Striving for Success

Striving for Success - Season 2, Episode 15

Massillon Washington High School's Media Arts co-instructor could soon gain national attention with a feature in Success magazine if he gets enough votes in an online contest which ends January 28th.  As Matthew Ferrell tells OEA on this edition of Education Matters, a win would be a big honor for the students in his award-winning TV classes, too.

MORE | Click here to vote for Matthew Ferrell in the Success 125 contest: http://voteferrell.com/
 
MORE | Check out some of WHS-TV's award-winning work on the program's Facebook page

Featured Education Matters guest: 

Matthew Ferrell, Massillon Washington High School Media Arts co-instructor"It all started with a dream.
When Matthew was just a little kid, he would watch The Dukes of Hazzard on television. Beside him and close to the TV speaker, he would keep a small audio tape recorder with a blank cassette tape inside. When The Dukes would go to commercial, he would hit the record button on his tape recorder to record all of the TV commercials, Station IDs, PSAs and anything else CBS would air during the break. As soon as the show would come back on, he would hit the stop button. He repeated this process until the show was over and his audio cassette tape was filled with only the commercials from that night’s broadcast.
Then, he would use a boombox to record his pretend “radio show”. In his “show” he would sing songs that he made up, tell jokes, perform comedy bits.
“I really didn’t know what I was doing. What I DID know was this is what radio sounds like when I would listen to it everyday. So, I had to make my show sound like that,” said Matthew.
It had to be funny, music-filled and needed commercials. When he went to break, he would then play back all of the commercials that he had recorded from TV using his small tape recorder. He really didn’t know WHY he needed commercials. He only knew that he needed them because that’s what professionals did and he needed to sound professional. He wanted to be a Radio DJ and this is what he had to do to be one. He was five years old.
He started and ran a video rental service in the sixth grade. Made and sold home-made flavored toothpicks in the eighth grade. Chartered bus trips to a local amusement park in the ninth grade. Started a mobile DJ business, a teen night club, a small radio station and he opened a REAL movie rental store all before graduating high school. Only after someone referring to him as a name that he had never heard of before did he discover there was a term for what he was becoming: an Entrepreneur. He initially didn’t believe that was a real word when he was first called this. He quickly realized what the definition was and fully embraced it. Then came the hard part as he says, working at actually pronouncing it. He claims that part was tough. But, he’s confident he has it figured out now.
He has held many different positions throughout his professional career. But, none more rewarding and challenging than his current role as Media Arts Instructor at Massillon Washington High School’s WHS-TV in Massillon, OH.
Together with one other Media Arts Instructor, Dave Scheetz, and retired Media Arts Instructor, Bill Dewald, he carries on a legacy that few people outside of Massillon are aware of. WHS-TV Ohio, or WHS-TV as it’s known locally, is the oldest operating high-school based TV station in the world. Formed in 1967, students learn the art of media production and content creation by producing a variety of sports and community-centric programming that airs to nearly 40,000 homes through their own dedicated 24 hour cable channel.
Although Matthew has only been in his current position since the 2016-2017 school year, his accomplishments there rival that of someone with 30+ years on the job. These include: the launching of all WHS-TV social media platforms, re-branding/station imaging of WHS-TV, technology streamlining and optimization of the entire Media Arts department, launching WHS-TV Junior for the local junior high school, and creating the “CTE Works 4 Me” marketing campaign with logo promoting other school-based programs.
His student based team has earned 12 Business Professionals of America (BPA) Awards and 5 Student Production Awards (aka High School Emmy Awards). He has been named a 2-time Stark County Art Teacher of the Year runner-up, Ohio Association for Career and Technical Education’s Outstanding New Career and Technical Teacher of the Year for 2019 and has earned the highest possible Ohio Teacher Evaluation System (OTES) rating of “Accomplished” every year.
Additionally, there are more WHS-TV students pursuing school, work and/or military service after graduating from his program than ever before.
These are just a few examples of what he has accomplished in his short time with WHS-TV. He is proud of every one of his students and the staff that makes all of this possible. “Everything we accomplish belongs to our entire group, a tribute to our combined effort. I love helping to shine a positive light on WHS-TV and Massillon City Schools. More importantly, I love helping my students accomplish goals that can often seem impossible.” said Matthew.
Looking to the future, he and a few of his top former students are now finalizing plans to launch RocketBox Media, a marketing agency and content creation lab. As well as Matt Jason Rocks, Matthew’s comedic alter ego."

Visit these websites to discover more:
www.WHSTVOhio.com
www.RocketBoxMedia.com
www.MattJasonRocks.com

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The Ohio Education Association represents about 120,000 teachers, faculty members and support professionals who work in Ohio’s schools, colleges, and universities to help improve public education and the lives of Ohio’s children. OEA members provide professional services to benefit students, schools, and the public in virtually every position needed to run Ohio’s schools.
Education Matters host Katie Olmsted serves as Media Relations Consultant for the Ohio Education Association. She joined OEA in May, 2020, after a ten-year career as a television reporter, anchor, and producer. Katie comes from a family of educators and is passionate about telling educators' stories and advocating for Ohio's students. She lives in Central Ohio with her husband and two young children.

This episode was recorded on January 6, 2022