Blog

Conversation With Aaron Henkin

“Honor your own curiosity” is the message of the day from Conversation With speaker Aaron Henkin, a radio producer for WYPR. His current project, “Out of the Blocks”, is a program that goes block by block to different Baltimore neighborhoods, allowing the residents to tell their stories. Mr. Aaron started the discussion by playing a clip of the show as an example. He explained that he wants to show what types of people you can meet when you show up “with the radical agenda of having no agenda”. He said that you can often find a more nuanced story if you let people talk about the issues they care about.

“Everyone I meet is the teacher of the day,” said Mr. Aaron. The factor that drove him to making content for radio and podcasts is is passion for discovering stories he didn’t know existed. He got tired of hearing the same stories to the same ways, over and over again. Mr. Aaron said that although they started with the most marginalized of blocks to showcase, he quickly realized that each block is like a tile in the mosaic that is Baltimore City; now they have gone to many diverse neighborhoods to tell their stories.

The discussion culminated in an activity with the students. Paired off, they each took a card that posed a question. The students used the question as a starting point for a mini interview. The point of the exercise was to practice active listening and to demonstrate the world of questions that open up from just one part of someone’s story. What a great skill for the students to learn!

Students Reflect on the Year in Final Creative Writing Lab

With the end of the school year sadly just around the corner, our creative writing seminar wrapped up today with students reading reflections on the year. The reflections ranged from funny to touching, though every student expressed their deep gratitude for the opportunity that TCS has given them and the family they have formed here this year. The creative writing seminar has run every week each year for close to 15 years under the leadership of Mr. Don Riesett, veteran of the advertising industry. Mr. Don has had work in several creative writing publications and we are very grateful he shares his stories and expertise with us. See you next year, Mr. Don!

On Camera Seminars Wrap Up!

That’s a wrap! For the past month, the students have been practicing their video production skills under the guidance of industry pros. Voice actor Renee Beale and news consultant Jamie McIntyre have been very generous to share their talents with us over the course of this seminar.

It has been a long-standing tradition here at TCS for the students to do a weekly news report on both world news and school news. The goal of the four On Camera classes has been to give the students new tools and skills to improve their newscasts in professional, creative ways. Renee and Jamie taught both on-camera and behind-the-scenes skills, from vocal techniques to lighting and using tele/audio prompters.

The middle lessons focused on maintaining eye contact and clear vocals while using teleprompting and audio prompting, with one exercise where the students went outside to practice field reporting. For the final lesson, Renee and Jamie observed our newscasting setup and gave feedback on how to improve the technical side.

Finally, Jamie gave a demo on video editing, showing how you can use free software to create a professional-qualityvideo. The students are so excited to put these new skills to work not only in the newscasts, but also for presentations in the daily curriculum. We hope we can have Renee and Jamie back next year!