BCTV puts middle schoolers in action

 

Last updated 4/25/2017 at Noon

Cutline: Students Caden Shaw, left, Felicity Matthews, Shay Fredeck, Chloe Huff and Bailee Dorman work under the direction of teacher Bryan Bozman to create a video for their BCTV class at Bridge City Middle School.

For The Record

You don’t have to see many clips of Felicity Matthews in her Supergirl cape to tell she’s a star.

But Noah Story will sneak up on you.

And so did a little project they’re calling Middle School BCTV in the Bridge City schools.

More than 600 sixth- through eighth-graders can’t get enough.

“This is probably the best class in school,” says Parker Ellis, “because everybody wants to be in it.”

Ellis, Matthews and Story make up one third of the students in Bryan Bozman’s class. Chloe Huff, Caden Shaw, Veronica Sanchez, Shay Fredeck and Bailee Dorman are others in the elective class for eighth-graders only.

Using nothing more advanced than iPads and the cameras on their own phones, the students prepare short videos that are regularly shown in all the Bridge City Middle School classrooms.

They started with morning newscasts. Now the videos air in the afternoons. And lately they’ve been working on a legacy project – a series of tutorials intended to show next year’s sixth-graders the way students should behave.

The latest one is entitled “Hallway Expectations” and features a Lion King theme. Bozman’s students write, produce, direct, record and edit the 4- to 5-minute videos. And they’ll have “extras” appearing as well.

Matthews appeared as the voice of reason – a superhero with a Supergirl cape, actually – in early videos.

After rowdy students displayed how NOT to do it, she entered to theme music and straightened everybody out.

But there are roles for everybody.

“I enjoyed making the videos,” said Huff, who does a fair bit of editing, creates new music with an app and makes frequent on-camera appearances.

Sanchez enjoys writing and, as it turns out, coming into her own through the class.

“I was really quiet at school,” she said moments after joining Huff and Matthews in an appearance before a recent school board meeting.

“A lot of people didn’t know me. It [the BCTV class] got me out there. Other kids ask me about it. They want to try.”

Story is the class “weatherman.” He puts together his reports with a quick glance at his iPhone.

“He’s the one who takes the least takes to get it right,” Bozman says of Story.

“Now our ladies who do the announcements, we won’t talk about how long they take. Shay and Chloe laugh too much.”

Middle School BCTV was just an idea last spring, when its first class of students signed up.

“At the start of class last summer, we all sat down and talked about where we wanted it to go, what it might look like,” Bozman said.

“We knew the first year was going to be a growing deal, that it would change as we found out what we could do and what we couldn’t.”

The classes first three videos were rejected by principal Lydia Gonzales-Burton.

“On the first ones, the volume was not right. You couldn’t see people very well,” Bozman recalls. “They have gotten much better.”

Soon, it’ll be back to drawing board.

The students will be moving on to Bridge City High School, where a BCTV class has been around for a while.

And Middle School BCTV will have a brand new cast.

 

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