St. Johnsbury Academy Winter Sports

By Shane LaCroix

St. Johnsbury, VT

Vermont High School Winter sports are finally under way and St. Johnsbury Academy is already in full gear.

This past week I sat down with St. Johnsbury Academy’s Athletic Director David McGinn.

After our discussion on the bright outlook of the Academy’s season to come, I was able to catch some teams practicing. Later in the week, I was able to see some contests.

The Junior Varsity and Varsity girls and boys basketball teams hosted scrimmages a week ago after they completed their first week of practices.

The Hilltoppers are working on the little things in this early season, as the boys varsity team expects to head back to Patrick Gymnasium, and this time, to claim the Vermont Division 1 State Championship.

Over the weekend St. Johnsbury Academy hosted a wrestling tournament named after long time head coach Sandy Murray. The Hilltoppers came in 2^nd.

After the busy opening 2 weeks, McGinn is certainly putting in extra time making sure that his teams have their needs met.  Mr. McGinn is anxiously awaiting the excitement of contests to begin for all his winter teams.

As a former basketball player at St. Johnsbury Academy, this winter sports season is nothing new to me. I enjoy being able to watch former teammates play in front of a packed Alumni Memorial Gymnasium with students and community members alike, cheering on the mighty Hilltoppers. 

GO BIG GREEN!!

Final Project Outline

For the final project I am working by myself to show a typical day in the St. Johnsbury Academy Athletic Department. Winter sports started this week and I think the Athletic Department does a great job at organizing and making sure things go smoothly.

I plan on using my voice as well as interviewing the Athletic Director David McGinn. I also will include pictures with captions as well as video of practices.

Video 2 Synopsis

Shane, Andrew and I want to create a narrative about the resident assistant’s nightly activities when they are “on duty.”

We will follow the RAs around campus as they go on “rounds” and check the suites on campus to make sure students are safe and being responsible. We will interview the RAs we tape, and have them explain what they do on rounds and when on duty, and why they have to do these tasks.  

The interview will serve as part of our sound as well as the audio we will record to explain certain situations in the video. We will also have natural sounds form the RAs as they go around campus and interact with students.

Andrew and I will be responsible for recording the video because they live on campus and can record the RAs in action.

Everyone in our group will be responsible for editing the video, creating the audio recordings, and writing the writing portion. We will together write, edit, and produce the video and writing portion. 

Resident Assistants at Lyndon State College

At Lyndon State College, students, faculty, and staff all work together in order to keep positive attitudes flowing throughout campus. The 21 resident assistants play a pivotal role in setting the wonderful atmosphere many people love about LSC.

The resident assistants are hard workers. They are hired to keep students on campus safe, and allow their residents to have a great time while living on campus.

Resident assistants are given a ton of responsibility. They have keys to every dorm room on campus. At any time of the day they can be called upon to help out with a harmful situation, or just to unlock a door for a student who forgets his or her keys.

Once a month the resident assistants are responsible for creating activities for residents to attend and enjoy. The R.A.s are overseen by their boss, Erin Rossetti.

Rossetti is the head of the residential life department, and she also serves as the resident hall director for the Rita Bole Complex. She is responsible for going through the hiring process of resident assistants and residence hall directors.

Rossetti has four resident assistants in each building, along with one Resident hall director per building.

Each R.A. is assigned one night per week, and about one weekend per month to be “on duty.” This includes being in their room readily available if an incident occurred, as well as going on rounds to ensure the safety of the students in dorm buildings.

The resident assistants go in pairs to go on rounds each night. They make two or three rounds on a given night, depending on the activity around campus.

Each night one resident hall director is also “on duty” and they are on call in case of a serious situation occurring.

The resident assistants are always busy with their job, but the job is worth the while. There are several benefits an R.A. receives from obtaining the position.

Lyndon State College pays the room and board for the resident assistants, saving thousands of dollars for many of them. The school also gives them the option to have an unlimited meal-plan, or receive money every week to buy groceries.

The job also provides good references for resident assistants to put down when applying for jobs. Being an R.A. also gives the students great work experience, and is a positive piece to building a great resume.

Video Project 2 Synopsis

Mike, Andrew and I want to create a narrative about the resident assistant’s nightly activities when they are “on duty.”

