During the 2002-2003 school year we began anAudio-Visual Club at Tuscarora School. We had been creating a lot of movies using a digital video camera and the program iMovie. More and more students became interested in taking part in the various projects we were doing. In the past year our movie-making has improved greatly with the addition of better audio equipment. We now have a variety of microphones and two sound boards: one of which can be operated by batteries so it can be carried along on "assignments" in the field. We are also preparing our students to do live weekly broadcasts on our upcoming broadcast system in the school.

During the 2002-2003 school year we were also able to begin our 4-day-per week news broadcasting over our school closed circuit TV's. We began with one video camera and a cloth hanging over a bookcase as a backdrop. That was in December 2002. Now, in June 2003, we have a very sophisticated AV Room ( for an elementary school!) with a painted wall for a backdrop; two video cameras, a video mixer, a sound board, a computer to show our iMovie videos, a CD player, two monitors and even a plant to put behind the announcers ( though it's borrowed from the secretary and is returned after each broadcast!!) Students type the news on a laptop computer which then becomes our "teleprompter" for the announcers. We print scripts so that the entire crew knows what needs to be done. We often have as many as 20 kids working on a show and we are all jammed into the tiny "studio." Students rotated job positions every two weeks. We take attendance and students must have worked each station at least once in order to earn their TSN News Team shirt with the TSN News logo on it. Fourth graders can be part of the team "by invitation" while interested fifth or sixth grader may try his/her hand at being part of the broadcast team. We have grown a great deal in the past year and will continue to grow as newscasters and reporters in the coming school year.

Our AV Club members participate in a variety of activities in small groups outside of the news broadcasting activities. Our activities include the following:

• Creating QuickTimeVR movies of native artifacts and objects of interest
• All aspects of operating the digital video camera
• Use of the tripods
• Use of the various microphones and determining which is best in a given situation
• Use of the two different soundboards
• Preparing and recording an announcement
• Using graphics programs such as Photoshop to manipulate images
• Using sound editing programs such as ProTools and Sound Edit
• Creating music for use with the iMovie program
• All aspects of creating a movie using iMovie
• Converting digital video to VHS format
• Copying VHS tapes of movies they've created
• Importing music and images

Our AV Club meets one morning per week before school hours.