A two-time state champ broadcast coach shares why he refuses easy grades, how he preps kids for SkillsUSA Video News Production, and what builds real student pride.

A two-time state champ broadcast coach shares why he refuses easy grades, how he preps kids for SkillsUSA Video News Production, and what builds real student pride.

The highlights were crap.

Mark Hendren will tell you that himself. He was a teenager at Mississippi State. The cameraman who was supposed to shoot highlights for TV stations across the Southeast didn't show. Mark said he could do it. He had never done it. He had watched someone do it. He said yes anyway.

The footage was bad. But the guy who was supposed to be there came back the next day and taught him. Zoomed in on this. Pulled back this way. This is how I do it. Mark learned. He went on to shoot for ESPN in his teens, work all four TV stations in Birmingham, and build a career that a whole other podcast could cover.

He's three years into the classroom now. Helena High School. Teaching broadcast.

He outproduced NASA. Seven cameras to their four at the Huntsville Space and Rocket Center. And at the end of the year, he sat down and told me he didn't think he grew.

This conversation with Billy Dunn from Albertville Innovation Academy is one of the most honest things we've put on this podcast. Billy came from Fox 6 in Birmingham — gold standard broadcast — walked into a classroom, and is now three years in, running five jumbotrons across five sports, building a state-level AV teacher conference from scratch, and wondering if he's doing it right. The answer might surprise you.

Dean David Marshall of Savannah State's CMAC program on project-based journalism education, HBCU media excellence, and what accountability really looks like at the top.

The week starts early on Monday. I travel to the Amitrace office in Norcross to get the cables, etc that I will need for the studio build. Mid-morning, I meet Matt at the Georgia World Congress Center (GWCC) to get started building out the space. This is just getting tables in the right places, basic cable runs done, and a plan for how I will build out the space. 

Early in the afternoon, Gegen arrives with the main studio gear (cameras, prompters, etc). That’s when it gets busy for me. We build three camera set ups for the studio - tripod, teleprompter, and camera. If you have ever built a teleprompter set up you know how cumbersome that can be. 

Later the switcher arrives. I had nothing to do with that build out. The equipment is provided by a school and that advisor takes care of all of that build. I get a quick tutorial on how to use the gear and we are off.