Sycamore High School English teacher produces future digital media storytellers through Spartan TV

SYCAMORE – In his first year running Sycamore High School’s Spartan TV program, students of English teacher Gregory D’Addario say he’s had a positive influence on them as they learn about multimedia storytelling in front of and behind the camera.

Last year, D’Addario was asked to take over the Sycamore School District 427 Spartan TV program at the high school. Six months in, and D’Addario, 34, said he’s really enjoying teaching the class because it’s allowed him to combine his area of expertise with the mediums that – as a millennial – grew up with him.

“I’ve always had a desire to do more stuff with media and, obviously, I teach the language and composition course, which is all about rhetoric and visuals, so it seemed like a good enough fit,” D’Addario said. “And I’m in my 30s, so I grew up with a generation of vlogs and YouTube and all that stuff. So getting a chance to sort of take that passion and put it into something I teach is something I’ve always wanted to do.”

That passion has paid off, said Sycamore High School senior Oliver Keicher.

“I would like to thank Mr. D’Addario for his creativity, his leadership and his new perspective brought to this class,” Keicher said.

The Spartan TV studio has multiple news desks, a classic three-camera setup with teleprompters and an abundance of stage lighting. There’s a green screen available to all four class levels and a production suite with a Tricaster and graphics software. Students learn the ins and outs of camera operation, capture video, present news broadcasts and even call high school sports games.

“We’ve got all this equipment, we’ve got all these opportunities for kids. They get a chance to learn some stuff about broadcast journalism, to do some actual TV production work, to flex their creativity and just sort of create content, which I think is huge for their generation.”

—  Gregory D’Addario, who runs Sycamore High School's Spartan TV program

The program began as an idea with a mission to give students hands-on, multimedia experience that can be translated to college or career success. Since then, four high school classes, two middle school classes and elementary level programs have been created in the school district.

Adrian Springer, a freshman in Spartan TV Level 1, said he took the class for a similar reason D’Addario was interested in teaching it: the increasingly interwoven role digital media has in society, especially for his generation.

“I thought it would be fun because I’ve grown up watching YouTube and TV, and getting that as kind of my main sort of source of information, so I thought it would be fun to make some of my own and inform others,” Springer said. “And it has been fun. It’s definitely a very creative class with not a ton of limits in terms of what we make.”

Springer said he also values D’Addario’s flare for giving his students the room to operate as burgeoning young adults.

“I would want to thank him for giving us a lot of that freedom, and also treating us like we’re adults and we know what we’re doing, and we know what we’re expected of, and just having that sense of responsibility,” Springer said. “It means a lot because, as a kid, it feels really good to be treated like an equal, especially with people you respect like your teachers.”

Ash Weydert, a 15-year-old sophomore in Spartan TV 2, said that she’s loved taking Spartan TV at Sycamore Middle School and has enjoyed what D’Addario has brought to the class.

“He’s really made this class so fun and so informative and a really creative experience,” Weydert said.

Keicher, a Level 4 Spartan TV student who’s been in the program for three years, said D’Addario has allowed him and the two other Level 4 students the freedom to focus on the projects they’ve always wanted to, such as action scenes involving moving cars.

They also make sure there’s enough content ready for the classes’ newscasts. In 2022, the seniors got to film a documentary, an endeavor that took nearly four months

“So we can film a package for our news program and put it in there, or we can go off and do our own project, like last year where we filmed a Pumpkin Fest documentary,” Keicher said. “It was super, super, super cool, so we have a lot of freedom to do whatever we want.”

Because all four levels of the class meet during the same period, D’Addario has to juggle between giving Level 1 students hands-on experience, Level 2 students opportunities to get creative, monitoring Level 3 students’ work covering Sycamore athletics, and assessing how he can help Level 4 students reach their production goals before graduating.

“Really what it ends up becoming [is] sort of trying to project manage more than anything else,” D’Addario said. “They’re the ones making the content. I’m the one who’s trying to keep everybody’s ducks in a row.”

Sycamore High School’s studio is filled with more equipment than some four-year universities, D’Addario said, making the program all the more engaging for students.

In 2024, Spartan TV will celebrate its 10th year in Sycamore schools. It’s a program D’Addario said is now ingrained in the community.

“We’ve got all this equipment, we’ve got all these opportunities for kids. They get a chance to learn some stuff about broadcast journalism, to do some actual TV production work, to flex their creativity and just sort of create content, which I think is huge for their generation,” D’Addario said. “So I think it’s been really valuable.”

Freshman Holly Schneck, a Spartan TV Level 1 student with ambitions of becoming a news reporter, became involved in the program in middle school. Now with almost one year of high school under her belt, she said she knows the class can’t run without D’Addario’s facilitation.

“He is the only way we can have TV production because really there’s no other teacher that can do it like Mr. D’Addario does,” Schneck said.

Emma Cox, also a freshman, said her mind was blown by her first year in Spartan TV. She said D’Addario has helped her learn skills that she hopes will translate to a future career in media. She called D’Addario inspirational and her favorite teacher.

“He lets us do whatever we want as long as it’s not inappropriate,” Cox said. “But he’s so relaxed, and I love the stuff that he does, and he’s a very great teacher. He’s just really nice. He really helps me with everything. Sometimes I show him some of my stuff that I’ll do with Spartan TV or that I do with my athletics, and he’s really positive always.”