CHANDLER, AZ — While hundreds of students at Basha Elementary were prepping for state testing, dozens more in the school cafeteria were prepping for something a little less stressful.
Thirty kids. One camera. Zero nerves once things got going.
Before a single forecast was recorded, a student named Azreal spotted the GoPro and volunteered to hold it. What followed was several minutes of classmates swarming the lens, waving, saying hi, and saying hi again. He may have found his calling.
The school near Queen Creek and Alma School Road in Chandler has been a community pillar for 30 years. Principal Stephanie Reeves has led it for seven of those years and has spent three decades serving Chandler Unified, a district she is also a product of herself. She said watching her students step in front of the camera to become Kidcasters was something special.
"Seeing them rise to the occasion, get to show off their personality and shine is wonderful to see," Reeves said.
And shine they did, albeit reserved at times.
"Some of them who are normally very outgoing all of a sudden got shy in front of the camera," Reeves said. "And then others who are normally kind of shy during the day, they lit up. It didn't matter if they were our kindergarteners or our older kids. They were like, here we go. I'm showing off."
Nobody told them to clap for each other between recordings. Nobody told them to give high fives. That was just Basha!
