Yearbooks and NOT taking photos

During our sessions at the Cronkite School we talked a lot about how to do things properly. Today I was browsing for ideas to supplement my instruction for my yearbook classes and I came across an article about teaching students when not to make photographs.

Written by Bill Hankins, he cautions against using the clichés such as the secretary talking on the phone or the principal behind her desk. Other things to watch out for are Lazy photos - where the photographer did not try to be original and Over-Used people. Don't be putting the same handful of students in the book over and over again while others are left out.

I'd like to put on my preaching hat (just for a few sentences) and ask that we all remind students that the yearbook is the story of the whole school - not just a select few popular people. Schools are very diverse places, and the annual should be as well. When going through the images and the pages keep asking yourself "who is not in here?" and "How many times have we already seen the 1st string quarterback in the book?"

Jeff Jones

Miyamura High School

Gallup, New Mexico

Two audio pieces for your listening pleasure!!

I just returned from the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke in Durham, NC. We were part of a project documenting oral histories of The Watts Hospital-Hillandale neighborhood there. The principals and their neighbors were invited to a presentation with a pot luck afterwards. We worked in Pro Tools and the whole thing was a fabulous experience. I hope to continue what I learned with all of you at ASU this summer and include audio work .

The piece is three minutes.

Man, it is hard to kill your darlings, people. The audio that got cut was hard to leave on the floor. The secret seems to be that if the story moves along without the part you need to cut, then cut, cut, cut. Ouch. The other thing that helped was honest feedback that told us when the listeners were losing interest. One really does get too close to the subject/project.

We could have cut five different pieces on Mr. Kerr. He is a practiced storyteller, 86 years old, and you can hear the accent.

By the way, if you ever go to Durham, be sure to check out the Loco-pops store. Awesome popsicles with unusual flavors, really, really unusual. Here is a story for NPR from Shea Shackleford, one of our teachers at the Center.

Miss all of you!!

Joanna Greer

John F. Kennedy High School

Silver Spring, Md

NOW -- LISTEN TO OUR PIECE!! ;0)

Highlight from HighSchoolJournalism.org

Congratulations to Rebecca Gemmell, whose lesson plan is featured out front on ASNE's HighSchoolJournalism.org site!

Steve Elliott

Arizona State University

Phoenix

Walter Cronkite & Advanced Placement Conference

I was at the Advanced Placement national conference, held this year in San Antonio, Texas (I thought of Mark in Laredo, but I didn't rent a car to drive over. . .). Anyway, one of our plenary speakers was Gwen Ifill. She is a good speaker, by the way, and a fine representative of journalism (she specifically pointed out that she works on The News Hour, which has thus far continued to report news as opposed to sensationalism). She made a point during her speech to offer a tribute to Walter Cronkite, which garnered an enthusiastic ovation.

I offer this tidbit just to point out that Mr. Cronkite is appreciated and missed by thoughtful people everywhere. God bless him, and his family.

Juli Stricklan
Rigby High School
Rigby, Idaho

The most trusted man in America

Front page of today's San Jose Mercury News from the newseum.org

"A good journalist doesn't just know the public, he is the public. He feels the same things they do..." Walter Cronkite was quoted as once saying.
How relevant is that message to us today? With all the media in all its various forms and ways to access it, it is ever more important to be reminded of journalists like Cronkite.
Cronkite was able to establish trust with his audience because he recognized the journalist's role in society. Whether it was following the developments in Vietnam to see for himself and report to the rest of the country or bring guidance after the assassination of President Kennedy, he defined the ethics of journalism. He seemed to see his role as a public servant, with the duty of keeping the public informed in order to maintain our democratic society. That respect for the public was huge and cannot be over-emphasized.
When I go back to my classroom this year, I have a concrete example to refer to when I talk about the code of ethics. I can talk about how a reporter seeks the truth, how one does her own reporting, how one minimizes harm to colleagues and subjects, how one works independent of personal bias, and how one holds oneself accountable to the public.
It is a mouthful, but I am proud to say that I attended the ASNE Reynolds High School Journalism Institute at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University.

Eric Chow
Phillip & Sala Burton High School
San Francisco, CA

Cronkite and ASU

I'm sure word of Walter Cronkite's passing has extra significance because of your time at the school bearing his name. In addition to the media coverage, you'll find quite a bit of information in a special report on the school's Web site, including the story of how we became the Cronkite School.

The photo above shows Mr. Cronkite with Cronkite Village, a group of top students living as a unit in an ASU residence hall.

Photo Credit: Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, Arizona State University

Steve Elliott
Arizona State University
Phoenix

News story on Walter Cronkite's death

AP's story on Walter Cronkite.

