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.
Have a great podcast idea? Submit your idea to communications@isd742.org
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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.
Have a great podcast idea? Submit your idea to communications@isd742.org
Subscribe and thanks for listening!
The 742 Coffee Cast is your ultimate destination for insightful conversations, thought-provoking ideas and innovative strategies in St Cloud Area School District. Your host is Director of Community Engagement and Communications, tammy Dilan. Grab a cup of coffee and join us. Welcome to Episode 2 of the 742 Coffee Cast. Our guests today are three amazing students from Tech High School Zamzam Hashi, rameria Ellis and Umeema Abdi. Thank you all for being here To begin today. Could you just introduce yourself, tell us what year you are in school and how long you've been working with the Tech Morning Show?
Speaker 3:Hi, I'm Zamzam. I'm a junior at St Cloud Tech. I've been with the Morning Show for about three years but I was just a little bit involved beforehand. My sister was a part of the crew that first created the Morning Show, so she's like alumni to the show and, yeah, I guess the second I got into high school she kind of told me if there was one club that you would want to join, it's the Morning Show, and took it from there. The rest is history.
Speaker 4:Hi, my name is Rameria Ellis. I am also a junior from Tech High School. I decided to join the Tech Morning Show because I always wanted to do something a little bit of similarity when I was younger. I wanted to be a person that did kind of like the morning type of thing. So I was like you know what might not just give it a try, and I've been enjoying it ever since.
Speaker 5:Hello, I'm Umea Abdi and I'm a junior at Tech High School and I've been doing the Morning Show. This is my first year and I really enjoy getting into like production and directing and I love like making little creative clips for school and I think the Morning Show is the perfect place to do that and I'm enjoying it so far.
Speaker 1:Wonderful. So who wants to kick us off by saying just telling us what is the Tech Morning Show?
Speaker 3:The Morning Show. It's a group of productions done by students. Dr Kyle is there to advise and to give us advice, but most of the work is done by us students. We take random projects. You know, it could be the magazine project, it could be a nonfiction project, it could be just like a daily report of the, the winter week or, you know, sports activities and stuff like that going on, but it's just the way for students who maybe want a career in video production one day. It's like their club. You know, you see other clubs out there, like there's MSA, there's GSA, there's also an art club. You know, there's all these clubs for kids to show what their passion is. So I think that the Morning Show is definitely just like a club to show kids' fashions. You know, it's something that intrigues them, it's something that they're interested in.
Speaker 5:One thing to add is the Morning Show. There's like a lot of diversity kids. There are kids from every background, kids who have like different interests, like robotics into writing or any other stuff they like or subjects, and I think that's a place, good place to come together and join our ideas and make little fun skits that the whole school can enjoy. And yeah, I really appreciate that.
Speaker 1:What's your process? So you actually have a studio at Tech? Right, yeah, we have like a studio, it's big it's.
Speaker 5: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 looks fantastic. Really professional, right it looks, and yeah the equipment we have and the cameras, the devices and then the setup is really your video, your?
Speaker 1:audio. So talk to me about actually the process. So a little bit we jumped ahead, but a little bit about how you choose the topics, who you choose to interview, how long does each show take? This is all the production stuff, but when do you actually drop an episode? Talk about all of that.
Speaker 5:Well, so usually I focus majority on hosting kind of from time to time. But in the beginning of our meets we usually have our meetings every Tuesday we usually start like putting points we want to talk about in our videos and like who wants to do what and then who wants to come and like record or set up or check the mic and stuff and who wants to also host, and usually we have like two people, two main hosts, talk about certain subjects. But it takes time and I think Doc has like this ability to be patient. He's very patient, he's like you know what you got this he's very supportive, I would say. And then hosting wise, it's fun talking about topics like school activities, like spirit weeks, homecoming, all these stuff that students out there might want to know about. And usually when posting, oh, somebody has to edit the videos. Has anybody done editing before?
Speaker 4:I do a lot of the editing. Sometimes I'm not really like a part of, like the morning show as much of now. I do enjoy editing. When I decided to do the morning show, I was like I want to dip my hands in everything. I've always been like that, so I did not want to change from just being like the editor backstage type of person to just being a person that's on the camera. I wanted to do to do it all.
