Full Name
Michael Reeves
Where (school and city) do you teach?
James Bowie High School, Austin
How many years have you been advising publications?
21
How many students are involved in your media program at your school?
150
Describe your space for us.
I have a large classroom with one closed work space, and two storage rooms. This is a new room for me that I have been in for two years prior. It is almost twice as big as my previous room and the change has positively benefitted my program. The closed workroom has enabled my podcast teams to create more content, and we now have a room where we can close the door and conduct private interviews. We have also used that room to shoot video content for the website in a studio-style setting. We doubled our storage space which means I have lots of room for our morgue, camera storage, equipment storage as well as office supplies and other miscellaneous things. With twice as much space in the room itself, we have been able to create a larger seating area for our couches and comfortable chairs, as well as a large conference room table configuration where various groups can meet to work on a variety of things. We can work on laptops or design in analog with paper and pens. This workspace has made planning so much easier. We also have two more useful things. First, there is a long flat work surface across the back of the length of the room. This is so useful for students to plan, for me to use our laminator and cutters. We also have a computer with a printer specifically for student use. Students have used this workspace every day since we moved. We also have a sink and a paper towel dispenser. This has made work nights and days so much better when we have food in the room. Finally, we have four large dry erase boards. We use these all the time for planning, calendars, ladder, story assignments and arts/graphics assignments. We have installed two more smaller whiteboards for the website team to use for video planning and our social media calendar and assignments. And we still have room for all the awards we want to hang up each year. This has been a great move for the program and we are super lucky to have the space we do.
What do you think are some of the benefits of the workspace you all have?
Collaboration for the kids. When they can work together, the entire program benefits. And to have specific areas and specific physical areas of the room, and to plan makes this so powerful. It also gives me peace of mind to know that the majority of our expensive equipment is behind locked doors most of the time. I also love that we have so many planing boards. We do a lot of things electronically, but I think it is still very important to have physical reminders on whiteboards of their obligations. We hang up the newspaper pages every issue and I print pages as they are producing them so we can see what the paper looks like from page to page before and through the printing process. This helps us tremendously.
What do your students like the most about the workspace you have?
The kids love the couch seating area. They also like the speakers I have placed up high in the eaves so we can have music throughout the room. The closed work room is also a big plus for us and the kids use it all the time.
What computer programs and/or apps are your staff members using on a regular basis?
We have a full Mac lab and anticipate a refresh this year!! We use Adobe products, but I have students using a variety of programs to create content.
What tech equipment are your students using on a daily basis?
Computers, cameras, tablets, iPads, and more are all used by my kids daily.
Aside from the computers and the program, what are one or two pieces of equipment that you have that you think other programs should have?
I use the laminator all the time, it is a cheap piece of equipment that I think every teacher should have. I also think we invested wisely in the Rodecaster Pro we purchased for podcasting. Kids use it all the time, and we can use the same equipment for other things. It was almost $2000, but it was money well spent.
How is your workspace funded?
We are a CTE program, so we get most of our funding for equipment there. We do have an activities account where ad sales and donations are held. We do bring in a nice amount there. We also have a print budget from our district that covers the six issues we print a year. We are in a very lucky situation, and we know it. If they ever cut that budget, we would have to work harder to produce print products, but we have plans around that.
Do you have anything on your wishlist for your space? If so, what are you looking for and why?
We need more video and sound equipment. One piece of equipment I am really intrigued by right now is an external camera that goes on top of a digital camera for video production. My students have been asking for one and I think we are going to give it a try this year. We also want more wireless mics from DJI. And maybe a drone!!
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