Mark Webber
Laredo, Texas

Testing? And Walter Cronkite's death

I heard the news about the death of Walter Cronkite and came to the blog to see what others were saying and put in my own 2 cents. I got a message that the blog was blocked. Did anyone else have that issue? I'm posting to see if this is blocked. If it goes through, let me say I was saddened to hear this news, but of course we were aware he was not doing well even during the Institute. With the Michael Jackson media circus, I am interested to see how this will be covered. So far, it seems very dignified and respectful, certainly as it should be for the death of an icon who was for a long time the most trusted face (and voice) in America.

Lynne Schneider

Jackson, Miss.

InDesign, Photoshop, et al

I just completed a course on InDesign. I took the course online through Lynda.com. For $25 a month, you can take a gazillion courses--all done very professionally, at...your....own.....pace.

When you've finished a course, you get this nifty certificate of completion that you can print, download or e-mail to your favorite administrator.

The Poynter Institute also is a great resource for FREE online lessons at their News University. Not quite as in deapth as Lynda, but FREE.

BTW, I miss you guys!!!

Rick Burd

Wickenburg High School

Wickenburg, Ariz

Chain gang follow up

It was 115° here yesterday. The news said it was the hottest location on earth. Some place in Saudi Arabia came in second.

Today I hopped in my air-conditioned car to return a book (The Scarecrow) to the library. Just outside my gated and walled development (fairly typical in Arizona), there was a women's chain gang at work on the landscaping. It was 104° at 10:45 this morning.

I stopped. I got out of the car with my camera and walked over to the officer who was watching over the prisoners. Officer Armando was very cordial. He asked if he could help me and I told him who I was and asked if it would be OK to take a few pictures. He said he would prefer if I did not. I immediately thought of one of the four areas of the SPJ code of ethics: Minimize harm.

While we were talking, a worker for the City of Surprise came by and introduced himself. He told me that the city contracts with the prison to get the landscaping done. "Saves us a lot of money," he said. I asked Officer Armando how the girls felt about being out here in this heat. He told me that they see this work program as a "privilege."

"They have to work their way up to level one in order to be considered for the outside," he said. "And if they mess up, they go back down to a lower level and it takes them at least six months to get back on the list."

When I first came to Arizona ten years ago, I thought that 'forcing' women to do menial labor in the hot son was horribly cruel. Perhaps some of my fellow Reynolds Institute graduates felt the same way. The girls do not see it that way. Officer Armando and the Surprise city worker agreed; the girls would much rather feel like they are contributing than to stay inside a prison all day. There is a waiting list to work on the outside.

I was given the name of the City of Surprise supervisor of public works. I will contact her and see if she would like an article done in our school newspaper. Maybe it will help someone. Maybe journalism can make a difference. I hope so.

Rick Burd
Wickenburg High School
Wickenburg, Ariz

Bucking the trend of newspapers-buy them

For a long time newspaper owners on the high end of the spectrum have been gutting newsroom staff and demanding unrealistic profits. Across the country newspapers are apparently on life support. Lay-offs and salary cuts are the norm.

So, how about this: a former Wall Street type has bailed on the corporate life and purchased several newspapers in Iowa (including the Charles City Press).... and in a posting shared with members of Sportsshooter.com, the buyer - Gene Hall - shares his reasons (follow the link in bold, below) and why he believes he is NOT taking a huge risk.

THIS POST with his reasons makes me think that maybe there actually are a few people out there that are thinking about newspapers in the right way.

Good luck. Hopefully he can start a trend...

Jeff Jones

Miyamura High School

Gallup, NM

Reynolds helps with more than just journalism

SchoolTube - A Vision for k-12 Learners Today

Shared via AddThis

Today, I started an AP Institute for AP Language and Composition. We watched this video to discuss the rhetorical triangle. It's about teaching, not journalism, but the film just gave me more motivation to use technology. And not just for journalism. I'm ready to try blogging for book discussions in my other classes by having students complete a set number of blogs and comments like we did during the Reynolds Institute. Have any of you English-teacher-types tried that? How did it work for you?

I'm trying not to lose what I learned in Phoenix this week while we are focused on AP, and I'm hoping that thinking in terms of how it can fit with my journalism classes will help. But I'm finding that what I learned in Phoenix is starting to fit in what I teach in regular English classes even better. It's really quite useful how we can fit it all together. I know that ASNE is trying to help us with high school publications, and there is no doubt that the Reynolds Institute does this. I hope ASNE and those who are involved with the institutes know how much this can help us teach, period.