We will follow the RAs around campus as they go on “rounds” and check the suites on campus to make sure students are safe and being responsible. We will interview the RAs we tape, and have them explain what they do on rounds and when on duty, and why they have to do these tasks.

The interview will serve as part of our sound as well as the audio we will record to explain certain situations in the video. We will also have natural sounds form the RAs as they go around campus and interact with students.

Andrew and Mike will be responsible for recording the video because they live on campus and can record the RAs in action.

Everyone in our group will be responsible for editing the video, creating the audio recordings, and writing the writing portion. We will together write, edit, and produce the video and writing portion.

Lyndon State College - "The Critic"

Lyndon State College is a small school located in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. The school has many news sources on campus for the college population, as well as for the surrounding community. One source of news that is considered to many to be “old fashion” is the student-run newspaper, The Critic.

The Critic staff meets every Thursday night, when school is in session, to edit the stories, and layout the eight pages the paper consists of. Once the editing and formatting is complete, the layout is printed by Upper Valley Press in New Hampshire. On Friday mornings the papers are delivered to Lyndon State, and can be picked up around campus for free.

 Many students will submit articles to the newspaper. Some students enjoy writing news stories, and some submissions to the paper are from the journalistic writing class. It is the job of the editors to figure out which stories to publish. There are several editors responsible for putting The Critic together. Each is assigned a section or page to put together, or write stories for. These editors many times write their own stories, but sometimes may only have to format a page if other students’ work is going to be published.

 The Critic is done entirely by students, but there is a professor who oversees the paper to make sure students are creating the best newspaper possible. Dan Williams is the faculty- advisor to the Critic. He goes through the paper weekly with Editor-in-chief Michael Miley. Williams explains the good and the bad are from the past week’s edition.

 In 2010 The Critic joined social media by creating a Facebook page. This page gets updated with information from the newspaper, and one can also find there an online edition of the most recent editions. The Critic also has its own website, but unfortunately the page is not updated very often.

In recent years the critic has been noticed by the Lyndon State community as a club of high regard. The Critic was named “club of the year” in 2008 and 2010. The mission statement of The Critic reads “To serve and share the student voice of Lyndon State College,” and according to many people, they are successful at doing so.

 Lyndon State College is a strong supporter of the newspaper, as the college states “The Critic is a student generated and produced newspaper that serves as the voice of the student body. The paper includes various stories of interest to the Lyndon State community, including campus events, local area happenings, student issues, and athletic news.”

Written By:
Mike Raimondi
Shane LaCroix

Incredible Story!!

VIDEO PROJECT IDEA

Mike, Shane and myself plan to go around campus and find random students to do a small quiz and record their answers. We may format the interview like a game show, giving the contestant three questions and a reward if all three are answered correctly.

The sound would include one of us three asking a question, receiving the answer from the students, and then telling the student whether their response was wrong or right.

One of us will interview the students, and the other two will be responsible for videotaping the encounter.

Team Assignments:
Video - Shane and Mike

Interview- and Sound - Andrew, Shane, and Mike

Editing- Shane, Mike and Andrew

Final Slideshow Project Andrew, Shane and Mike

Andrew Baughn's Blog: Final Slideshow Project Andrew, Shane and Mike (10...

Online Videos

I went to the USA today's sport page to see if there was video to go along with there stories. In fact there were lots of video to accompany stories.

 It was just like a reporting and the accompany writing was just about what he said in the article but had some extra information. I found the videos to be just like they would be on a news station on TV.

I think videos that are on newspapers website should be shorter than an actual reporting article so that you go read the actual article and not just watch the video.

Kid President!!!

iReport

iReport is a very intersting site. For me, It seems like a great place that gathers stories so that I don't have to search for them. The article in particular that I found to my interest the most was the football article.

Having different categories to find things that you are interested I think is key. People are able to write there own stories and CNN decides if they will feature it.

Explore. Discover. Contribute. These are the 3 main words that CNN uses to describe there site. After looking over there site these 3 words accurately describe iReport.

 Having this website I think is very beneficial to allow people the chance for their work to be seen by others. A very useful social network site for news!!

