Beaming into classrooms and onto YouTube, live from Red Hook, the Harbor News is a morning show written, produced and broadcast by students of the Harbor Middle School.

The devoted group of public school kids arrives early every day to run through scripts they wrote the day before. They hold a pre-show meeting, and take their places.

“Headphones on, mic by your mouth, make sure your camera looks good,” sixth grader Heather Pacheco, 12, told her fellow students before a recent show.

What You Need To Know

  • Students at the Harbor Middle School in Red Hook have launched their own newscast, the Harbor News

  • They write their own scripts and broadcast every morning via Zoom

  • They stream their newscast into classrooms, and to the whole world on YouTube

And then, they’re on. The broadcasts cover everything from weather to education news, like proposals to make Diwali a holiday.

“What do you think about this?" student Achilles Stein asked the audience after a segment on Diwali. "Do you celebrate any holidays that are not recognized by the state? Let us know in the newsroom.”

There’s also breaking news; the crew recently scrambled to write a last-minute segment about a new student-made mascot costume.

Things don’t always go perfectly, especially when there’s less time to practice.

“I thought it was my turn when it wasn’t," sixth grader Penny Foulger, 12, said of one instance when she missed her cue.

But hey, it happens to the pros, too.

“There were some errors here and there, like a lot with camera. But we pushed through and we got the information across to the people," Zelda De Zayas, 11, said.

The broadcast was launched by the school’s social worker, Juliana Bernier, who says it’s been an opportunity for students to grow socially and emotionally.

“It's not always going to be perfect. So how do we manage when it's not? How do we work through some of these errors, and just also kind of let the kids problem-solve it out, right? Like every now and then I'll run over to help support them. But every now and then I want to see, what will they do?” Bernier said.

The students learn about themselves, too. Heather started out on camera, but it made her anxious. So she decided to work behind the scenes instead.
“We usually just help with tech, make sure people are smiling, make sure people, their cameras are on and make sure you can actually hear them. And making sure like, the transitions are good," she said.

And Achilles started in tech, but wound up on camera, first doing world news, and now, local stories with a co-anchor.

“It’s fun. It teaches you a lot, like how to work with other people, how to work through not ideal situations," he said.

And if you want to see more of these students' newscasts, you can find them on YouTube under the name NYHarborMiddleSchool.

On Thursday, the students got a chance to visit NY1 to check out the morning show, "Mornings On 1."

Some of them sat down to share their experiences with NY1's Pat Kiernan and Jamie Stelter, while others got to learn about the weather from SallyAnn Mosey or check out how things run behind the scenes.