Lynne Schneider

Murrah High School

Jackson, Miss.

More resources for The Scarecrow

Here is another resource for my lesson on Michael Connelly's The Scarecrow.

Connelly speaks from the Tattered Book Cover in Denver via the Author's Ontour Live podcast. The podcast series, itself, is so good that I subscribed to it and went back through the archives to listen to several more. Enjoy.

Debbie Aughey
Campbell High School
The Spartan Chronicles
Smyrna, Ga.

Localized Media -- Social, for sure

http://www.time.com/time/video/?bcpid=1485842900&bctid=28892569001 (Click on Tribal Radio piece)

Sorry. TIME is not with the program that lets you embed the HTML as far as I can tell. Nice mix of sound and slide interspersed with video. Arizona, too!!!

The Hopi Indians are masters of old school social media in serving their community. What I love about this is that there is a "there" there. Definitely not corporate radio.

Art is a storyteller postcard from a museum I picked up. Sorry about missing attribution. Conveys the idea of telling, however, even if very old and maybe Javanese, not Native American. It's all stories, right?

Joanna Greer

John F. Kennedy High School

Silver Spring, Md

Sounds like you should link . . .

BOOKMARK THESE Blogs about radio/audio

B0th web sites came from the Association of Independents in Radio (AIR)

http://cyrusfarivar.com/blog/?p=2426#more-2426

fieldsepulchra » lake

I couldn't find audio art so I have included this photo from my hometown in West Virginia. Subway moved into this Exxon station and they insisted that the stuffed dog who had lived there and was the station mascot be removed. The owner complied. Now the dog and the Subway and the station are all gone. This was a good story that got away. Think of the audio you would want for a piece like this. Obviously the dog would be mute. But the accents alone are amazing and the explanations about why the dog got to live there and why they wanted to preserve him would be as well.

Joanna Greer

John F. Kennedy High School

Silver Spring, Md

Took a break last weekend

After our fantastic learning experience in Phoenix, I went to Chicago for my mother's surgery. She is fine. However, I was without my computer and pretty busy with their household issues while she was recovering. I did get to go for this great walk with my sister and I want to share it with you in celebration of our time together AND the lesson plans are finished. PLEASE KNOW THAT I KNOW THE SHOOTING IS NOT SO GOOD. My defense is that I wasn't expecting cool things, I had that little digital camera, AND it was sunny, sunny, sunny . . . could not see what I was shooting. Still, you can find interesting things to shoot/show in spite of all that and I wonder about so many of these performers. Who are they? What are their plans? How long did they have to practice to get this good? Potential stories are everywhere.

Miss you guys!

Joanna Greer

John F. Kennedy High School

Silver Spring, Md

Lesson plans posted

I've posted links to your lesson plans and supporting documents here. There's also a link at left.

Steve Elliott
Arizona State University
Phoenix

Movie to see re ethics

A few weeks ago one of our sessions revolved around ethics. Just by chance today I stumbled across a movie on IFC titled Shattered Glass. It was made in 2003 and it tells the story of The New Republic "journliast" Steve Glass and all of the stories he fabricated and how he was eventually exposed by Forbes On-line.

Toward the end of the movie a receptionist looks at the editor asd he enters the office and says that there was a way around this whole fiasco - pictures. If everybody you write about has to be photographed then it is hard to fabricate somebody.

The movie also points out one of the major holes in jouralism: the reliance on journalist's notes as facts and primary source informaiton. For so many reporters this has been a system that works, but for soembody like Steve Glass, who chose to be dishonest, the system can be exploited.

--------

Jeff Jones

Miyamura High School

Gallup, NM

ASNE lesson plan

I just finished up my lesson plan about an hour ago and submitted it to Steve. It feels good to have accomplished this. I started with something that interested me personally and this seemed to help. The best part was going through the process. I did a lot of Google searches for lesson plans formatting and learned a lot about this while completing the assignment.

My lesson is on how governments and world leaders attempt to get their message out via popular media. I focused in on 4 countries: Israel, Cuba, Venezuela and Russia. I was going to pick North Korea since I have been following the story about the two reporters in custody there but decided to stick with my original choices.

I am going to try this lesson with my class and have it lead into another one where we discuss social media and networking and how government opponent's get their message out.

Well, as my summer nears an end I wish you all well. I head into heavy-duty lesson planning next week so I am ready for the new year.

Mark Silverstein
Media and Journalism Instructor
Douglas High School
Douglas, Arizona

Lesson plan done!

