COAL TOWNSHIP -- A sixth grade class at Shamokin Area Elementary School is turning to Newswatch 16 for help with an assignment.
The students had a chance to act as reporters for "The News Station."
Teacher Ken Schetroma's class is currently reading the book "Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief," and after each chapter, the class does an activity.
"After the chapter we just read, there's a part where Percy jumps off a national landmark into the Mississippi River. At the time, the national media is portraying Percy to be some sort of criminal," Schetroma explained.
So Schetroma turned to Newswatch 16 for guidance in creating a mock broadcast for the students. He played the role of news director.
"We talked about the different things that news reporters talk about when they try to get information out to the community and to the public and stuff" said Shetroma.
Schetroma gave the mini Newswatch 16 reporters five minutes to write a breaking news report about the efforts to find the book's main character Percy Jackson.
"I liked writing the news, the breaking news. It was fun," said student Madyson Wauth.
The reporters and anchors took the assignment seriously. The students say they had so much fun, we might even see some Newswatch 16 reporters in the future.
"Yeah, it would be nice to be in front of a TV a lot," said Colton Lynch.
"It felt really amazing. I got really excited," said Skye Balonis.
Schetroma says he chose Newswatch 16 to be part of the assignment because there are a lot of young fans in his classroom.