Speaker 4:So with the editing process it's very tedious. I get kind of aggravated with it. Sometimes I'm like, oh my God, this software is not working with what I wanted to do. And then other times I just have to talk to Dr Kyle and he's like, okay, you can do this instead 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. We also discuss that in our meetings. We also discuss the type of type of look we want to go for and also we have free reign of that, as long as it's, of course, school appropriate. We also decide where to put like the editing process and where to put like the little details and all of that stuff, and then we also talk about that while we're filming. So then we all are on the same page.
Speaker 1:How many students are involved in the Tech Morning Show?
Speaker 5:This year we had like a big increase in the people who were there, especially like new kids coming from different schools Like me and Marmeria just transferred from other states. So it was like really nice to just dip in and like see how the morning show worked.
Speaker 3:I think I'm speaking mostly from like past experience, because this year I took on one of the biggest projects Tech Morning Show has ever seen. Since the beginning of the school year, Since the middle of August, I've been working on a soccer documentary and you know that finally dropped. So it's like now I'm kind of getting back into the basic whole. Get in the studio, do a sports report, do you know? Like a whole bunch of other stuff.
Speaker 1: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 Tech Morning Show? Everyone, all Tech students.
Speaker 3:I think that the morning show, although, like, we do put like a really big push out there, you know our views do they're not what we want them to be. You know we want higher numbers, of course, and we're doing everything in our power to advertise it as much as we can. But I think that maybe if we could make a shift in our schedule and play in an advisory or if we could, you know, add something in there where it's like kids can come during tiger time to come watch it at like a specific place, our main goal is to get it out to everybody, the whole, you know tech community, parents, family, guardians, everybody can watch it. You know that's that's our mission, that's our goal, because the information we have on there is predominantly surrounded about school information, like important information about, like upcoming events, you know, like a past events and stuff like that we have.
Speaker 5:Tuesday and we record and try to get as much footage and clips as we can editing done. I think it takes about two weeks to get the video out and we usually have a deadline. We're trying to push for it and we usually do make it. We're good on doing that, but other than that I feel like it's twice a month. It just depends on the month and the activities are happening during that month.
Speaker 1:And listening to the three of you. It sounds to me like there are all different types of skills that are needed for the Tech Morning Show. I heard we have acting, I heard we have editing, I heard we had the broadcast hosting, but obviously they're scripting to be done too, which must be part of your Tuesday meetings.
Speaker 5:So are scripting. So for me I'm the host, random. I'm like Doc just stands there and I'm in the host chair just looking straight at him and I'm like, okay, doc, throw it at me. It takes me about 30 minutes. And I'm like, what did you just say? Can you repeat yourself right now, because I don't know what you're saying. And then we do it like, oh, but it 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 saying is not scripted, it's all natural.
Speaker 1:Now, zam Zam, you just completed a big project. That's a soccer documentary that could not have been random, that had to have been scripted. Talk to me about this documentary.
Speaker 3:In the beginning I think it was back in 2023, probably like April 2023. The year prior I did not really have the best experience with the soccer team. It was my first year managing. You know, I was joking around with the head coach, dan Stodoro, and he was kind of like, yeah, you're coming back next year, right, we have so much more work for you. And I was like, oh, I'm not coming back next year. But he just he politely asked me to like come to one, you know, summer practice or whatever.
Speaker 3:And I, before even the summer practice, I was talking to Dr Kyle I was like I want to take on a big project before my high school years are like over, you know, like I want to take something huge on. He's like think about it, think it through. So then, over the summer, when I went to summer practice, and it was just a completely different vibe, it was completely different feel and I was like, okay, cool, you know, this team is actually a team that I can work with and this is a team that if I'm willing to give 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 of the documentary was just a lot to take in. I I would never want to put my hard work, sweat and tears into something that goes unappreciated or something that people like we just didn't get along. You know, I guess I brought it up to Dr Kyle in August. I saw him, I sent him a remind message. I was like, hey, I have an idea. And he's like let's hear it. And I was like I want to do a documentary and he's like okay. And I was like this is the part where you give me advice. Dr Kyle was going on. He's like figure your storyline out. You know, figure out a whole bunch of these things. But me I have my own way of doing things. I'm definitely not a rule follower at all and I think that's why last week was the most dangerous week ever for this documentary. But it was like I don't know how to explain it. But it definitely wasn't scripted. Technically it was scripted because you know everything had a timeline and stuff like that. But at the same time I don't think it was scripted because this is a story that I never knew was going to happen.
