RMS student podcast class wins first place
RUSSELLVILLE – Russellville Middle School is now the home of an award-winning sports-themed podcast, “The Golden Playbook,” which debuted earlier this semester with an episode themed around celebrating the legacy of RHS football legend Roy Lee “Chucky” Mullins.
The 24 members of the studentled “Introduction to Innovations” class took first place as part of an effective communicator challenge by Ed Farm, a 501(c)(3) organization whose website states the nonprofit is on a mission to “close the digital skills gap.”
Notice of the accomplishment came as part of a special day where the class presented its project, along with students from three other schools, at Ed Farm headquarters in Birmingham. In total, 20 schools competed. The field trip days at the organization included breaking the groups down into smaller numbers of schools.
Library Media Specialist Lauren Archer and English and Language Arts teacher Alana Parker co-led the class.
“Our students did fantastic,” said Archer, who noted the premiere episode, the only one part of the judging, received 1,773 listens.
Scarlet Vela, Mackie Drew Parker, Drake Glass, Jackson Behel and Aiden Contreras were on the presentation team.
“Their presentation was so great,” Archer said. “They all spoke so clearly. When they tallied up all the scores, we came in first.”
Archer said there was a school with more listens than RMS – 1,959, but it didn’t win as the students didn’t correctly followe the rules of the competition.
“We were so happy, and our students were so excited,” Archer said.
In order to create the podcast, the students were divided into smaller groups to tackle different aspects of production.
Eighth grader Britney Escobedo was one of the podcasters on the premiere episode. “We all worked hard,” Escobedo said. “We had our struggles, but we overcame them. I was surprised and very excited about winning.”
Escobedo said beyond winning, for her the best part about the experience of creating and developing the podcast this semester has been “the moments we shared and how we came to be closer together.”
Fellow eighth grader Timothy Juan worked on editing for the podcast episode.
“It feels great to win,” Juan said. “All your hard work finally being recognized. I enjoyed learning how to edit audio.”
Another of the eighth graders, JaMere Rose, was a podcast host on the winning episode. For the second episode, about Russellville City Schools Coach Tim Townley, which was released last week, he served on the content and research team.
“It feels good,” Rose said. “I wasn’t surprised we won. My favorite part of this semester was recording the podcast in the booth.”
RMS Assistant Principal Kyle Taylor was excited and proud of the podcast team.
“The kids have worked so hard this year,” Taylor said. “The Innovations class teachers, Lauren Archer and Alana Parker, have done a tremendous job of leading the class. The students were in groups, and each one played a pivotal part in recording the podcast. This award puts a good spotlight, not only on our school, but on our community as well.”
