PINE RIVER — The Pine River Bacchus School District has a new way to keep families informed thanks to the Tiger Chat podcast.
Featuring an interview with Superintendent John Clark, this podcast focuses on the district's ability to keep the community informed through in-depth interviews with students, staff, and parents on a variety of topics, including school programming and staff profiles. This is part of our efforts.
Since the beginning of February, Clark has recorded four podcasts, edited and uploaded by Technology Director Kevin Furst.
These include introductions to Tiger Chat, district advisory teams, parent teacher organizations, and high school choir programs.
This podcast was inspired in part by the district's strategic plan, which emphasized a desire for more communication and increased transparency with the community.
“As an executive team, we met with board members about how people are getting information in a variety of ways: Facebook, Instagram, websites, newspapers,” Clark said. “We felt like something was still missing, and this was a quick, informal way that we could highlight some of the things that are happening here at Pine River Bacchus.”
Clark invites guest interviewers to help guide the interview along with the interviewee. Previous guests include parent and High Reliability School Coordinator Tina Haneken, PTO President Rebecca Peterson, PTO member and teacher Becky Shackle, choir teacher Teresa Hamp and choir student Jasper Ere. Includes Stud, Cash Kangas, Aria Nelson, and Kaitlyn Denton.
“The original goal was to do it once a month. Now it's probably once every other week,” Clark said.
The podcast was in its early stages, with about 100 impressions for the first two episodes as of March 21, but more topics were discussed and more names added to the list of interviewees. That number can easily grow as more are added.
The latest episode, recorded March 21, features interviews with Hamp and her choir students. They talked about their eventful year, especially at an event at Bemidji State University where they were able to learn from university professors and showcase their talents.
It was our first experience with a podcast, so we all had feedback and first impressions.
“It's nice to actually listen to people's opinions, and I think it's going to spread even more around the world,” Elestad said.
“I think it's going to be very helpful for a lot of people who don't have a lot of contact,” Kangas said. “I don't think it's probably going to be very popular among students, but it might be popular among parents and adults. People who don't necessarily have a lot of time to talk to kids or who want to get more involved with their local community.” It’s not popular with people who think it’s true.”
Travis Grimler/Echo Journal
One of the biggest challenges is getting people to know about the podcast.
“Maybe we could put some posters up on the wall or let people know it's here and it's up and running,” Denton said. “It can definitely be helpful, but it's definitely more popular among adults.”
While students expected the program to be more popular with parents and staff, there is one perspective that will likely be of interest to Pine River Bacchus students in general: teachers. Everyone agreed that it was.
“I would love to see a miniseries about a lot of teachers,” Kangas said. “There are a lot of teachers that I want to pick their brains because they're funny and interesting and I don't know much about them. I think it would be great to get to know them.”
Ellestad would like to know information about the school's various programs, such as wrestling, shop, and yearbook. He said it might be interesting if the district could eventually offer broadcast classes.
Travis Grimler/Echo Journal
Mr. Nelson thought that appropriate topics would be popular with students because they would be useful.
“I think if you do something in your elective class, students will listen to it,” Nelson said.
“That's a really big problem,” Denton agreed. “People sometimes enroll in electives, but they don't know what they're enrolling for.”
Mr. Kangas suggested having a student host a podcast from time to time so the student could listen to one of their colleagues doing the interview.
“I think that's interesting because your friends will listen to you and definitely talk about it,” Kangas said.
Ms. Hamp was delighted to be able to share her students' experiences from the past year on the podcast.
“It was really fun for the teachers to sit back and listen to them give their immediate answers,” Hamp said. “You never know what's going to come out of a high school student's mouth, but I really enjoyed listening to them and I felt like I knew what they were getting out of this.”
Hamp likes that the podcast gives him a better idea of what's going on inside the building, especially considering the rooms are in secluded locations. ”I always joke with my students and colleagues that my choir room is like concrete. It’s a jungle,” Hamp said. “We're in a corner, away from everyone. The kids and I are the last ones to know what's going on in the building.
“My schedule during the day is pretty tight, so I don't get a lot of time to interact with other teachers and administrators, so it was fun to hear people speak candidly about what's going on,” she said. I did.
Ms. Hamp was also excited to share the progress of the overall choral program with her students, who have been rebuilding the program from the ground up over the past three years.
“Anyone who listens to this will know that these are smart, talented and driven kids who are passionate about making this program better,” Hamp said. “They've seen how much it's grown in just three years. We're a long way from where we want to be, but we've made so many great strides in those three years. 's last concert was just a major one' proof of that. ”
Hamp agreed that she wanted to know more about her fellow teachers, staff, and administrators. At one point, members of the school board may also be included.
So far, the program has talked about very local topics, but Clark also said that discussion of issues that are not necessarily confined within school walls but have a broader impact, including the school district. I would also like to participate.
“We're looking to branch out a little bit and educate people about what's going on in Congress and get a little bit more knowledgeable about the areas that are important to us here,” Clark said. ”
Podcasts are between 15 and 30 minutes long and are usually lighthearted in tone. Episodes are also available on his website and Facebook page for the Pine River Bacchus School District, Tiger Chat, and PR-B School's Spotify channel.