Speaker 3:I was thinking tech boy soccer is coming off of five years of winning a section championship. They've been to state five years in a row and out of nowhere we're going to state again, but we're going into state with the worst record ever. So nobody's expecting us to go into state. And then I don't know where we beat clokate again in the quarter state quarter finals. And then I don't know where we're playing in US Bank, and I'm just sitting there and I'm like I'm so thankful that I chose this year to film a documentary and I didn't wait for my senior year. But then season did end, we took fourth in state and the process of editing begun the day that the soccer season did end. It took a lot of hard work, sweat and tears for us to get to this point with the soccer documentary. Now that it's over, it's really sad. I kind of miss the late nights staying up wondering if it's worth it.
Speaker 5:When I first got into the story I thought it was such a beautiful story to tell. Like the way she doesn't talks about it, she talks about it like with a passion. I think she talks about like her, like filming the whole documentary, the whole like process is like a passion. I'm like that's awesome to see. I think you can see that in like different individuals in the morning show who care about what they do and I think, if I think it's a very important element and I think editing wise, it was terrible, it was hard. I the amount of time she went to cry and I went to cry with her. It was, it was a lot, but I think, down to it, she made it, she made it, she did it yeah we had like everything done.
Speaker 3:It was just we were having such a difficult time with like cutting interviews and then putting interviews into place and having these audios go over the interviews and, like I'm, I never edit. That's one thing about me that this project has taught me the hard way is you need to get your hands dirty for you to get the outcome that you want.
Speaker 1:And that's a question that I have and it sounds like it might be similar for all three. But pipe up what's the hardest part? I've heard editing quite often.
Speaker 5:I think the hard part is like when it's repetitive, when it gets so weird, like you say, oh my God, I don't know what story to tell, I don't know what's going on and I lose, like the focus of the main objection. I'm just like what's going on and I feel like you have to have the willpower to continue, like see it through the point where you see the outcome. Because you want to see the outcome, I feel like the outcome is worth it. It's always worth it, because when you see a production come together and you saw it from the beginning, always towards the end it's like oh my God, this is such an incredible process, even though it has its hard times, for sure.
Speaker 4: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 a manager for basketball I told him, hey, I'm not going to be able to do this for the time being. He was like I'm going to send you up for my advanced videography class and I said, okay, sir, okay, didn't believe him and then I saw it on my schedule. I was like, okay, so when you guys talk about editing, I want to face you guys for this. When you guys talk about editing and especially you, when I saw that video, I was glued. I was glued.
Speaker 4:I could not stop looking at that documentary and then when I saw that Umea was a part of it, first of all I want to give you your kudos, because being a manager, then also doing other things for the school and then also doing this documentary, I don't know how she could do it. Oh my God, I would lose it because I'd be so sad. I would be like I cannot do this anymore, like I just I need a break, I need a nap Like that would be me. You guys were amazing. Like that was really good.
Speaker 5:Watching Zimzim go through all the stadium. She was going through, I think, like stages every year. I was there and I was I was helping with editing and writing the story and I was like you got a girl, like you got this, and she knew what she was doing. I just took her a while to get there. 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. She's like you know, the last week pulled up, you know what I got to get to it right now and she got to it.
Speaker 1:So I have to ask this question because the process you've done such a great job of talking about the process from beginning, middle and end what the challenge is, what the passion is. So the obvious question is are any of you, or are all of you, thinking that you're experienced with the tech morning show could lead to a career? Are you thinking about journalism or broadcasting or anything along those lines?
Speaker 3: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 want to become when you leave high school, I'm kind of like oh, respiratory therapist. You know like I want to go into the medical field. But I feel like there's stuff in the medical field that includes videography. Videography, you know, there's like those who record surgeries. However, I could see myself going into video production if all doesn't work out, but I think that it's honestly just a really great skill to have in general. You know, like putting videos together, being able to edit all of it and to make a production at the end of it. I'm a recipient for the Upper Midwestern Emmys and it's like knowing that my video got awarded for being a really good music video. I guess it gives you a sense of comfort knowing that you have a skill that you can rely on later on in life.
Speaker 1:And the Tech Morning Show has one more than one Emmy, correct? Yes, what does that feel like? A high school production gets Emmy awards?
Speaker 3:Talk to me about this, it's called a crystal pillar for high school productions and college productions. However, if you do go to nationals and you win nationals, then I think they give you a full on Emmy award. But it's through the Emmy academies it's really good. Last year I went and I won, and then the year before that I believe there's a video that I was involved in that I also won.
