Students at St. Timothy School in Chantilly begin each day with Tiger Talk, a morning announcement show produced almost entirely by eighth graders. Broadcast from classroom SmartBoards, the show reports the weather, sports news, the Bible verse of the day, the saint of the day, a fun fact and a joke. After the prayer and pledge of allegiance, the anchors sign off in unison, “Have a tigeriffic day.”
Many diocesan schools are finding creative ways to give students important information daily. At St. Joseph School in Herndon, students transform a corner of the library into the WSJS News room each morning. Eighth graders write the script, create different backgrounds to appear behind them, run the camera and teleprompter, and anchor the show.
“It’s a good opportunity to learn and get in front of a screen,” said Charlie Faist on why he volunteered to be a part of the news team. “The first one, everyone messed up a ton but it was still hilarious and fun.”
“Every time I saw (the show), I was curious how they did it. It all looked so fancy and fun,” said Sen Amans. “That’s really why I joined.”
Producing the morning show is a way for students to use their talents to serve the school while hanging out with friends, according to eighth graders at St. Leo the Great School in Fairfax. Audio- video engineer Alan Kiburi likes that he’s able to get information out to the students. “Everyone who’s here is included, everyone’s job has a significant part to the whole studio,” he said.
Khoi Le anchors the show once a week. “I love talking. It’s talking off the teleprompter but still,” said Le. “You feel very good after you do it because you’re carrying the news out to the whole school and that’s pretty helpful.” Le had three older sisters on the show before him, and his family is still tuning in. “My little siblings watch, they love it,” he said. “I think they’ll want to do it, too.”
Those involved with Tiger Talk see the ways it brings the school community together. For example, the news team recently put out a box for students to submit jokes to be read on air. “The whole school is putting something into it,” said Ava Spillane, who started out as a script writer but now also anchors. “I always liked doing behind-the-scenes stuff and I was kind of nervous to be on camera but as the year went on, I got more confident and wanted to try being an anchor. So, I tried and it was really fun.”
The show gives the community a chance to learn more about the teachers and school clubs, said Alexandra Tran. “We like to highlight different student groups and their accomplishments, for example when the (student government) got elected, we highlighted them on our morning show,” she said. “We also like to highlight the teachers on Friday, for example, we had this one third-grade teacher who used to be on Broadway or something. We had her come on a show and she started singing and it was really amazing.”
Making a morning show also is a learning experience for the students in charge. “When I’m an anchor, we read off the script so I don’t make that many mistakes, but if I do, I just have to learn to move on,” said Tran. “Nobody’s going to know and if I move on from the mistake, I can make the next few lines I say more enjoyable.”
But more than an entertaining way to convey the daily news, the morning announcements are a way to brighten everyone’s day, said Marilyne Agossou. “I don’t really like to anchor that much, but when I do, I just love being really joyful. It helps the kids to be more joyful,” she said. “I just hope that other schools can get the same opportunity as us and help the kids to be more joyful like our school.”
