When going behind the scenes of Shaker Junior High’s Morning Program, one would think they were in a professional production studio at a television news station. The only difference may be that the studio is completely run by eighth-grade students.

This is the school’s sixth year of producing the morning announcements, using the latest broadcasting equipment, which makes the typical morning announcements heard over the loud speaker seem primitive.

Technology teacher Rodney Wheeler and Library Media Specialist Judith Stott help students create the morning announcements each day.

On any given day there are two announcers, two camera people, a student on sound, one student on the teleprompter, and another running a PowerPoint presentation. Most of this high-tech equipment is handed down from the high school.

Each month a new group of students rotate in. Students are recommended by their seventh-grade teachers, and when chosen, they start running the announcements in eighth-grade.

“These are not just morning announcements,” said Stott. “The main purpose is to support the curriculum.”

In the beginning of the school year, social studies classes used the equipment to create “Come to the Colonies” advertisements as part of their colonization unit. Foreign language classes come in and set up the space as a clothing store, where they practice speaking in a make-believe store. The space has also been known to be the battle site of Civil War reenactments.

After students leave the junior high, they can continue their love of broadcasting at the high school. Shaker High School has separate studio classes that students can take advantage of, with some of them even being able to earn college credit while still in high school from Hudson Valley Community College.