Back to Basics: ASB Workshop Focus Remains the Same

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Written By Dave Davis

0012211260Goodwin Films102147914.0Normal0falsefalsefalseEN-USJAX-NONE/* Style Definitions */table.MsoNormalTable{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;mso-style-noshow:yes;mso-style-priority:99;mso-style-parent:"";mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;mso-para-margin:0in;mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-pagination:widow-orphan;font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";border:none;}We started the ASB Workshop in the summer of 2000, and we've tweaked it a little every year.  Made subtle changes here or there, played with the schedule.  Yet despite our tinkering, one thing stays the same every summer…it’s all about telling a story.

This year, 27 teachers from as far away as California, New York, North Dakota, and Florida will come together to learn as much as they can about teaching kids to use cameras and mics. They will practice what they will soon be preaching to their own students.  That includes field work; interviewing; writing; editing.  The hands-on component is where lessons taught in the morning become real in the afternoon during the sometimes grueling “application” phase.

When we started the workshop all those years ago, it was VHS tapes and analog editing systems.  Schools played shows back on VCRs, or via their Channel One system.  Nobody was online.  Our workshop is five years older than You Tube.  The cameras were bulky, and the tripods were really heavy.  There were a lot fewer video programs in high schools and hardly any at the middle school level.

While many summer workshops and inservice opportunities these days are about gadgets, and apps, and software, and all the social media platforms, ultimately, we take the same journey every summer, the journey to better storytelling.

This year’s ride begins July 12, and we can't wait to meet our newest passengers.  

Dave Davis

Dave Davis started a Broadcast Journalism class at Hillcrest High School in the fall of 1989. Since then, the school's student-produced show, "HTV Magazine," has become one of the nation's most-honored high school broadcasts.

In an effort to provide valuable, useful, hands-on instruction to broadcast teachers from across the nation, Davis founded ASB Workshop in the summer of 2000. Since then, the week-long workshop has provided training for hundreds of high school and middle school teachers from 47 states, plus Mexico, England, South Korea, and Japan.

In the spring of 2009 he was named the Springfield (MO) Public Schools Teacher of the Year. He lives in Springfield with wife Martha, and has two daughters who live and work in the area.

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What a Workshop Director Learned This Year
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Storytelling Award Winner -Spring 2015