Speaker 3:However, I wasn't really as involved in the morning shows I was last year than I was my freshman year but it's one of the best feelings in the world, like walking up on that stage giving a speech, you know, like sitting there and actually knowing hey, I went through the process of struggle for and my process is being rewarded, and now you're a national qualifier. Everybody who wins in their region they get qualified for nationals. So it's like now you just got to hope, pray and put all your faith in being a national finalist and stuff like that, being a part of a crew that is so talented and it shows based off of like numbers. Just our awards Freshman year, my sophomore year, I don't remember which, but we brought home the most Emmy awards in high school. Like history and like state history, it's a nice flex to have, honestly to be like.
Speaker 3:I would say so I have a crystal pillar and they're like, oh, what's that? And I'm like the Emmy awards.
Speaker 1:You know I'm listening to you talk about this experience and you went to competition. You won, you had challenges, you had passion. I mean it sounds like other extracurriculars, right, like it sounds like it could be soccer, right, could be basketball or something else. How is this experience? Both alike and not like any other extracurricular you could be involved in oh my gosh.
Speaker 4:Okay, as I'm going to speak from like a first time manager aspect, also with boys basketball 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 for something that other people would find weird and like, and it's just like people would think that it's for like boys to be like into something like this and to have like three girls.
Speaker 1:I do want to point out that I have three young women in front of me.
Speaker 4:Yeah. Yeah, it's nice to like feel like we're doing this for the school, but we're also doing it for ourselves for later on in life, especially like when you were talking about is this something that we want to do in the future? I love dipping my toes in different things, and this was a learning experience to dip my toes into something that I did not know anything about, and that's why I really do appreciate Sam. Sam I'm like she was my idol without even knowing it.
Speaker 5:When I first saw her walk in like I remember our first meeting you were both there and she walked in and she was holding a camera. She was trying to upload some stuff, he's like, and that's what she was like. Oh yeah, she's working on documenting.
Speaker 3:She's. It's good having, you know, this type of reputation with the morning show and it's good to know that I at least have you know, because I always, I always saw my work as going, you know, kind of unnoticed, like I'm there just to be there. I didn't see myself, as you know, helping people out or being somebody that people looked up to, up until probably this year when I like met Umayma or whatever, and she was just always like dude, like you do so good 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.
Speaker 3:I want to be the best version of myself, knowing that they can also be the best version of themselves when they're with me and without me. And it's like being in a group with a lot of people who are new to the morning show. Um, it's, it's like a learning curve almost, because it's like the other day we were filming an episode and I got paired up I don't do sports reports with anybody else but myself Like that's like my territory. I'm very protective over sports reports. It's not that I do like it at first. It's just like a learning curve. It also kind of taught me it's like you can't have everything that you want you know like it can teach you valuable life lessons and it's just good having like knowing that there are people who genuinely see me as like something or someone to look up to.
Speaker 1:Do you get recognized in the halls? Do people?
Speaker 5: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 and they're oh yeah, oh yeah, that girl from the morning show. I'm like huh. But I think it's fun getting the recognition because then you feel like, oh, like somebody's watching, there's an audience watching my like what I did or what I put my effort into, and I feel so rewarding. But I think but majority of the people that come up to me are very sweet. The students who watch the morning 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 to like hear people watch our production and be like hey, I want to be a part of it.
Speaker 1:What advice would you have if someone showed interest or was just curious, like Rumira? You said oh, I didn't know that I would be interested in this, but I went for it. What advice would you have for someone who is like well, I don't know about that?
Speaker 4:Honestly, the advice that I give anyone when they like, are unsure about anything and I work, and I still give the same advice to people that come into the store that I work at just do it. Just do it, because exactly at the end of the day, you won't know until you try. You don't want to end not knowing what could have been there. Something my parents always say is there is no what ifs in life. You have to at least try everything to know, if you even like it. And if you can do that, then what are you doing? What are you doing? You're wasting a good hobby.
Speaker 3:I think a piece of advice that I'd also give just to bounce off of her is you know it's the worst that can happen is you don't like it, the absolute worst that can occur, and you can always leave. We don't make you sign a contract, none of that. I remember my first day on the morning show. I show up on a Tuesday and they throw me on camera right away. No doubt there was no way, nothing. It was like I still remember the first episode. All I said was hi, I'm Zam Zam Hashi, and this is the Tech Morning Show.
