TJ opens its doors after normal school hours to welcome prospective students who wish to join the Center for Communication Technology.
CCT students prep work to be shown for the open house. Photo by Tori Wallace
Each year, the Center for Communication Technology Magnet hosts a special event to showcase its unique program. This year, there are two open houses for students to come to. One of these events was on Tuesday October 23rd, and the second is on Tuesday November 27th.
The Center for Communication Technology is a program that focuses on the digital communication aspect of our society. It has a wide variety of courses teaching different subjects. “This is a four-year program that educates students in five major areas: Web Design, Communications, 3D Engineering, Software Engineering, and Robotics,” says Matt Spampinato, Director of the CCT. “One of the things that is really important to families and to students is that they see what’s going on in a school that they have a choice to go to. It’s okay to talk about the Center for Communication Technology, but unless people actually see what a great facility we have, and meet what great teachers we have, in person, I don’t think that it’s as effective. We have to actually bring people into the building, talk to them, and show them what we’re doing. We have a very high rate of people that come to our open houses that end up attending school here,” says Spampinato, “We really do have something for everyone.”
Matt Spampinato, a former journalist and photojournalist with the Associated Press, leads the Journalism strand. It teaches students what it’s like to be on a real newspaper staff and about how to improve their writing, interviewing skills, and the importance of meeting a deadline. The Newspaper class is built to emulate an online newspaper staff. There are editors, copy editors, journalists, and photo editors. Each person is responsible for a certain number of articles in a six week period that their grade depends on.
The Photojournalism strand is led by Jeff Coleman, and he teaches students different aspects of photography and video capturing as well as editing. “Photojournalism is mostly about using images to tell stories. We cover the technical aspects of operating the camera and editing digital photos and videos, but we concentrate on communicating ideas with pictures,” says Coleman. Coleman’s class requires a certain number of projects, to be displayed proudly along the walls of the school.
The Radio & Broadcasting strand is led by Grant Laman, and he teaches students what it takes to be a part of a news broadcasting team. Each student must create a number of video projects each six weeks to be included as part of the daily announcements. “During the open house, we’ll have students who will come in from our Radio & TV Broadcasting class and work on a Spartan Edition episode as if it were a day of school just for the prospective students and parents that come around and observe. I will break out and talk to parents and students while my students are working to answer questions,” says Laman. The announcements cover everything from celebrity gossip to the day’s weather.
The Web Design & 3D Animation strands are taught by Jerry Esparza. These two courses, taught by the same instructor, teach students how to use a variety of software programs to create different types of websites, models, and animations. “My students will be working on 3D projects that they have been creating for the past couple of weeks. Also, my web class will be working on their WordPress blog and doing a project on a mock-up of the CCTM website. I will walk around and assist parents with any questions they may have about our program,” says Esparza. In the web design program, students must create a website during each semester of the class using a certain program to present to the class at the end. In the 3D animation program, students must create multiple animations and models during each semester to represent each new technique that they learn.
The Software Engineering strand is taught by Stacey Fornstrom. “In Software Engineering, we are currently using Gamemaker, Visual Basic, Flash, Fireworks, and Photoshop as developing tools to learn to program,” says Fornstrom. Throughout the year, students create several projects in order to show that they understand how each tool is used. These projects range from a basic Tic-Tac-Toe game to a complex platform game.
The Robotics course is led by Spampinato, Fornstrom, Eileen Adair (The Journalism and Intro to CCT teacher), and Ivory Allen. “We are part of First Robotics, which is a large nationwide competition. Early January the club will receive a challenge at the kickoff event at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. They’ll announce a challenge and we, as a team, must build and program a robot to compete in that challenge. April 4th through the 6th, we will be at DU competing against other teams from Colorado. This year, we expect to have about 50 people participating,” says Fornstrom.
The open house was a little bit different this year. In previous years, the event would be set up with different stations. Each of the five main branches would have a 15-minute session for everybody to learn about each strand. This year, it is actually like a traditional open house. Each classroom has students working on projects for prospective incomers to have the chance to talk to, in addition to the opportunity to talk with each teacher on their own time. People can come and go and talk to people as they please. “Having prospective students and their parents watching real students work on real projects is invaluable. You can always try to describe something to someone, but showing them is so much better,” said Matt Spampinato, Journalism/Robotics Teacher and Director of the CCT Magnet. There will be an opportunity to apply to the program during the next open house, if students decide that this is the place for them.
Senior Ryan Woods was one of the students who volunteered to stay behind after school and assist potential upcoming students in making an informed decision about their future high school career. “I felt that I was able to clarify some points and interest that the incoming freshmen were asking about through the use of my projects,” said Woods. “I showed the interested students the projects that I was working on and how I created them and asked if they had any further questions about the CCT program,” Woods said.
As mentioned previously, there will be another open house on November 27th, 2012. When asked if Woods would be interested in doing this again, he says, “Yes, because it is something that I wish that I would have had when looking at high schools and could have helped change which programs I had wanted to go into, or even my school choice.”
Whether you know you would like to join the CCT or not, the open house is a great event for prospective students to find out what they would really like to do. Everybody is welcome to come by the school for the next open house on November 27th from 6:00-8:30 p.m., to find out if the Center for Communication Technology is a good fit for you.