Multimedia Story Telling- Slideshow Write-up

Alan Weiss visited Lyndon State College on Monday, October 21 to give a presentation open to the public. Weiss is a seven-time Emmy Award winner as a producer and writer.

Weiss graduated from Northwestern University with a Master’s Degree in Journalism in 1974. Later that year he joined ABC to start his wonderful career.

At ABC Weiss was a writer for Ted Koppel, who hosted “World News Tonight-Weekend Edition.” He started off as a writer, but quickly rose towards the top.

ABC chose Weiss to launch the newly created “5 O’ Clock Eyewitness News” broadcast. It became the most popular five p.m. news broadcast in New York City in just three months. 

Weiss was the first person to report on the death of John Lennon in 1980. He was in a motor cycle accident, and while in the hospital Weiss overheard a police officer tell another cop about the shooting.

He was noticed nationally for his story on Lennon, and his story won Weiss his second Emmy Award in news. 

Albert Primo and Weiss are the co-creators of “Teen Kids News” and together are the executive producers. The show is weekly half-hour long shows that has teenagers report on current events in the news. 

The news broadcast has been on for over eleven years and has produced over 500 shows. Weiss wanted to create a news broadcast that targeted kids.

Teen Kids News has won an Emmy Award, another credential to add to Weiss’ resume. About two hundred television stations carry Teen Kids News, and the broadcast is shown to the military all over the world. 

Weiss had the audience laughing throughout his presentation at Lyndon State College. The Audience was attentive, asking questions and engaging with Weiss for the hour and a half presentation.

When the presentation was over, students rushed to the front of the room to hopefully talk with Weiss. Everyone that wanted to speak to him was able to, and he seemed overjoyed to talk to students. 

After everyone had left the room, Weiss was nice enough to allow Andrew Baughn to ask him a few questions. He was very outgoing, pleasant, and easy to talk to.

The Society of Professional Journalist Club of Lyndon State was responsible for having Weiss come to the Northeast Kingdom. Weiss’ appearence was their largest event of the year.

Photos: Mike Raimondi and Shane Lacroix

Photo Editing: Mike Raimondi and Shane Lacroix

Slideshow Editing: Andrew Baughn and Mike Raimondi

Audio: Andrew Baughn

Text: Mike Raimondi

Slideshow Synopsis

Our group slideshow project is about 7-Time Emmy Award Winner & New York Producer Alan J. Weiss. He will be visiting Lyndon State College on behalf of the SPJ Club to speak in front of students and faculty.

We will be recording the presentation and an interview with Alan. The interview will be conducted by Andrew after Alan’s presentation. Shane and Mike will take pictures and will be responsible for recording the presentation and interview.

The presentation and interview will be on Monday, October 21, 2013 at 7:30pm.  The slideshow will tie the interview and the presentation together.

The presentation will be centered around working in the major market, breaking the “big story,” and how news has changed during Weiss’ career. The interview will be focused around Weiss, and how he got started and other things about his life.

The sound sources we plan to use are audio from the presentation and the interview. We may also include some background music if needed.

The intended audience is our fellow classmates and anyone who has an interest in multimedia journalism and television studies. The story will be interesting for the audience because it will show viewers how multimedia has evolved over time and can be used to tell a story in a modern and entertaining way.

Andrew Baughn: Recorder and Interviewer

Shane LaCroix: Photographer and Recorder

Mike Raimondi: Photographer and Recorder

sound slides practice

Photo Gallery

The photo gallery is of a a local Photographer that I know from the area. He does many different types of photos and editing but the gallery I looked at was his Sports Album. He has done shots of me of me and I actually appear in the gallery! Each picture shows different moments in high school sports from the local area. His action shots are really good in my opinion!! Here is his Facebook link to his Sports gallery! (You may have to log in to view them) https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.261628453880776.61764.245225078854447&type=3

Slideshow Critique

The first Slideshow I critiqued is the slideshow of from the Red Sox tigers Game 1 of the League Championship Series. There are a total of 15 photos that change roughly every 7 seconds. because the game included two teams there are not a lopsided amount of photos of one team over the other. This slide show does not have audio, but it does have captions and is able to tell the mood of the game at that given time. Knowing the outcome before doing this assignment it is hard to know if I would know what was happening just by looking at the pictures. Sound in this situation wouldn't do much of a difference unless it was a reporter talking about the game as the photos were happening. Here is the link to check it out! http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2013_10_12_detmlb_bosmlb_1#gid=2013_10_12_detmlb_bosmlb_1&mode=photos