Speaker 3:And they put it in. They literally put it in. And then the next one they gave me a much more difficult task, which was going and interviewing like really big basketball player at the time, and so I took all the tasks right here and I was like I got it. You know, like I think the morning show will give you a sense of determination, like you. They give you a tough task and you it's like it's not make it or break it, but at the same time it's almost like if I did that, then I feel like I can do more. So do you?
Speaker 1:feel like you have to have confidence to be part of this team, or do you learn confidence as you go?
Speaker 5:I think you learn confidence. All you need is courage. If you have courage to be there and be like, hey, I think if you have courage, you have confidence. I feel like if you're there and you're like, oh, I want to be a part of this, you're going to slowly. I think, whatever part position you are, whatever part you want to be involved in, you're going to slowly develop a confidence over time.
Speaker 3:Not everything is like on camera, like there's so much background work that goes into it. You could work lights, you could work microphones. You can do so much outside of the camera A very small fraction. I'm one of my favorite episodes out of from like my freshman years probably. We did a behind the scenes episode where we show all the work that goes on behind the scenes. You know, and like they turn, they're like what are you doing? Cause I'm filming. And then the other girl turns around and she's like but I'm filming it and it's like it just kept going in a circle. Yeah, I think that there's there's so much work behind the screen and you don't have to always be on camera and stuff like that. I think it's just if you're comfortable enough to be with a new group of people and to want to like start a big project or even a little project with them. But you have to have like a really good idea of what teamwork is, because that's all the morning shows about.
Speaker 4:It's about teamwork, I think also to piggyback off of them. I I would say that I learned confidence with the morning show because I also did somewhat of a big project with a boxing video that I did with a classmate, a fellow classmate, and I was so nervous on doing it because I've never edited by myself, never done it. So with the morning show being like kind of a hand in it, it gave me a little bit of confidence on like I can do this. I'm just scared to do it and I knew that. Dr Kyle, if I ever needed a thing, I can ask him. You just have to push yourself in order to gain the confidence and even if you aren't sure, there's so many people that can help you and you can never feel afraid to ask, asking is always going to be your best friend, especially if you don't know anything.
Speaker 1:And I feel like we just have got to talk about this. Dr Kyle, his name keeps coming up.
Speaker 3: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 is and he will put you in tough positions on purpose for you to either learn really hard lessons or for you to at least be able to know that you know there's someone always there for you. During this documentary I felt like I was kind of secluded in a way, like, yeah, I had support systems but he was like my go-to person with everything and he made it possible. But he's honestly just like one of the best advisors ever and I kudos to him. Honestly, he's just one of the one of the nicest teachers you'll ever meet.
Speaker 5:When I first met him I walked into first period and I think it was my first like interest in videography. That was the class and it was like my first ever period, my first ever class in high school. And I just walked in I was like so nervous and I just sat at my seat and he just came up. He's like presenting and introducing himself and he's like mentioning all these great things he's accomplished and he was so genuine and kind and when he was starting talking about hey, there's the morning show as an option but he was mentioning it I was like, oh my god, I might be interested.
Speaker 5:He was a cool person. He was a cool teacher and a good advisor, I think, and I feel like having him, with his characteristics and everything, just be there for us and support us through every stages of production, just being and even as our personal lives too. I feel like you can definitely, like Dumb Dumb said, we can definitely go to him for personal situations as well and I think if you feel stuck, especially if you're in the morning show, you can definitely go to him.
Speaker 1:What are some topics going forward that we can look forward to on the Tech Morning Show?
Speaker 4:You will have to just wait. I'm kidding, honestly, I like the teasers. I don't want to spoil anything. I don't like spoiling. No, honestly, I think they have really good ideas.
Speaker 1:That is pretty amazing that you've created something that all students in the high school are going to take a look at. How's that feel?
Speaker 3:Well, in short, I'm very excited that the school gets to see it. I think it's a story that everybody should hear and everybody should see. This year, actually, a lot of people riled around soccer. I've never seen it like this ever before. I think it's because we had a really big social media population now and the diversity on the team definitely had a lot to do with it. But I give credit to myself with the social media part because I ran every single team account. So if there's one person that got people there, it was me. You'll take credit. I do take credit.
Speaker 2:All right Well deserved Thank you.
Speaker 1:Do you feel that your experience in high school is unique because of the Tech Morning Show Like how many high school kids get to do this? Do you think?
