Little Way takes on the big city

Last week we took perhaps our coolest adventure of the year. Little Way headed south to Atlanta to venture into the life of a journalist. We have spent this half of the school year learning all about journalism and its different forms. Our study culminated with a trip to the CNN headquarters. Not only did we learn all about broadcast news, but we got a special behind the scenes look at the daily operations of CNN digital. 

We started with a cooler than cool tour. We had to ride up the world's tallest free standing escalator. It was epic. We visited a newsroom and got to see how a green screen works. Check out Mr. 5th grade forecasting the weather. He seems to have lost his body (or was just the lucky volunteer to wear the green cape in front of the green screen.)

Our tour guide was fun and wonderful and was a great sport with all of our intense, well-planned questions. For example, he answered like a champ when one of my guys asked "How does being a photo journalist effect your life?" The guide had just told us how the control board works...and that was our follow up question :) At least we were enthusiastic!

Then we took an ice cream break. We needed it. Learning about journalism is hard work.

My highlight of the day is when we met Carl Azuz of CNN Student News. Our dear friend Mr. Manuel works at CNN, and he set up a special meeting for us with Mr. Carl. He was so attentive and answered all of our journalism questions.

 Here he is telling this cute lady how he because a journalist, and how his career led him to CNN student news. We oohed and aahed over how fun and kind and warm he was (well at least I did).
He isn't very recognizable to most adults, but his news broadcast is watched by middle and high school kids all over the country. Teenage girls were lined up to take selfies with him. Obviously. But he gave us his undivided attention. And when we left he said, "Great to meet y'all. God bless!" It was magical.

The end of our tour was a private visit to the CNN.com newsroom. Holy smokes it is a busy place! The writers there were so friendly and took the time to answer all kinds of questions. And considering the breaking news of last week, it was pretty incredible that they would take such time for us.

Here we are watching the home page as it was being updated. We even saw Mr. Manuel find a spelling mistake on the home page and go right away to tell an editor to fix it. And then it was fixed. We watched it happen...along with the thousands of people who were on the home page all over the world. How cool! 

  

The day was completely blessed, and we are still so grateful for such an incredible opportunity. Hooray for journalism!