The second slideshow I critiqued is one the captures Vermont's Fall Foliage from the lens of another person. It is a long slideshow of still photos that last over 5 minutes. The back ground music is "The Lord's Prayer, By Larry Carlton."  The music allows me to relax an enjoy this person's journey through VT looking at the wonderful scenery that I see everyday. By having these photos and not having a set story with them all I think it allows the audience to create there own story of what was happening. Check it out here! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hBWFccfeuk

Hornets Nest

NewsLINC

This website is a very informative website that covers all over New England. I enjoy the free part of being able to see stories however I have never heard about it this before. It is easy to navigate and find information that I want to find. It seems like a fairly new website and it is catchy site to be on.

I don't see anything that needs to be updated from a point of view of never seeing this site before.

Take a look at NewsLINC!!!!

"The Sports Fan" Podcast

            On Friday, September 20, the first ever edition of the Sports Fans Podcast was created on sound cloud. Recorded at 9 a.m. the Podcast had a round-table discussion of baseball- and focused on the Boston Red Sox. The host of the show was Andrew Baughn, who interviewed baseball players at Lyndon State College. Those athletes were Shane Lacroix and Mike Raimondi.

            The start of the show included a discussion about the three men’s favorite Red Sox players. Lacroix’s favorite was second baseman Dustin Pedroia. Two Gold glove Awards and one MVP Award are part of Pedroia’s resume, but Lacroix claims that these pedigrees are just part of the reason that make Pedroia such an excellent player. His attitude and work ethic on and off the field are what set him apart in Lacroix’s mind. Pedroia works hard and gives everything he has every time he steps on the diamond. His mindset is something every coach wants in a player, and the stats that come with him are impressive as well. These qualities put him in a spot where he is viewed as a leader of this team.  When he won his MVP Award in 2008, Pedroia led the major leagues in runs scored, hits, and doubles. He batted an impressive .326 with 83 runs-batted-in for a man standing at a pedestrian 5’8’’ and 165 pounds. Pedroia is a fan favorite, working hard to win the love of fans. Many baseball fans in New England are fans of the best players, and this theory is holding true for the three speakers.

            Baughn and Raimondi both felt that designated hitter David Ortiz was their favorite Red Sock. Ortiz is a common choice for favorite player among Red Sox nation, and for good reason. Ortiz was a critical component of breaking the “Curse of the Great Bambino” when the Red Sox won the World Series in 2004. “Big Papi” and Manny Ramirez in the middle of the Boston lineup created a formidable force of offense very few pitchers could stop. Bringing the first World Series Title to Boston in 86 years was a huge deal to Red Sox nation and the City of Boston. The region was lucky enough to grab another World Series Title a few years later in 2007, largely in part to Ortiz. In 2007 he led Major League Baseball in walks with 111, and led the league in on-base percentage with .445. Ortiz has been a crucial part of the Red sox success in the mid- 2000s.

            The Red Sox have gone through a huge turn-around this season. Last year at this time, fans were complaining about a poor team and Manager Bobby Valentine saying things publically he should not say. A year later the Red Sox have clinched the American League East Division, and are heading to the playoffs with right now, the best record in Major League Baseball.

            

Shane, Mike and Andrew Podcast

In class Group Project

New LSC students | Infographics

Introduction to Mike, Shane, and Andrew

Podcasts

This has been the first time that I have subscribed to any podcasts. The two that I have subscribed to are both sports related. The first one is ESPN: Olbermann. Keith Olbermann is a sports analysts who covers the latest in all professional and collegiate sports and stories among both of them. I like that he adds humor to the information he is providing us but can also be serious and report certain information. I also like how he interviews other reporters who have covered some of the stories he is talking about. What I don't really like is you can't tell whats next and also sounds like it's just the audio of his TV show that he has so he's talking like we can see what he is talking about. I have watched Olbermann's show before but it is usually on late and I would rather watch Sports Center. However he certainly knows what he is talking about and he doesn't seem biased to anybody in particular. I subscribed to this pod cast on my iPhone.