Speaker 4:I think, as a military kid, being in a school like Tech High School, it really opened my eyes to the possibilities of what can become honestly, because even in the age of social media, now we have so many possibilities to gain so much experience and be whatever we want in life. It's absolutely crazy.
Speaker 1:Rameria, I know you don't want to be an editor, but what are your career aspirations?
Speaker 4:I want to be a criminal justice lawyer. Like Zam Zam said with her career aspirations, there is videography in everything that you do honestly.
Speaker 1:You've learned multi-skills and they're transferable. That's part of the lesson right. That's part of the value.
Speaker 5: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 has something to do with videography or directing, which I think. Doing those elements or doing those little parts and playing these roles in the morning show will teach you stuff. It will teach you things that will open your eyes. But for me, I want to go into either go to the medical field, like Zam Zam said, and I really think we all have different passions. I think when you come into the morning show, you have something in the back of your mind.
Speaker 3:I think that it's a really unique situation to be in, because I don't know many schools that have video production, like clubs and stuff like that, going around the privileges that we have at TechDog the privileges, opportunity. You bet Opportunity and privileges that we have at Tech is completely unmatched to other schools. I think that we should just be thankful that we do have a morning show and be thankful that we're able to have these stories to tell. It's a way to be thankful, in a way.
Speaker 1:I think that we should have a feed for the morning show right here into the district office.
Speaker 4:I do want to say that, although us three don't want to become anything that has to do with videography or video editing, I do want to say, especially from just listening to you guys and from my experience, anything that you do feeds into later careers and later options in life. Like Zam Zam was talking about how she normally does the sports, her allowing another person to also have a say into what they want to do within the Tech Morning Show allows her to have team building skills. You need team building skills. It works it works.
Speaker 1:This show wouldn't be possible without teamwork.
Speaker 3:Exactly Everything revolves around teamwork, Like no matter what happens with the morning show. It's a team of editors that work together to get it out there. It's a team of hosts that work together to get it out there.
Speaker 1:I just want to thank you all for being here today. What a delight, and I'm a big fan 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 I have a gift for you.
Speaker 3:Oh, I'm excited. Watch what we got right now. Oh my god, it's a coffee chat mug.
Speaker 1:Those are so cute 742 coffee chat mugs Nice.
Speaker 3:All right, look at this oh my god, can we come back? Are we allowed to come back and do a podcast episode with you again?
Speaker 1:You know, what I would love to have you back.
Speaker 5:I feel like we have a lot of things coming this morning show. There's always progression and we always have things like we have students who are smart and there's like multiple things that we want to do and we're going to make that a reality. We're going to, we're getting to it. So I hope you guys are excited for that.
Speaker 1:We are here now with Dr Matt Kyle at Tech High School. First of all, thanks for coming.
Speaker 2:No problem, tammy, I'm happy to be here. My name is Matthew Kyle and I am a teacher at Tech High School and I teach video productions, photography. I'm the advisor for the yearbook and I'm also the advisor for the Tech Morning Show. I'm also the advisor for robotics, and that doesn't seem to fit in there, but it's amazing that I have half of my robotics. Students are also part of the Tech Morning Show. I found a way to recruit from every look and cranny.
Speaker 1:Multitasking Both the students and you for recruiting. I want you to know that those three outstanding women have nothing but kudos for you. They are so appreciative, so grateful and really just so in awe of the coaching and the leadership that you've shown them. You're going to have to listen to the podcast because they are your biggest fans.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's amazing.
Speaker 1: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 success because they are so animated and have such great ideas and they play off each other so well. If you don't mind, they told me, from their point of view, the Tech Morning Show and its evolution, but you're the guy you want to tell us how this all got started.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, yeah, sure, so really, the idea started when we were at the old tech and we started to look at the designs for the new studio, where it would be located. Meeting with community, meeting this was back with Charlie Eisenreich and a whole team of architects and designers that were like, what is the dream, if you could have any resources out there, what would it be? And it's like, well, we need a designated studio space. And they were right on board because it looked like it was already in the plans and the ideas and the location being right in the central area of the school, right above the comments, located by our high visibility. High visibility.
Speaker 2:You can't walk by that room without seeing students with cameras all the time, whether it be photography or video. The studio is enclosed, without windows to the hallways, thank goodness, but because you need that privacy to get the stuff done. But looking at the history of how it all came together, going back to that, really with the idea of doing this and having to actually come through fruition, it's just awesome. And once we got all the equipment in with the first year at the school, we really struggled to figure it all out at first.
