Students go Live On ‘Wake-Up Winthrop

The students and teachers at Winthrop High School have a new way of getting their news. Every Friday morning at 8 a.m., “Wake Up Winthrop” is aired and viewed in most classrooms, complete with student interviews and weekly updates.

The 10-minute program is produced and edited by students in Brian Donnelly’s Digital Media class and designed to give interested students hands-on experience in television production. The students take on the various roles needed to execute a polished finished product and have the opportunity to work on a variety of different tasks amongst the many roles including: on-air talent, sports reporter, field reporter, editor, program director, script writer and producer.

“I feel like a lot of the students really love what they are doing in the class,” said Connor Clarke, veteran digital media student who prefers behind-the-scenes work. “We get to pick a topic and project that interests us so that makes it fun.”

Senior, Mike McCone, finds the hands-on experience extremely beneficial and feels that it will give him an advantage in college, where he plans to major in television production.

“We get to come up with ideas and we spend a good amount of time in brainstorming sessions,” McCone said.

The class has been on the schedule for three years, starting out at the old high school, and expanding when the new school opened its doors, offering more technology. Each week, the news program covers one academic story, one sports story for both boys’ and girls’ teams, and one story on extracurricular activities.

 â€œThe students are using the technology that is available in the school and they are going wild with it,” said Donnelly. “It’s really exciting to see.”

Donnelly hopes that the program will continue to grow and he believes that the knowledge the students gain from using Adobe Premier Pro and Photoshop, will be expertise that they can take with them through life. “Wake Up Winthrop” can be viewed on YouTube for those who don’t have the opportunity to watch it in the classrooms.