The second podcast I subscribed to is Get Fit Guy. This guy, Ben Greenfield has short tips to get fit. In each title he has what each podcast is going to be about and I like that. He provides some facts and workout/nutritional tips to become more healthy. I also like that he talks to you like human. He doesn't sound like a monotone informational recording. Although this is the first time I've listened to this podcast, it would be interesting if he put out more than 1 a week. I subscribed to this podcast because I enjoy little tips to become healthier or get more fit and they can be implemented in your day to day life where you don't have to take a huge amount of time out of your day. I also subscribed to this podcast also on my iPhone.

Having subscribed to my first two podcast, I think I will be more likely to listen to the Get Fit Guy more than the ESPN:Olbermann but both are very interesting to me. 

Lyndon State College Hosting the VSO

Come one come all to see the Vermont Symphony Orchestra preform at the Alexander Twilight Theatre on the beautiful campus of Lyndon State College. Music that they will be playing will include but not limited to, Bach and Mozart.

On September 26, the Vermont Symphony Orchestra will continue it's fall tour by performing right here in our own back yard at LSC. They are currently on their annual fall foliage statewide tour titled "Made in Vermont Music Festival." With exciting new features of music and musicians, this is a must see event.

Alan Carter founded the VSO in 1934 and he never looked back. Alan remained Orchestra Director for 40 years.  Currently they have 5 different types of events scheduled into the year 2014.

With exciting new features of music and musicians, this is a must see event. Tickets are available for advanced purchase.

Wood TV Blog critique

After looking over Wood Tv's Bill Steffen's meteorology blog I have seen some interesting thing to a blog.
Every post has a different type of image and weather model which allows his audience to see different things.

If you don't understand weather models like my self, Bill does a great job of describing what he seems. He also stays up to date by updating the blog more than once a day to keep us informed of weather changes.

One of the things that could be fixed is his lengthy writing which could loose audience attention an loose them to other weather pages. Some of the articles I find to chunky and difficult to read because it is lengthy as well as all grouped into 1 paragraph and not in separate chunks.

St. Albans Sunoco Robbed At Gun Point

Early this morning at 1:15am a gentleman approximately 6' tall entered Hometown Sunoco gas station in St. Albans and held the cashier at gun point.

No one was injured in this robbery however, the robber escaped on foot with an undisclosed amount of cash and other items from the store.

The Vermont State police are asking that anyone with information please contact them at 802-524-5993 or the Franklin County Sheriff Department at 802-524-2121. It is an on going investigation and there is an armed man who is wanted.

In class exercise

A Vermont Hunt Gone Bad

A hunt in which two friends had a bear in sight ends tragically.

Conrad Masse of Craftsbury, VT has been charged with Aggravated Assault for shooting his friend Wayne Goff.

Masse and Goff were using bear hounds as they were pushing a bear across Urie Road. Goff just so happened to be on the wrong side of the bear as Masse unloaded three shots as one struck Goff.

Detectives from the Vermont State Police as well as game wardens have recently concluded a lengthy investigation in which Masse has been charged with aggravated assault as well as some other hunting violations.

Conrad Masses will take stand in Orleans Superior Court on Febuary 28, 2014 to answer his charge. 

Blog Critique

The blog I decided to critique was SweetSpot by David Schoenfield.


I like that he gives you a complete update on the previous MLB games. It is mostly his opinion but he certainly has certain things that he looks for and seems knowledgeable about the game. I also like that he not only does a short recap but he also does various posts of other things happening around the league. I also like that he has videos of highlights or interviews or even other reporters talking.

This blog is not "dead" at all. Updated at least once a day with people commenting quite often. But what I see mostly on the last few posts of his, most people are tweeting it or recommending it on Facebook. With this information it shows me people are in fact reading his blog.

If you like the game of baseball like I do this is certainly a good free blog to look at.

espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot&total=1

About My Blog

This blog was created purely on the fact that I love Baseball. As a matter of fact I love sports. The bright green grass also relates to me as I upkeep lawns during the summer as well as the St. Johnsbury Little League fields. When I was searching for a background that really could relate to me and let people know what I am about this is the near perfect one. I also thought that having one like this will differentiate me from others because it is unique.