Speaker 2:You know and for any educator going into the school year. You're running on limited time, you're going 110% just trying to get ready for that school year and now they have a new building, new studio, new equipment. To try to figure it all out on your own without being able to get in there during the summer is a huge challenge. So my idea was like well, why have the students wait for me to 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 equipment and we were just playing around and I did that with my video classes, with some of my photography classes and just getting everything to work and get and start the ideas flowing. So the idea for the Tech Morning Show really started years before but we didn't get it going until halfway through the first year in the new Tech High School. And that new crew, that first crew, was absolutely amazing and it was the right people to just come in and figure it out.
Speaker 1:And I think Sam Sam said one of the original students was her sister, correct?
Speaker 2:Yeah, samiro is one of her, since she has a couple older sisters and Samiro is her oldest sister that was in there the first year with Winston.
Speaker 1:Oh sure, I remember Winston.
Speaker 2:And they just made it work. The Tech Morning Show did run in the mornings. We don't run in the mornings anymore, but we ran in the mornings before school and really tried to pull off everything we needed to do in that limited time. And the reason we don't run in the morning anymore is because it just was limited time and if you have anybody that shows up later you're waiting on somebody you can't extend the time.
Speaker 2:First period is going to start at 8.30, when it's supposed to, so we can't extend into the school day. But when we do it after school and we do a lot of segments throughout the week here and there to put it all together, then it just really, it really works. If we need to go beyond time, we can, and some of the students will take the work with them and they'll work throughout the night. We have deadlines that they have to turn in their segments. They're able to edit from home with all our cloud-based software that the district has provided us and the Chromebooks, and so they're able to work in their in whatever environment they want to work in when it comes post-filming time.
Speaker 1: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 more opportunity to develop storylines and to spend the time that they need to, that's on an interop day, yeah.
Speaker 2:And you hear of all these good stories that come out of COVID phase, when we were going through distance learning and we were going through a hybrid, and the positive trade-off to all that is we had to function from everywhere. We couldn't rely on just using the studio. So students had to have their own ways of setting up their own green screen, set up their own chroma 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 we did it in the hybrid phase. And now we're doing it still in like a hybrid phase, because we're filming what we can when everybody's there, but also there are multiple students that are doing things on their own, separately, on their own time. Whether that time is 11 o'clock at night, whether that time is on a Saturday afternoon, they're getting it done on their own time, because most of the students that are involved in the show are involved in everything. Sure, that's how they're wired. They want to be part of the show, but they're part of student council, they're part of different sports, they're part of different activities, and I don't want to push them away and be like, no, you'd have to be here every time we meet because we wouldn't have a show if that was the case. We've really been able to function with flexibility and just be able to do what we can. Students that are not necessarily part of the crew part of throughout the year.
Speaker 2:I have students come to me from the hallway and be like, oh, can I be on the show? Absolutely, you can be on the show. Do I have to come in after school? Well, that's ideal. But what works for you? Well, can I come in during lunch? 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 game review or something. Yeah, sure, do a game review. And then we start working it out and if we flop, we flop, you know, and it happens. It happens a lot where students have dreams of I want to do this and can I do this for the show? Sure, let's do it, give it a try, and we fall flat on our face and it's like, okay, what can we do different? Because I don't want to hold their hands through all this. I want to give them as much power as possible and we have multiple projects that have been very successful Zam Zam's project with the soccer documentary.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she talked about that yeah she 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 and record everything. And she did that for four months, starting in August at 5.30 in the morning, getting out to the fields with the boys when they had practice, because it was too hot in the daylight and so they started practicing early, early mornings.
Speaker 2:That's in the documentary and you see the film footage and so you know, it's those types of projects that I feel are going to get the students further in life, no matter what field they go into, when they're in control of it. When they fail, they just have to overcome it if they want to continue and they do, and I hope that they fail. I hope that they fail at certain points to learn from those experiences and to get better.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's kind of like the engineering design process, where you're constantly redesigning it over and over again to get better and better and better, whatever that technology is. That's what we're doing with our projects we're going back and we're doing it again.
Speaker 1: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 little bit?
Speaker 2: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 it and have the opportunity to, because not every educator has that opportunity, and also for our community, to, you know, our staff, our students. If there's certain things that they want to get out there and 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 an announcement? Yep, they come in, they're ready to go and they do it. They might not have the editing skills 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 it They'll come in with a script and everything. But I would like them to see the whole process because, as you know, in the media field, most of the hours are spent behind the scenes on every project.