It is 2:39 a.m. here, and I just finished and sent my lesson plan to Steve. It has been on my mind and I hope what I came up with will be helpful. Hopefully it is unique and creative enough, but I'm not sure of that when there are already over 250 plans already posted at www.hsj.org. Is anyone else having problems or worries?

Good luck to anyone who is still dealing with this part. The lesson plan is easily the most difficult assignment for me of all that we were given. We write lesson plans all the time, right? The big deal must be that these will be seen by Steve, Diana and others at ASNE. Even scarier, I'm assuming all the fellows will also be getting them. That's kind of daunting with such an impressive and talented group! It's also hard to be in the mood for objectives and essential questions in July. My need for CEU's is just to great to skip this. :>

Is there a plan for us to get copies of the lesson plans? I hope so, since I'm counting on all of your plans to help me through next year.

Lynne Schneider

Murrah High School

Jackson, MS

Photo editing woes?

Greetings! I am in a cheery mood, despite a meeting earlier this afternoon with my principal who told me that I should not count on getting Photoshop software on my computers for my digital darkroom class.

This digital darkroom course will be for one semester and I will have three sections a day x 28 students. That sounds like a lot of students with nothing to do.

Thankfully, there are people out there who do not want to make a profit off of everything they do, and after some searching I cam across some FREE software that looks to be very powerful - coming very close to what I do with Photoshop CS3, and did I mention it is free?

The software is called GIMP. It's an acronym for GNU Image Manipulation Program. It runs on both PC and Mac, as well as (I think) Linux etc. If you are looking at wanting to have some control over the images, and you have no budget, I would say give this a try.

It has tools that Photoshop has - like cloning, quick selection, layers, unsharp mask, levels, curves, and so much more.

I did mention that it is free, didn't I?

Also, for those of you that like to shoot with high quality, there is a second piece of software called UFRaw that can open raw files (though I am not sure how current of Nikon cameras they support - my D200 and D80 files open fine). And then you can import the image directly into GIMP, or you can save the file as a JPEG with basic exposure corrections and color balance changes.

Even though it is free, if you feel guilty about using somehting this cool for nothing, or you feel generous, they do take donations . . .

Jeff Jones

Gallup, New Mexico

I bought a sunday paper

SF Chronicle goes small format

This was the first time in a looong while. I paid my hard-earned summer savings to buy the Sunday Edition of the SF Chronicle. As much as I loathe the changes that they have made in content and design, I thought it was the right thing to do.
I had been reading The Elements of Journalism by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel. I got to the part in which they explain how "citizens are not customers," and in fact, it is the advertisers who have traditionally funded the news in a triangle relationship with news - citizens - advertisers. It made me realize that my role in supporting the democratic society that I live in involves supporting the free press. While I can get updated news from my Twitters and from online, it is just as important to support the lady who sells the papers in front of the bagel shop, talk to her about what's happening, read the news to my wife or talk about some article at the coffee shop.
I think one distinction that Kovach and Rosenstiel said is that we seek the news, but we don't consume the news. The news is everywhere, it is free, and it is unmitigated. But journalists and newspeople help us make sense of the news. And at their best, they give us the information that we crave and let us discuss it and form our own opinions. What a society it didn't have journalists?
Surprisingly, the Chron had 4 front-page stories instead of the usual jumble of teasers. There was an article about how California residents are struggling with the economic woes and another one about a new study on salmon hatcheries that may actually be harming the natural order. I did the right thing this July 4th.

Eric Chow
Phillip & Sala Burton High School
San Francisco

First day

Hi, all.

I'm sitting here waiting for Cathy to get ready for our two-hour drive to Sedona, where she'll visit with 'The Princess,' Anna, and I'll visit with my BFF, Daniel. They are four and six, respectively. Our daughter and her husband will be there, too, but they're not as much fun.

I finally got time to sit at my desk and get caught up on some loose ends. I spent five brutal days this past week in Structured English Immersion class. Arizona requires at least 60 hours of SEI in order to maintain certification.

Anyhow, this is a photo of Kye on our first day (Sunday?) at Cronkite. What a great two weeks!

Rick Burd
Wickenburg HS

Friday in Southern Arizona

The monsoon season is upon us. It rains at least once everyday.

As much as I enjoyed and learned being at the Cronkite School for 2 weeks I am glad to be back home. I love the community in which I live and teaching means everything to me. I am glad to be back in my classroom and getting ready for the new year.

I am going through all of my books and will be putting together a list of titles a bit later this summer. Next week I will be putting together curriculum for the new year. I came up with dozens of ideas while in Phoenix and will be fleshing them out for the new year.

So, thanks to all the staff, speakers and attendees for all that you shared.

