Teaching and coaching often go hand in hand, and that’s certainly been the case so far this school year for Nick Delahanty of the Garfield Federation of Teachers (Local 3977).
Delahanty, a television production teacher at Garfield High School, has used some of the same techniques from his experiences coaching bowling, volleyball and softball for his broadcast journalism class.
“You can take the coach off the field, but you can’t take the coach out of the person,” Delahanty says with a laugh. “That’s how I operate.”
With Garfield High opting for remote learning into late January, Delahanty says he sensed from the outset of the school year that preparation and teamwork would go a long way in the broadcast journalism class running smoothly.
“My biggest thing is I like to keep the kids in the loop,” he adds. “The only way it works is if they cooperate, and they bought in since day one.”
It has worked, with Delahanty’s students producing three videos per week. They have been shooting their segments at home (mostly off-camera voice-overs, with trivia and music challenges among the featured content) and sending the raw video files to Delahanty, who handles the editing. Under the banner Garfield Television, the final videos are made available every Monday, Wednesday and Friday to students and faculty via Microsoft Stream.
“This group has gone above and beyond to make our broadcast even better,” Delahanty says. “The quality difference between this year’s broadcast and last is tremendous. I’m proud of what we put together last year … but this group that came in really took advantage of the opportunity and made up segments that we can entertain people with and brighten up their day.”
”He adds, “They know how important it is for some of the students who watch every day. And they’re coming back to [our] class and they’ll say to me, ‘Oh, Mr. Delahanty, I got a comment from this teacher.’ … Making somebody else’s day better and keeping it as close to normal as we possibly can, it speaks volumes for what the kids have been doing.”