Speaker 2:Not when you're on camera or on air or you know. It's really the magic that happens behind the scenes that makes it work.
Speaker 1:We talked about challenges too, and they all agreed. Everybody talked about editing and how difficult it can be and how time consuming, and I can't remember who but one of them mentioned and it gets boring. You know, there's this huge part of the process that's just getting the work done.
Speaker 5:Correct.
Speaker 1:And one of the things that I asked them because, besides seeing it's challenging they all said how important it was that they learned that skill that 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 this unique opportunity and all the skills that you've learned, are you going into broadcast journalism? And nope, none of them. But you know what they said? It doesn't matter, because there's not a job that you do that we can't bring this skill into it. The medical field has video technology. It was incredible to hear them put those pieces together and say, yeah, everything I'm learning in this really unique environment is going to be transferable somewhere else.
Speaker 2:And the soft skills that they're learning from it. You just hear so much about this generation of how they're always late and they're quitting on the job and you hear all this negative stuff. But it's not the entire generation, and these girls are proof of that, because Zam Zam's project was not a class project. It was not a tech morning show project. It was a Zam Zam project. It was hours of work that she brought upon herself because she was motivated to do it.
Speaker 2:And isn't that what it's all about? That's what it's all about is finding those connections. What is going to inspire that student to gain all these other skills we need through whatever they're motivated with. Romaria did a boxing video, went down to downtown St Cloud, downtown boxing, and filmed one of our other students who is very inspired and motivated with boxing, and both of them worked on that, and that was a classroom project that they worked on.
Speaker 2:Romaria really wanted to do something unique and develop something that has not been developed before. And then we had Isaac that was in class that is in the boxing, and he was in the video class and he didn't have any idea of what he wanted to do as a project, and so they were sitting next to each other, not even knowing each other, and we just made together. Okay, you're driven, romaria, you want to really put some effort into this huge project. And Isaac, you're thinking about boxing after school and that's all you're thinking about right now. Why don't you blend this into a project? And Romaria went to the gym and filmed and they turned it into a sport type video that is also commercial for the St Cloud, the studio.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for the St Cloud downtown boxing. And then and it's just a great demonstration of what skills we hope that they will get out of the class, and sometimes it takes a whole trimester, sometimes it takes a project that they're motivated in. And our third lady, uma, you know, she just she just got pulled in by Zam Zam into the soccer documentary and is amazing.
Speaker 1:She's all in.
Speaker 2:She will go all in, no matter what it is. She's my go to for, like, can you help with this? We need somebody to go take some pictures in the auditorium today for for this project, or go take some video over. Yep, yep, yep, I'll be there and and she's there and she'll do it, and she'll deliver every single time, no matter what else is on her plate. And so, looking at the three ladies that you had here are just wonderful examples, just amazing Of what we are capable of, what every single student is capable of doing with the resources we have in our district. It's just you just have to find the connection. You have to find what is the spark, what is going to get them to be motivated to enough to follow through.
Speaker 2:And I was just so thrilled, you know, 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 to pull it off, and I said, with the time frame, you are exactly right. I did not think you were going to be able to pull it off, because that is a huge project that you had to accomplish and the goal was to complete it before the end of 2023. And you did it and that's what makes me so proud of you. Because did I think you were capable of pulling it off? Yes, but within the time frame? No, because that is so much work behind the scenes with editing and for Uma and Zam to pull in all the players that they did, and coaches to film in the studio, again on their own time yeah, during lunch periods, during tiger time. Every single tiger time for five weeks was spent doing those interviews and editing and it was just. You know, I'm just blown away because, again, it's not a class project. It's not. It's not for a grade.
Speaker 4:You know so many students say is this going to be graded.
Speaker 2:Here's the opposite. They knew this is not going to be graded. This was assigned to them. They just they just brought it upon themselves, and that's that is for any educator. That is the one thing you would hope for every student that you have, but if you just have one, do it in your entire lifetime. You feel successful, and so they just. They motivate me more than you know.
Speaker 1:They ever once before. Yeah, yeah and so rewarding. Yeah, absolutely. Do you have a great podcast idea? Submit your idea to communications at ISD742.org and thank you for listening to 742 Coffee Cast, the best place to stay informed and be inspired by St Cloud Area School District.