The year 2011 is a year most students at Oviedo High School will only have faint memories of, if they have any at all. However, for Kevin Patterson, 2011 signified something special: the start of a new job teaching video production at Oviedo High School.
At first, it was difficult. As a new teacher, Patterson was comfortable with video production, but clueless about how to run a classroom effectively. Though this struggle lasted for a few years, teaching eventually became second nature.
“[Teaching] was what I was excited to be doing,” Patterson said. “I was really interested in building up the program.”
“The program,” of course, refers to Oviedo’s nationally recognized news show, WROR-TV. WROR-TV crew work on daily news reports, as well as longer, more in-depth reporting packages, with some projects even winning national awards. However, it took work to get to where they are now.
“I was really excited to… do the contests that we’re doing, to go to conventions, and just produce a product every day for the school to see,” Patterson said. “We got a chance to do some of the shows that I had planned on, we tried… to do a lot of big themed shows, and that was kind of a big thing over the years that I really worked on doing with my students.”
In another variation of TV Production, Digital Lion Productions, students are given various prompts throughout the year that they must take inspiration from to create short films. Films are then submitted to different state and national competitions, as well as occasionally aired on the daily WROR-TV broadcast. To teach this free-form class, Patterson drove his students to constantly improve upon their previous films and continuously employ new methods to accomplish things. Madison Toledo, a junior in the class, has found Patterson’s approach to be especially helpful.
“Mr. Patterson’s teaching style [was] pretty relaxed, but I think it worked well for him because he always had a goal for us and he did his best to help us achieve it,” Toledo said. “He taught me… that there is always another way to do something, as long as you think outside the box.”
For Patterson, one of the key characteristics of being a video production teacher was the unique nature of the job. As opposed to some other kinds of teaching, video production requires a hands-on approach and a willingness to let students experiment.
“TV Production is really about producing a product, and you gotta put that product out there,” Patterson said. “It adds a whole other layer of complexity that I don’t think a lot of other teachers necessarily realize, because I’m not just instructing a class and then trying to get them to do well and test.”
Patterson embraced the hands-on approach, and his students appreciated it. Oftentimes, it is easy to feel passive at school, because many classes follow the same format of listening to a lecture and taking notes. However, Patterson’s classes offered some variation.
“He doesn’t really like for us to sit there [while he] tells us information. He likes to show us things, and then right after, let us do it ourselves, so we can get that experience,” Malaki Pabon, junior, said. “I think it’s really helpful, especially for learning how to do things.”
He also tried to imbue life lessons into his classes. Though most of Patterson’s students likely aren’t going to end up pursuing television or film, he tried to get them to take away soft skills that will help in many careers.
“I hope that [my students] have a sense of personal agency,” Patterson said. “I really want them to come away feeling motivated, to find their voice, to find inspiration for what it is they want to do, and to find a sense of responsibility in the work that they create.”