Mark Silverstein
Media and Journalism Instructor
Douglas High School
Douglas, Arizona

Ethical dilemma: selling ads and writing stories

I just left a meeting of the Jackson Area High School Press Association, which is a group of local professionals and educators working to support high school journalism. We only had four people today, so it was a very casual meeting. I spent some time sharing what we did at the Reynolds Institute and how it would help not only at Murrah but throughtout the area.

Donna Ladd, the editor of our local alternative weekly, the Jackson Free Press, asked me if anything came up about students selling advertising and writing stories, since that is not considered good practice in the professional world. I told her that we discussed conflict of interest, but I didn't think anything about students doing both came up. She seemed to think it was a no-no, but then I told her with 17 students on staff it was hard to keep the two totally separate, although obviously no one sold an ad and wrote a story about the advertiser.

I thought I would ask this group for some feedback. Do your students sell ads and function as reporters for your publication? Does anyone see this as an ethical dilemma on a high school level? If you don't allow students to do both, how do you manage to have enough ad revenue?

Lynne Schneider
Murrah High School
Jackson, Miss.

A great read on image manipulation & ethics

Mark Hancock is a photojournalist who spends an incredible amount of time on his blog - with research, trends and explanations of his work.

I have heard about various cases of image manipulation in news outlets over the years, and always wondered what these people were thinking. In the post linked to below, Hancock has detailed the specifics of multiple cases - going all the way back to Mathew Brady in the 1860s.

I encourage you to read through it - it is long, but very thorough and definately worth the time. I will be sharing this entry with my journalism students this fall.

PhotoJournalism: Image manipulation is a global problem

Jeff Jones

Miyamura High School

Gallup, NM

Closing ceremony comments

Here's a video with highlights from the closing ceremony. I focused on testimonials about the program and its benefits.

Is it a story?

I don't actually report back to school until August 5th, but I was up in my classroom today, finishing up some last minute stuff and trying to get myself organized. Because I took on Yearbook, I've gained 5 computers, a box of broken cameras, a giant teacher desk, a monstrosity of a filing cabinet and approximately 24892039488539843498 old yearbooks from around the country that span the course of the last 35 years. The organizational oasis I had created for myself before school let out was long gone.

In addition to finding piles of Yearbook crap all over my classroom, and my desks put back in some sort of cracked out jigsaw puzzle version of the sketch I left behind, I also came across two very interesting voicemails. I actually only checked my messages because I was meeting with my yearbook rep, and she was running late, so I wanted to make sure she was still coming. So, I checked my messages expecting there to be a call from her, saying she was cancelling, or in an accident, or held up at another appt, whatever. But I got something else entirely....

And I find the timing on this... so odd. Over the last two weeks, we heard a lot of people tell us about their investigative stories that won them awards. Or their coverage of events that did wonders for revamping their papers. Or the little bit of digging that lead to a huge discovery. And the whole time, I'm sitting there thinking, "How often does a story like that come along? And really, how much investigative journalism can a high school kid do?" I mean, it would be awesome to scoop the paper on some amazing piece of news, but I feared my kids were considerably more interested in themselves than the world around them.

But it was like the journalism gods answered my prayers, or something. I had 2 messages on my voicemail (both like 10 minutes long) from a "concerned citizen"... I can't go too far into detail, because after sharing this information with one of my Asst. Principals, I've been asked to keep things on the D.L. until we have a chance to look into a little more closely. But basically, I have what sounds like an elderly man begging the newspaper (the high school paper, at that), to tell his story. He says he was in a severe car accident, that was actually an attempt on his life. It was a cover up because someone was trying to get rid of him because he was going to expose the fact that the junior college system in California was actually a covert marijuana smuggling operation. He was so severely injured in the accident that he was actually pronounced dead, but then was revived enroute to the hospital. He suffered severe brain injuries and had to relearn basically everything. He claims that he had a shot at swimming in the Olympics, but all hope was lost because of this accident. He also alluded to the fact that his parents may have been killed in the accident. He left me his name, his mailing address and his phone number. He claims he is a graduate of Orange Glen HS. When I attempted to return his call today, I got a voicemail requesting A) Prayers B) a good woman to marry him and C) money (in that order, surprisingly). All of this is very strange, I realize. But honestly, it's too insane to make up. I have a good imagination, but I don't think I could have cooked this up.

So what do I do? I've given his name and contact info to my AP, but I don't think this guy is going to stop calling. I'm meeting with my newspaper editors in the next week or two, but I don't know if I should put them in touch with some guy who could very well be a total whack job. I guess that's another area where HS journalism differs from professional journalism---our reporters are still kids, and we don't want to put them in harm's way.

