The Cupertino Courier
Cover Story
Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
News Maker: First-grader Justin Nguyen (left) is interviewed during recess by Dilworth Dragon TV news anchor Aaron Simonson.
News Flash
Young broadcasters cover the school beat
By Erin Hussey
Move over NBC 11, there's a new television news crew in town--Dilworth Dragon Television (DDTV).
They're smart, savvy and cover the latest, breaking news. And they're all fifth-grade students.
"It's a unique opportunity," says anchor Eric Wu.
"And it's fun to do something like the news," adds Nancy Zhon, camera operator.
The closed circuit TV program, which airs monthly and is around 20 minutes long, was started eight years ago by teachers Kathleen Erikson and Nancy Augason.
"Cynthia Nichols, the leader of technology development for the Cupertino Union Elementary School District, wanted to show us how to use a program called Avid Camera to edit and make films," recalls Erikson, a second-grade teacher at Dilworth who was named the district's Teacher of the Year in 2006.
"The first two or three years we worked with just two fifth-graders. Then, as we got better at what we were doing, we started to include more kids until we reached the 12 we currently use."
Each year, almost every fifth-grade student puts his or her name in a drawing in hopes of being selected as an anchor or cameraperson. The 12 chosen are then divided into two teams of three boys and three girls. Each team, which consists of four designated anchors and two camera operators, works for half of the school year.
"I feel guilty because there is no way we can include all of them," says Erikson. "At this point every student in our school has seen DDTV since kindergarten, and they are all really jazzed about it."
Within a year after Erikson and Augason learned Avid Camera and started using it to produce DDTV, iMovie was introduced.
"The first time we used it, we hated it because we were already used to something else," Erikson remembers. "But we kept doing it and now it's really easy."
While Erikson does most of the final editing and imports the music, the students are responsible for filming, coming up with catchy introductions and conducting interviews.
"We usually ask about current events or sometimes it's completely random like "'Do you like real cheese?" says anchor Aaron Simonson with a laugh. In addition to covering school events such as the Lunar New Year, the 100th day of school, science fairs and spirit days, the DDTV crew also comes up with a different question of the month.
Past questions have included, "What is your favorite hot lunch?" "What did you do over the winter break?" and "What do you think Mrs. Wong should name her baby?"
In April the crew raced around the playground during morning recess asking, "What would you do if you were the principal?"
Within minutes of the DDTV crew's first interview, it was surrounded by a swarm of students, who had dropped their dodge balls and paused games of freeze tag for a shot at 10 seconds of notoriety.
"I would make the water in the bathroom cold in the summer and hot in the winter," says Sara Dyslin, a fifth-grader, her lips almost touching the microphone held by anchor Julia Park.
"Make sure you look into the camera," reminds anchor Miranda Erikson, who is standing behind camera operator Ricky Patton.
Before the recess bell rings, the crew has completed 15 interviews and is now ready to head into the "studio" (aka Erikson's classroom) to put the final touches on this month's broadcast.
"You don't need to practice, right?" asks Erikson. "You know what to do on this one?"
The four anchors shake their heads and wait for the signal from Nancy.
"Welcome to DDTV!" they say in unison. They then take turns introducing themselves.
"I'm Miranda."
"I'm Eric."
"I'm Aaron."
"I'm Julia."
As Nancy clicks off the camera and hands it to Ricky, Miranda and Julia depart from the set, leaving Aaron and Eric to introduce and comment on the first set of pre-recorded event clips.
"Gentlemen, you need to introduce winter clothes day," directs Erikson.
Within seconds Eric comes up with a clever line. "People wore cool clothes on winter clothes day," he says.
Co-anchor Aaron follows with the line, "Brrr, it looked cold outside." And just like the professionals, both boys flash practiced smiles at the camera.
"When they start out in the beginning, they don't know how to use a camera or how to use a loud speaking voice," says Erikson. "But once they get the idea that this is going to be broadcast and people are going to see it, they start talking up, standing up straight and coming up with little broadcast voices. It's fun to see the progression."
When Miranda and Julia take the set, the tone becomes slightly more serious.
"Smile, Julia," instructs Aaron. Although Julia looks somewhat annoyed by the comment, she cracks a smile.
"Smile naturally," adds Eric. "It's got to be natural."
Erikson interrupts and reminds the boys their comments will be caught on camera and ruin the broadcast if they continue.
With two minutes before recess is over, they conclude the taping.
"That's it for DDTV," the anchors sign off in unison.
Being a part of DDTV is more than an opportunity for a selected number of students to become well-known faces on the Dilworth campus. It's an integral part of the children's education at Dilworth, according to principal Randy Karel.
"It's a wonderful opportunity for a group of students to learn the whole process of producing and editing, but it also allows the rest of the student body to revisit all the essential learning and activities that take place at the school," says Karel, who, like her students, looks forward to watching the program each month.
"It shows them that there is something out there that they might want to pursue as they go forward in their education, either as a vocation or career," says Karel.
Erikson agrees, but admits that when she first started DDTV eight years ago, she never thought it would become as popular and successful as it is.
"I didn't think I would be doing for this long," she says. "But at this point I can't imagine giving it up. I love it."
