It's 9 a.m. Tuesday and TV weatherman Jacob Facemire is looking over the forecast: cloudy and cold. He takes note of the high and low temperatures and picks out a drawing of clouds on white poster board.
Ten minutes later, the anchors of the WOES-TV morning show introduce him. He holds up the poster and delivers the forecast to his audience of 375 students at OES, or Odenton Elementary School.
Jacob, 10, is part of the rotating fifth-grade classes that get to host the five-minute broadcast of announcements. For the past 17 years, Odenton students have produced their own personalized news broadcast - a singular privilege in Anne Arundel County elementary schools.
Librarian Linda Gobbi says she wants to take the broadcast to the next level by updating the outdated studio equipment installed during a 1991 school renovation.
If she's able to raise money through donations and fundraisers, she'll start by replacing the backbone of the broadcast seen on closed-circuit TV: the old Commodore 64 computer. Because the graphics software keeps crashing, Jacob and other students resort to hand-made drawings to illustrate the weather and news.
Other equipment needs to be replaced, including the lighting and microphones. Colors appear washed-out on the old cameras, too.
The morning show is not part of a class. Students do it for fun, but Gobbi makes them take their jobs seriously. She tells each student that they work on contract, which can be revoked if they don't show up or behave.
"I try to create a mini, realistic environment for them," Gobbi said.
She writes the script and invites teachers to promote programs and events on-air. She is trying to encourage more students to come on the show to talk about class projects. To increase interest among the children, Gobbi plans to invite students to be part of a studio audience starting this week.
Gobbi has a three-person, permanent crew who run the control room and monitor the show. Each fifth-grade class takes turns staffing the seven other positions for a month at a time. These students, who volunteer or are recommended by teachers, take on the roles of two anchors, meteorologist, director, two camera operators and cue card holder.
Craig Allen, 11, is in his second year in the control room with Alex Manlangit, 9. They watch the monitors and decide when to switch shots. Sometimes they must signal the two camera operators to change angles or improve their focus, and that sometimes is a challenge.
"If we have a bad crew, they may be a little rowdy," Craig said.
Alex said the assignment is fun when everybody does his job right.
"When everything is fine, then you can just relax," Alex said.
Alex and Craig didn't have to worry about their crew Tuesday morning. The two anchors, Elizabeth Lewis and Amanda Pate, had volunteered before and were used to the routine.
The two led students through the Pledge of Allegiance, ran through some scripted banter about a coming science fair, talked about a historical person for Black History Month and announced the lunch menu.
This is the third time that 11-year-old Amanda has volunteered to be an anchorwoman. She remembers being nervous at first, but now she enjoys reading the news.
"It would be a fun job when I get older," Amanda said.
Amy Kirkendall, 10, a permanent crew member, said she watches the professionals at FOX television news more closely now that she knows what goes on behind the scenes. She started holding cue cards for the show last year when she was in fourth grade. Now she switches between working in the control room and being a camera operator. Amy likes her studio job, but she doesn't see a future career in television.
"It's just a fun thing to do in elementary school," she said.