I've googled the guy myself, and not found much. I think the only real hope is to find out when he went to OG, start looking through yearbooks and archived newspapers to see if there is even a story here. I mean, it's sensational to claim that your car accident was actually an attempt on your life... And obviously, we wouldn't print anything like that unless we could prove it.

I feel like this has the potential for a great teaching moment... But I need some direction. Help, y'all!

Jessica Young

Orange Glen High School

Escondido, Calif.

Lesson Plans

Okay so my plan is to create a jeopardy game as a review for final assesment of AP style, that way I can work on the point I am weakest at or prehaps an AP scavanger hunt using the book.

What are your plans like?

Back at Summer School

Virginia Barr
Turlock, CA

Back in the saddle today, teaching summer school. Friday night I came home slept for 5 hours and then moved everything I owned the next day, the high was 105.

I am in my new classroom and sad as I am to say it, I want summer school to end so that I can get the lead out on journalism. Three more weeks before I have the place all to myself. Then I have three weeks before school starts. It just does not seem like enough time. But I know that my staff and I can get it done.

One problem, my paper literally is dependant on a magnetic white board, but those in here are not magnetic...any suggestions?

Alma brings down the house

Even the New York Times has issues with Copyright law

As a former news photographer I still follow a photography groups for sports photographers called Sportsshooter.com. One of the members there brought up to our attention that a recent column by Sonia Zjawinski over at the New York Times openly advocated people appropriate images from the web (specifically Flickr) and use them as they wish - for things like decorating her home. She completely ignores copyright law - but her own images on Flickr are marked "All rights reserved" - so I would bet if you appropriated her writing and photos she would have issues with it.

Then she wrote a follow-up post where she supposedly makes an apology for her first column, then parades out a few "experts" to support her argument that what she is talking about it a gray area.

It just made our time with Mike Heistand all the more important as he explained the real reasons behind the laws and that asking permission is always required. Thanks again Mr. Heistand.

Jeff Jones

Miyamura High School

Gallup, NM

Is it all over...?

Kye and Denise pause for a photo at the Old Spaghetti Factory

Yesterday came and went like a blur. With the 6 hour wait at the airport, the ride home and all the unpacking, it came to me that the Reynolds Institute was over.

This morning, I got up and rode my my bike down toward the ocean, past Golden Gate Park, through the sleepy avenues, to my favorite coffee shop - not Starbucks - surprise.

The fog was at the edge of the horizon, and temperatures were a good 30 degrees cooler than mornings in Phoenix. And we are in a heat-wave by our standards!

I felt like something was missing. I kept myself busy all day, grocery shopping, returning emails, visiting my parents' grave, picking up my wife at work, wedding banquet this evening.

I have this urge to get back to my classroom and start setting up charts, draft letters to the administration, put together rubrics and flowcharts for how the journalism program at our school was going to be run.

In that way, the Institute is not over. The work starts the day we come back. We can start today, tomorrow, or in August after we take a little nice vacation with our loved ones; but all of us will take what we learned and gained and do incredible things with our students and the communities we reach.

Imagine the imprint 35 high school journalism advisers spread throughout the country could have on the future!

And I want to say again how it was such an honor to have the opportunity to attend the Reynolds Institute, to be on the ASU campus, to learn from Steve, Alan and the prestigious team of presenters, to have the support of Diana, Anita, Monique and the other hosts; and of course to share the times with all of my fellows.

Oh snaps!
Now I remember what's keeping me up... We still need to submit our lesson plan! Well, to bed and work on it tomorrow morning!

Back in Texas and missing the Fellows...

It's a little after 1:00 a.m. here in Texas and I've finally unpacked. After telling my mother all that I could remember about the Institute, I sat down and began going over the ton of valuable information I stored away in my carry-on luggage. 

Just wanted to say it again, if I didn't emphasize it during today's final luncheon: "I enjoyed the opportunity to meet each and every educator that attended the Institute, and I learned so much that I will begin to apply immediately in the classroom." To say that I feel privileged to have been selected would be an understatement. I had an awesome time, and I will never forget the fellows.

It took less than two weeks for me to develop friendships that I anticipate will last a lifetime. It is also my prayer that each of you has returned home safely by now, with little to no airport frustration.  I hope that our paths do cross once again someday. Best of luck to each and every one of you with the upcoming school year. 

Ariawna Talton

Molina High School

Dallas, TX

**You can always keep up with me and with Beyonce via Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, or at Missari85@gmail.com!!! 

Final questions answered by panel, institute fellows

The final morning of the High School Journalism Institute has been the time for asking the questions that have been dogging participants.

