Claxton students present Spanish and English news
A group of students from Claxton Elementary School presented a video of their morning Cougar Corner news program to the Anderson County Board of Education. Pictured in front are Jonathan Avila, news anchor; Bo Metcalf, news anchor; Eralynn Yarbrough, news anchor Allen Crowe, audio engineer; Autumn O’Gorman, camera operator; Emmaus Masters, Teleprompter operator; and Katherine Cabrera, news anchor. Teachers pictured in the back are, from left, Courtney Aspen and Nikki Kirk. (photo:Ben Pounds )
The students shared this segment called “Cougar Corner” with the Anderson County Board of Education recently.
Using a grant and help from Anderson County Television’s Ryan Sutton, the school put together a morning news-style broadcast including the Pledge of Allegiance and announcements.
CES academic coach Jennifer Rodabaugh spoke about the program recently to the Anderson County Board of Education.
“We put together some of the things we wanted to showcase during the morning’s news, and then we realized there were some other things missing,” she said. “We have quite a few students on the Claxton campus who are Spanish-speaking students,” she said, adding that Spanish-speaking staff were able to help with translations, allowing for a bilingual program.
The example of Cougar Corner that the Board of Education watched at its September meeting began with the song “Everywhere you Look” by Jesse Frederick, famous as the theme from “Full House.”
Bo Metcalf read the announcements in English, while Johnathan Avila read them in Spanish. The program began with the Pledge of Allegiance and a moment of silence. Then came a call for remembrance for the victims and first responders of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. The announcements also honored some students and bus drivers.
“We have eight fantastic bus drivers [who] bring you to school and take you home every day,” Metcalf said. “Please remember to thank your bus driver today when you get on the bus to go home.”
They also discussed careers in civil engineering.
“Remember how we are getting a new school? Civil engineers are a big part of making that happen,” Metcalf said, referring to the planned construction of a new school for the Claxton area.
The phrase of the day for that broadcast was “Have a good day” or “Que tengas un gran día.”
The Board of Education members applauded the students’ broadcast.
“You all have done so good tonight that we’re just going to build you a new school, how’s that?” joked Anderson County Director of Schools Tim Parrott.
“They’re probably teaching the English-speaking students more than the English-speaking students are teaching them,” Board of Education member Teresa Portwood said of the Spanish speakers.
Parrott said in the future he was looking into having earbuds that offer instant translations of what teachers say to students.