There’s no guarantee that it’ll work. Nor is there the teacher’s promise to follow through. A problem many don’t consider a problem. Audio announcements is seen as an unimportant problem that doesn’t need to be fixed. I propose something new, something that can sprout new opportunities.

Video announcements have been considered as a solution by those who make it there job to improve schools. It’s not a farfetch idea if one considers that multiple schools have found benefits with the change. Turning what would be an uninteresting, old fashioned, way of drilling information into students to an engaging and entertaining learning tool. Something that Perry needs instead of that background noise everyone grew to ignore.

Diving into the specifics, video announcements provides multiple improvements in student’s school experience. It’s common knowledge that students simply don’t listen to the school audio announcements. It’s easy to find more entertainment by whipping out one’s phone or through friends. Video would completely eliminate the problem. Turning off the lights and releasing bright light to students would immediately grab their attention and make it easy to identify texters.  

Why should people care about announcements? They’ve been a part of school routine for decades. Sending out school news to both students and parents. It’s also a way to get students prepared for the coming hours and get them engaged before class starts. When looking at the alternative, by not providing announcements, teachers would be looking at distracted students who don’t really understand what’s happening at their own school.

Lack of school spirit is infamous here at Perry. It could be argued that with more informed students, participation would follow. STUGO would be able to send out important messages to students who don’t really listen to audio announcements. Everyone could finally be able to sing the school anthem or remember the name of our mascot.  

A question in many people’s minds are, who would create the announcements? A possible solution is our multimedia and film class. It would be a perfect way for students to learn new skills in the arts and provide motivation to strive for better. Motivation, not for a grade, yet for all to see your creation. That is something you can’t teach.

Sure, there are different ways to solve the lack of spirit in students. Or simpler ways on fixing school announcements. Yet, Why stop there? Why stop at just meeting the goal? It’s not just about informing students about current school activities. It’s about a new and creative way to turn something boring into something engaging and fun. Video announcements could mark the beginning of when Perry broke the mold and sought out a unique improvement.

Currently announcements in the classrooms at Perry high school go relatively the same in a grand portion of classes. The morning bell rings as students clutter around their desk or turn around in chairs to talk to there peers about nonsense such as what happened at a sports practice or how there morning is going downhill.

Then the bell for announcements rings quieting students for a short 30 seconds or so while some people recite the pledge of allegiance. As soon as the final words of the pledge are recited the talking continues and soon enough the morning announcements over the speaker phones become background noise while teachers pay no mind to the noise level. Although video announcements sound like engaging idea, how well can this idea be carried out.

While the concept of video announcements playing on the screens of the early classrooms as kids observe in awe sounds like a dream, coming from someone who loves anything to do with  camera work, how realistic is this?

Teachers have around a million things on there mind along with students during the first hour of the day. While teachers scurry to get lesson plans in order and their priorities straight i doubt many teachers will have the time to pull up video announcements creating the problem of how many teachers would actually play the morning video announcements in the midst of their morning scuffle. Many students tend to hear the muffled background noise of morning announcements playing as their peers yawn and stretch and sometimes even sleeping while they play as other students socialize. While the idea of video announcements sound good in theory how efficient can it be pulled off considering a lot of the things that happen with current announcements.

Seeing how normal announcements relatively go, there is a better way to get the information that students need to them.

When was the last time you heard about breaking news using your phone?  Whether its through social media platforms such as Twitter or Instagram nowadays many teens get there current event news using their phones. With this in mind I believe it would be more efficient to have a notification sent out through email or the infinite campus app to get morning announcements and important information across in a easy more efficient way. Rather than having to come up with a team of dedicated students with plenty of free time to tape, edit and publish video announcements every single day. A simple morning notification to notify people on campus about current events, opportunities and extra curricular activities would do.

I understand the thought of having another film class opportunity to take and not only hear but watch the announcements and it sounds like an effective plan when it is broken down to smallest thing such as who will teach the class, how many teachers will actually be able to have the time to play them in the morning, how consistent and doable the whole idea is, it then seems to be not as efficient.