Many questions have flown around the room with topics ranging from staff motivation techniques to sharing photos between yearbook and newspaper.

I found the discussion from Alan Weintraut about staff development to be particularly engaging. I have always developed the production schedule but after hearing Alan, I think I will meet with my editors before school starts and have them develop the schedule and begin planning staff development/team building activities.

The participants' comments on the various topics have also been very engaging and I appreciate the opportunity to listen to how others have tackled the sensitive issues we all deal with.

Trampus Willis
South Side High School
Fort Wayne, Ind.

Fellows go out into the real world

Throughout the past two weeks the 35 of us have spent the majority of our days thinking journalism.  I think tomorrow when we're back in "the real world" I will go through institute withdraw.  

The most valuable lessons that I have learned came from producing the institute publication.  I learned what it was like being a student on a deadline, and how this is completely different from the feeling that comes from being an adviser on a deadline.  I learned about that feeling of agonizing over a lead that just doesn't seem to get better, as well as settling for good enough in the minutes before deadline.  Most importantly, I learned about the friendships that are made with a shared feeling of stress and a common goal.  

Ashley Barnes

Bel Air High School

Bel Air, Md.

Exciting game

Seat of the pants photography, not the best way to get images, but at the ballgame it was nice to get images and put to practice what we've learn about newsgathering (kind of) and Photoshop.

Mark Webber
Vidal M. Treviño School of Communications and Fine Arts
http://my.hsj.org/tx/laredo/vmt
Laredo, Texas

Twitter Frenzy

Ah, Social Networking. Last night, if you were signed up to any type of social networking, be it Twitter, Myspace, Facebook, etc., then you surely saw the impact social networking has on the world.

In minutes, I knew the fate of Michael Jackson, and the ailments that lead to his death.

Friends,news organizations, and bloggers were all constantly updating me on my social network media sites, to the minute.

It is incredible to see the power of technology surface and play such an important role in our communication. Take a step back and analyze this situation. How can you be part of this social phenomenon and use it to your advantage with your newspaper.

The possibilities are endless. Start a Twitter account for your newspaper, have your students sign up and keep them updated with what is going on in your school. Have a Twitter link on your online publication. In essence, do as much as you can to shamelessly promote yourself.

And, if you don't understand the world of social networking, ask a friend, or go online to YouTube for tutorials.

Many comment that news print is dieing. I don't see it this way, it will die if we let it die. We can either grow and improve with technology or let it defeat us. I say grow.

My favorite lesson

I'd like to take time to personally note that my far favorite lesson of the institute was that of Patrick Shannahan, Photographer for The Arizona Republic.

I personally enjoy photography as a hobby and recommend to everyone reading, they give it a shot. Start of with a simple digital camera and READ your manual.

As Shannahan said, most people don't take the time to read their manual, and therefore don't know the capabilities of their cameras.

Tell me, why do you go out and spend $200 or more on a camera to put it on AUTOMATIC?! If this is the case, then just spend $80 and you will achieve the same effect. Technology is expensive, make sure you get your moneys worth.

Once you get in the habit of taking pictures, you can develop your own lesson plan on photography. Think how much fun this would be for your students. Everyone enjoys pictures, but think of the added benefit you can give your students by teaching them the correct techniques. No more myspace pictures (pictures students take while holding the camera at their own arm's length and snapping away).

There are many lesson plans on myhsj.com on photojournalism. Take a look and have fun.

Final thoughts

Thursday afternoon, as I finally finished my institute story, Denice Westover asked me what I had learned in my two weeks here. I stumbled over a response as a wave of information and panic came over me. Frankly, these two weeks have been overwhelming! I learned typography terms that I never even knew existed. I learned how to write an effective lede. I learned what it means to “write on deadline.” I have learned so much that I don’t think my brain has had time to catalog everything!

That’s when I realized that the key is to set SMART goals. Specific. Measurable. Attainable. Realistic. Timely.

There is no possible way for me to turn around my journalism program in just one year, nor should I try. The key is to choose a few key ideas to implement. If I can successfully achieve a few goals each year, I believe I can build the journalism program I have always dreamed of within 5 years (OK, that’s probably a tab ambitious =). Luckily, I still have seven weeks to decide on my goals for this year. No matter the goal, I just have to make sure they’re smart. Thank you, ASNE, for giving me the tools necessary to begin this process.

Sharon Nolan
North Canyon H.S.
Phoenix, Ariz.

Social circles and your newsroom.

The general behavior, manners, decency and kindness bring persons closer at first. The mutual understanding takes place as time passes on, when each one observes each other’s real activities.

