went to the gym andfilmed and they turned it into
a sport type video that is alsocommercial for the St Cloud, the
studio.
(44:37):
Yeah, for the St Cloud downtownboxing.
And then and it's just a greatdemonstration of what skills we
hope that they will get out ofthe class, and sometimes it
takes a whole trimester,sometimes it takes a project
that they're motivated in.
And our third lady, uma, youknow, she just she just got
pulled in by Zam Zam into thesoccer documentary and is
(45:02):
amazing.
Speaker 1 (45:02):
She's all in.
Speaker 2 (45:03):
She will go all in, no matter what it is.
She's my go to for, like, canyou help with this?
We need somebody to go takesome pictures in the auditorium
today for for this project, orgo take some video over.
Yep, yep, yep, I'll be thereand and she's there and she'll
do it, and she'll deliver everysingle time, no matter what else
is on her plate.
(45:23):
And so, looking at the threeladies that you had here are
just wonderful examples, justamazing Of what we are capable
of, what every single student iscapable of doing with the
resources we have in ourdistrict.
It's just you just have to findthe connection.
You have to find what is thespark, what is going to get them
to be motivated to enough tofollow through.
(45:48):
And I was just so thrilled, youknow, with what.
They completed it.
And I tell Zam Zam, I said,because she was like, you didn't
think I was going to be able topull it off, and I said, with
the time frame, you are exactlyright.
I did not think you were goingto be able to pull it off,
because that is a huge projectthat you had to accomplish and
the goal was to complete itbefore the end of 2023.
(46:10):
And you did it and that's whatmakes me so proud of you.
Because did I think you werecapable of pulling it off?
Yes, but within the time frame?
No, because that is so muchwork behind the scenes with
editing and for Uma and Zam topull in all the players that
they did, and coaches to film inthe studio, again on their own
(46:34):
time yeah, during lunch periods,during tiger time.
Every single tiger time forfive weeks was spent doing those
interviews and editing and itwas just.
You know, I'm just blown awaybecause, again, it's not a class
project.
It's not.
It's not for a grade.
Speaker 4 (46:52):
You know so many students say is this going to be
graded.
Speaker 2 (46:57):
Here's the opposite.
They knew this is not going tobe graded.
This was assigned to them.
They just they just brought itupon themselves, and that's that
is for any educator.
That is the one thing you wouldhope for every student that you
have, but if you just have one,do it in your entire lifetime.
(47:19):
You feel successful, and sothey just.
They motivate me more than youknow.
Speaker 1 (47:25):
They ever once before .
Yeah, yeah and so rewarding.
Yeah, absolutely.
Do you have a great podcastidea?
Submit your idea tocommunications at ISD742.org and
thank you for listening to 742Coffee Cast, the best place to
stay informed and be inspired bySt Cloud Area School District.
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