Like many teenagers, being in front of a video camera makes Tiana Carter nervous. She looked down while reading a story to the camera last week and stumbled slightly over a few of her words.

“I get really self-conscious,” said Carter, 13, adding that talking in front of a camera for the first time made her very nervous. “I was hoping this would get me out of it.”

Carter, who is hoping the experience will give her more confidence, is one of 16 students reporting for a new weekly program on Lake Region TV on news at Lake Region Middle School.

On Feb. 12, Carter and four other seventh-graders were writing stories in preparation to record them for the second weekly news program. A different group of students recorded the first show, which premiered Feb. 6.

Principal Peter Mortenson and Manager of Lake Region TV John Likshis coach students after school on Thursdays in writing, reading and recording their stories.

“It’s great for personal self-confidence,” said Likshis, who used to manage the cable channel for Portland Public Schools. “You can never get enough public speaking experience.”

The Lake Region Middle School TV news can be seen on Lake Region TV Time Warner channel 5. The show airs on Fridays at 6 p.m. and then rotates through the schedule. It is also possible to view past shows online by searching for “lrms tv” at www.vimeo.com.

As an after school activity, Mortensen helps students decide on stories and then sends them off to write.

“What is your story about?” he asked Carter, who was writing about a middle school honors assembly. “Who? What? When? Where? Why?” He told Carter to write down everything she wanted to say about the assembly, including an introduction.

Meanwhile, Taylor Kwaak and Aly Kepler, both 13, practiced reading an interview. Kwaak was interviewing Kepler about sicknesses going around the school, with Kepler using information from a previous interview with the school nurse. Mortensen helped the girls write an introduction.

“Read it to me,” Mortenson said, kneeling on the floor around 10 feet back from where the girls sat at desks. “Let’s go through it once. Remember, I’m the camera. You need to project.”

The girls broke out into giggles in the middle of practicing, but pulled themselves together and made it to the end of the interview written on sheets of paper in front of them.

“Look at the camera,” Mortenson said.

After practicing again, Kwaak and Kepler crossed the hall to a room where the video camera was set up. They sat in front of a backdrop that read LRMS news and, with Carter running the camera, presented their interview.

“This is like a play,” Kepler said later. Kepler, who splits her time between Bridgton and Naples, said she joined the news project to keep her occupied and spend time with friends.

“I thought it might be fun to be on TV,” Kepler said.

Kwaak, of Sebago, agreed. She got involved to spend time with friends and because she thought it might be fun.

Next time the two girls plan to write a story about the pep rally, which they will participate in. At the rally, everyone dresses up, and each class presents a dance, they said enthusiastically.

“This is a blast,” Mortenson said about the project. “It’s a fabulously engaging, relevant activity, and they love it.”

Mortenson said, eventually, he would like to have students run every aspect of the show, with student producers and editors and students taping events around the school. He said he expects sixth- and seventh-grade students to teach younger students next year, and even hopes students will continue working with Lake Region TV in high school.

Likshis said some students at Lake Region High School have taken a video class with Lake Region TV and are taping local events for airing. The TV station is available to local residents to produce programming.

The station, which is starting it’s 17th year, focuses mainly on municipal meetings, though other types of programming and a community calendar are aired as well. It’s a well-used and well-viewed station, Likshis said, given that the primary news stations often don’t cover much as far away from Portland as Bridgton.

For the Feb. 13 show, students presented stories about their classmates getting sick from various viruses, the honors assembly, educational activities led by Lakes Environmental Association staff and the adventure program, a series of activities with members of the Army/National Guard to help seventh-graders make positive choices. The previous week’s show included stories about the upcoming pep rally, the basketball season, the spelling bee and the geography bee.

Naples resident Ben Roy, 12, recorded his first story about the school’s adventure program. Though he stumbled at times and had to re-tape the introduction, he said, considering it was his first time in front of the camera, he wasn’t that nervous.

“It’s really fun,” Roy said. “We’re gonna be on TV. We’re writing our own stories.”

Maria Kolofsky tapes her segment for the Lake Region Middle School news as Tiana Carter operates the camera and Lake Region TV Manager John Likshis directs. The middle school news program are aired on local cable access channel five once a week. The segments are written and filmed by 16 seventh and eighth graders with the assistance of Principal Peter Mortenson.Peter Mortenson, principal of Lake Region Middle School, helps Kayla Kwaak and Aly Kepler practice their scripts while Lake Region TV Manager John Likshis looks on and Ben Roy puts the finishing touches on his own script. The seventh graders were preparing to tape the second show about middle school news, to be aired on Lake Region TV.