Multi-Media Pitch

Your General Topic

Additional potential angles.

How has teaching virtually changed your teaching methods
How has being in the classroom teaching during a pandemic changed teaching methods

How would you explain the story in ONE sentence?

What are the unanswered questions you hope to explore?

What precautions have been taken for the students?
What precautions have been taken for the faculty?
Is there any contact tracing being used by the school?
What happens if a student or teacher tests positive for covid-19?
What have you learned about yourself, your coworkers and students during this experience?
What was the hardest adjustment for you, and for the students?

What’s the best medium for the story?

In the school district I live in we are not allowed to enter the school so I will have to conduct interview by phone or virtually. I will present the information in a written format. If by chance I can get special permission to conduct a socially distanced interview faced to face I will use video that shows classrooms that I expect to be pandemic prepped and will tour the school to collect images of what the inside of a school looks like compared to just a year ago

Audio: What are the dynamic sounds we’ll hear to provide interest and emotion?

Interactive/Social Media: How will you get the audience involved to interact with the story?

Print: What are the dense details that make this much more in-depth than your weekly story?

It is something that is happening every day in this country and around the world and is not getting enough attention it deserves. We hear about children either not going to school in person or they are in school in person, but we have not seen what that looks like.

In each story, who are the characters, and are they accessible?

My goal is to interview at least one teacher that teaches in person, one that has taught virtually and compare the two stories. If possible, find a teacher that has taught both this year and conduct a third interview.

Where do you need to go to tell the story?

School teachers prepared open ended questions video if access to the school is granted. If not internet access and a media source like zoom to conduct interview.

What’s the potential impact of the reporting?

This has a huge impact no matter what your opinion of the virus is. This will show the audience what level of precautions the school has taken and will either put the audiences mind at ease or raise flags of concern.

Has anyone else done this reporting regionally or nationally? How will ours differ from that?

Yes, there have been a couple articles written on the topic. The main difference is that my story will by hyperlocal instead of national. I will not be from a major news outlet interviewing a random school then moving on to talk about the election or the weather. I hope to get a more down to Earth personal interaction that can show exactly just what our educators and children deal with daily.

Articles

https://www.npr.org/2020/09/25/917014304/educators-share-their-thoughts-on-teaching-during-the-pandemic

https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2020/10/23/the-three-imperatives-of-teaching-during-the.html

https://www.jgme.org/doi/full/10.4300/JGME-D-20-00241.1