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Thursday, May 23, 2013
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"iColton" hosts Colton Thomas, far right, and Alyssa Kellum record the weekly announcement show Thursday as Brant Barnes films them on an iPad.
October 30, 2012
PERRYDALE -- Need to know what is going on at Perrydale School?
Look no further than iColton.
iColton is the Perrydale Leadership Class' answer to having more students pay attention to the school's weekly happenings.
In past years, announcements were posted on the school's website or around campus, but many students missed them.
"What the kids were saying was `I never see those announcements,'" said Linda Romey, leadership class teacher. "We were trying to think of a way that would be a little bit more entertaining to at least get the major announcements of the week out."
Named after leadership class member and Perrydale High freshman Colton Thomas -- though he's quick to say he had nothing to do with coming up with the name -- iColton is a webcast recorded in news broadcast fashion. The broadcast is shown during first period on Mondays and is available on You Tube on the leadership class' channel.
Thomas' co-anchor is sophomore Alyssa Kellum. After seeing just a few minutes of the duo talking, it's obvious why they were selected to work together.
The two of them write a script -- more like just bullet points -- and ad-lib through the announcements a couple of times. They make adjustments or add items and then give it a final run-through.
The two are able to make what could be a boring listing of activities and information entertaining.
"What she says, I go with it and it's just funny," Thomas said of Kellum.
They also help each other recover from awkward moments beautifully. As Kellum said to Thomas jokingly: "I'll be the iron. You'll be the sheet."
Thomas said Kellum's addition to iColton a few weeks into the school year was a lifesaver.
"I was way too nervous. Everything was on me," he said. "I was trying to make it funny, but I was just like a robot."
Thomas and Kellum were just talking about iColton in class when something clicked. Everyone noticed, Romey said.
"One time Alyssa was just playing around with him and we noticed that the banter between the two of them was really connecting," she recalled. "We decided that we needed to have Alyssa as a co-anchor."
Thomas, despite his own assessment of his solo broadcasts, was the obvious pick for anchor, according to Romey and his classmates.
"Colton has quite a sense of humor and he's just real easy to talk to," Romey said. "He seemed a natural for doing something like this. We all just looked to Colton."
"To summarize, he's pretty much awesome," Kellum added.
The hope is, as the year goes on, to make iColton even more sophisticated. The broadcast is shot with an iPad and the class is looking into video editing software that would allow it to shoot segments outside "the studio" (the leadership classroom).
"(We can) only grow from here in our expertise," Romey said.
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