SHS Cable Club Schedule Chock-Full

The schedule and information for this article were submitted by Swampscott High media literacy and TV production teacher Tom Reid.

The Cable Club is presenting a full schedule of videos over the holiday break.

They include several brand new videos of late December events: the Clarke School 3rd and 4th Grade Chorus Concert, the most recent School Committee meeting and the fifth episode of a new show the students have begun producing this year called “Today in Swampscott.”

Each Today episode has featured five or ten-minute interviews with school or community clubs and organizations, talking about their upcoming events. Sophomore is the host.  

“Kelsey wants to be a broadcast journalist when she grows up,” says Reid, “and I think anyone who watches the show will be impressed by her poise as she interviews adults as well as students.  She has great potential.  In fact, I think she has a real chance to be the Katie Couric of the 2020s!”

Other shows on over vacation include rotating showings of SHS boys basketball games.   

and , respectively, film and commentate the games, and they will co-ordinate with the school custodians to come in to the studio several times during the break to change which game will be shown on the channel.

Also showing on the channel over vacation will be the videos of last week’s SHS holiday band and chorus concert and of the SHS holiday art show.  

“A number of students who take TV also take band, chorus or art, if they can fit two electives in their schedule,” says Reid.  “Even if they can’t, all the kids who enjoy the arts feel a kind of bond, because regardless of whatever art form they’re studying, they’re ultimately studying their own values and emotions, growing as young people with ideas and feelings they want to express.”

Because of this bond, the TV students eagerly volunteer to videotape concerts and art shows.  As a result, viewers will enjoy the 37-minute band and chorus concert video and over two hours of close-ups of student art work, narrated by the arts teachers, Ms. Balliro and Ms. Oppenheim, who describe the creative process that went into each work of student art.

Rounding out the schedule over vacation are two videos filmed last spring but edited more recently.  

SHS student Tyler Short recently finished editing the ceremonies, a massive project since, to get the best shots of the complex event, the students who filmed it shot with four cameras.  

“It’s become a tradition,” says Reid, “that one of my best editing students spends much of his or her time in the fall editing the previous June’s graduation, just in time for us to show it over the December vacation, when the returning graduates are back in town to see it.”

Similarly, SHS student Jon Vatcher recently finished a very artistic re-edit of the Rotary’s Duct Tape Regatta from this past June, a half-hour condensation of the event with dramatic music which will be shown twice a day over the break.

In fact, all of these videos will be shown at least twice a day, and the students and their teacher have put a lot of thought, as always, into when they will be shown.

For example, they will be showing the Clarke School concert at 6:00 in the morning, in case the youngsters are already awake, but again at 6:30 each night, hoping it’s late enough for parents to be home from work but early enough that the students can stay up to see it with their families.  

Conversely, the first daily showing of the SHS Class of 2011 graduation ceremonies won’t occur until after noon, since college students are known to have a habit of sleeping in when they come back home.

Reid and the students hope you’ll tune in not only over the vacation but all year round, and help support the students’ channel.   Except for the funds from the licensing agreements with the cable companies, which occur only once every ten years, all the funding for the TV program comes from the support of the Swampscott school community.  

The students’ biggest fund-raising event is their annual auction each May, but viewers of the channel may also support the students by purchasing their own DVDs of any of the many events shown in SHS-TV by emailing Reid for an order form at reid@swampscott.k12.ma.us.  

Happy holidays and happy viewing from the SHS Cable Club!

Program Listings for Swampscott High School TV

Dec. 23, 2011 through Jan. 3, 2012

Channel 15 on Comcast in Swampscott

Channel 40 on Verizon in Swampscott, Lynn and Nahant

6:00 AM – Clarke School 3rd and 4th Grade Holiday Concert (12/21/11) 45:00

7:00 AM – Swampscott School Committee Meeting (12/21/11) 1:07:00

8:15 AM – Today in Swampscott: SHS Sophomore Kelsey Lombard interviews Ms. Zotto about upcoming Guidance Department events and students Max Hanlon and Samy Baldwin about the upcoming World Challenge group trip to Morocco (12/21/11) 15:00

8:30 AM - SHS Boys Varsity Basketball (rotating games over the vacation) - Usually approximately 1:15:00

10:00 AM – Rotary presents the Swampscott Duct Tape Regatta (6/25/11) 26:00

10:30 AM - SHS Band and Chorus Concert (12/14/21) 37:30

11:15 AM - SHS Holiday Art Show - Art works by students of Ms.Balliro and Ms. Oppenheim (12/14/21) 2:08:00

1:30 PM - SHS Class of 2011 Graduation Ceremonies - Rebroadcast for the graduates who are back in Swampscott for the holidays - (6/5/11) 1:25:00

3:00 PM - SHS Boys Basketball (rotating games over the vacation) - Average 1:15:00

4:30 PM – Rotary presents the Swampscott Duct Tape Regatta (6/25/11) 26:00

5:00 PM – Swampscott School Committee Meeting (12/21/11) 1:07:00

6:15 PM – Today in Swampscott: SHS Sophomore Kelsey Lombard interviews Ms. Zotto about upcoming Guidance Department events and students Max Hanlon and Samy Baldwin about the upcoming World Challenge group trip to Morocco (12/21/11) 15:00

6:30 PM – Clarke School 3rd and 4th Grade Holiday Concert (12/21/11) 45:00

7:30 PM - SHS Band and Chorus Concert (12/14/21) 37:30

8:15 PM - SHS Holiday Art Show - Art works by students of Ms. Balliro and Ms. Oppenheim (12/14/21) 2:08:00

10:30 PM - SHS Class of 2011 Graduation Ceremonies - Rebroadcast for the graduates who are back in Swampscott for the holidays - (6/5/11) 1:25:00

12:00 AM - SHS Boys Varsity Basketball (rotating games over the vacation) - Usually approximately 1:15:00

Note to viewers: When school is in session, we don’t post our listings, because our programming can change so quickly.  For example, a student will spend several weeks editing a video, so the day it’s finished, we put it right on the air.  However, during the holiday break our schedule will essentially stay the same each day, so here it is (our daily listings also display on our channel  in-between videos).  Happy holidays and happy viewing from the students of the Swampscott High School Cable Club!