Approximately 100 students from Tyner Academy got a firsthand look at how today's history is being recorded when they boarded C-SPAN's $1-million mobile studio last week.
Loaded with interactive touchscreen displays and a TV production room for live programming, the 45-foot bus has visited numerous communities and schools throughout the nation while pausing from its duties covering public affairs and federal government proceedings.
Though the C-SPAN bus has swung through Hamilton County before, last week's visit was especially meaningful because it aligned with the mission of Future Ready Institutes.
In this 2011 photo, a C-SPAN representative on-board the bus demonstrates a touchscreen video archives search for a student from Chattanooga State. Students from Tyner Academy and Red Bank High recently had a chance to explore those resources as part of the bus's Top Teachers Tour.Since launching on 13 high school campuses throughout the county this fall, the small, tailored learning communities have sought to prepare students for specific workforce fields through on-site job training and externships. Each specially tailored curriculum is built on opportunities for project-based learning - which is exactly what the bus tour brings to the table, said Erin Glenn, a Future Ready coach at Tyner.
"To have someone that students would see on any news station come and give an in-depth [look] at what goes on behind the scenes to make the news become a reality is phenomenal," Glenn said. "It enhances their research and brings the events that they learn about to life when they can reach out and touch it, and it makes it stick a little more."
Students from the high school's two institutes - the Institute of Technology and Security and the Institute of Teaching and Learning - spent the morning rotating onto the bus in small groups. There, the high schoolers sat with Doug Hemming, marketing representative for C-SPAN, who told them about some of the dignitaries who had occupied the same seats for interviews in the past, naming former First Lady Michelle Obama among others.
Hemming also gave the students an overview of the political and educational resources available to the public through the cable network, then allowed them to see those resources in action for themselves when they got their hands on the 360-degree video station, 11 large-screen tablets and other high-tech equipment on-board.
"It kind of creates a 'wow' factor," Hemming said. "Once they're relaxed and they can see all the bells and whistles, then you can create a sense of awareness about what C-SPAN is and how to use it in the classroom."
The Dec. 13 stop came as part of C-SPAN's Top Teachers Tour, which took the bus to visit teachers throughout the Southeast who had been honored by their state's social studies association for their commitment to excellence and leadership in the field.
Tyner Academy and Red Bank High were the two Hamilton County schools in the tour's lineup, with Tyner's visit coming thanks to Glenn, who was named Outstanding Middle Level Social Studies Teacher of the Year by the National Council for Social Studies in 2017.
The honor came partly as a result of Glenn's work teaching eighth grade at East Lake Academy, where she also implemented project-based instruction and cooperative learning, using activities such as courtroom-style classroom debates to help students engage with the lesson as well as events taking place in the real world.
Today, she hopes to see Future Ready Institutes and collaborative activities like the bus tour create that same level of engagement for students.
"For them to be able to make those real-world connections just enhances everything that they're learning and brings it around full circle," Glenn said.
Email Myron Madden at mmadden@timesfreepress.com.