Christy White, media teacher at Richmond Hill Middle School, answers this week's questions about her job:
Q) Name and Current role at RHMS?
A) Christy White, Media teacher
Q) How long have you been at RHMS?
A) This is my seventh year as a teacher at Richmond Hill Middle School.
Q) What are the courses and programs offered within the Media program at RHMS?
A) Within my curriculum currently we cover broadcasting, graphic design, photography, marketing, professionalism, social media function, film making and editing, and animation.
Q) Why do you feel these are essential to offer within the school setting?
A) When I was in high school, I took courses in architecture and drafting in addition to my college prep classes. Thanks to teachers who did not baby me, I graduated a well-rounded student, capable of thinking through a problem for myself and developing a solution. I am an independent thinker. Today’s students need to be able to develop the same skills.
Q) How do you hope to see this program evolve in the coming years?
A) I teach six classes a day, 30 or so students each. There is so much talent in this school. The ideas, the passion and the drive within the students amazes me. I hope that in five years we can establish five different classes to meet the needs of the students; where this one class is sufficient now. I would love to see Broadcasting, Graphic Arts, Photography, and Marketing all taught as separate classes to allow students to have a firm foundation before beginning high school.
Q) How do you feel this will set the kids up for success in the future?
A) The real world has challenges, why shouldn’t school? Last week, we thought the magazine was all ready to go on Friday. Everything was beautiful. When the students went to share it out, we realized the free software we were using forced anyone who wanted to view the magazine to log in and create an account. Not the most user-friendly setup for students. The team worked to find a solution. It took about 15 different scenarios but it finally worked out. When they are faced with a challenge like this again, they will know how to trouble-shoot an issue and attack the problem. That’s real-world learning.