Some dissolve friendship when it stops fetching benefits. The former one proceeds on mutual trust and confidence whereas the latter one goes on exploitation. In friendship both benefits and losses are shared equally; otherwise, it is not at all called as a friendship.

It was incredible to see in the past two weeks, the different circles that formed at the institute. Some were the passionate investigative journalists at heart, others were the laid back group, and others were the all girls club.

If anything, we must examine how these circles had their unique qualities. This serves as a lesson to all of us, because no matter how old we get, these circles will always come to be. Put 35 people in a room and this will inevitably happen.

The same thing happens in our classrooms, and our newsrooms. Take a step backward and observe, and make sure to identify your circles. This can save you countless headaches come deadline time. Take advantage of being able to analyze your students and see how you can accommodate these groups to your benefit. The leaders will always be identifiable, seek them out, work with them and they will work with their individual circles.

Remember, work smarter, not harder!

STRIKE

Tom Blodgett, Assistant Sports Editor of The Arizona Republic shared his insight with our class yesterday and allowed us to venture into a world that I am not very familiar with: sports writing.

In his class, I was able to get wonderful insight to what could be many story ideas for our high school newspaper. I learned that not everything has to be about winning.

Our students can feel like winners by doing a profile story on them, on their team, on their commodore, and even on their training.

Focusing on winning and 1st place trophies will not motivate our students, but focusing on their talents and their potential will. We have to remember that we have to be creative each and every day. Focusing on how we can improve our student population is one of them.

As adviser's for a school newspaper we have a major responsibility upon our shoulders. We have to make sure to use it wisely.

I ask from every single one of you reading today to sit down, and think, how can you help out your sports team, without throwing a single ball?

Dealing with the Boss

Yesterday, after a couple of days of comtemplating how I would write my email, I finally had the courage to e-mail my boss and ask for materials, software and supplies for my journalism program for the upcoming school year.

Having Kristin Gilger's, Assistant Dean for Professional Programs at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication of Arizona State University,lesson, was a great source of information.

I am very appreciative of having had the opportunity to have Gilger come and address our class. Her insight gave me a new perspective into my own boss, and how I could easily put myself in my principal's shoes.

Needless to say, now I await an email back. The easy part was asking for materials, the hard part will actually be getting them.

What's Next?

This experience has been by far the best professional development program that a new or struggling journalism teacher could possibly receive. It is a once in a lifetime opportunity.

The the question is, "What are you going to do when you get home?"

In a short poll given Thursday evening, several attendees were asked that very question. Many of the same answers were echoed throughout.

For some, there is the gathering of all the notes and typing them so that they can be legible. Second, make a plan and determine how the information will be used and last, in some cases, deal with the problem of equipment and gathering support.

This video was compiled as a fun way to remember each other and possibly think about what comes next.

(Apologies go to those attendees from the institute who were not interviewed due to lack of time.)

Video by
Denice Westover
Snowflake High School
Snowflake, Arizona

Extra innings

Score one for citizen journalism and Debbie Aughey's fast draw. By the 11th inning, however, we were too tired to stand up for our moment on the big screen.

Steve Elliott

Arizona State University

Phoenix

High school sports reporting: Remember these are children, not pros.

Five seconds to go. It all depends one player. One shot. One chance. He shoots and he misses. What will be the headline in the school paper?

Tom Blodgett, Sports Editor for The Arizona Republic gave teachers pointers on how to handle this and other sensitive situations while reporting sports. He said that we should remember that these are still children with sensitive feelings and we should not threat them as we would a professional, or even a college player.

That is such good advice that I will not only stress to my journalism students, particularly, but all of my students. It is so easy to get caught up in the moment and want to write about how the player blew it for everyone. We forget it is a pretty big deal to play in front of a stadium full of people either pulling for you or wanting your head on a platter, depending on how the game goes. So he missed the shot...life will go on...let it go and get over it.


Alma A. McDonald
Hattiesburg High School
Hattiesburg, Miss.

My ASNE highlight

(Kye Haina and Anna Horton shoot interview for the multimedia assignment)

I came to the Reynolds program looking forward to tackling writing and reporting. I have spent the last twenty plus years working in film and video. Even though I am no where near close to knowing all there is to know I wanted writing to be my focus during this time. 

One of the highlights though was working with Anna Horton during the multi-media assignment. She had such a good time and did such a great job shooting the pedi cab piece I felt like I was working with one of my students. I try to give a bit of info and then take a hands-off approach. The pedi-cab driver commented that an Arizona Republic photographer had been shooting with him the prior week and did a lot of the same shots. What a great complement for Anna.

Mark Silverstein

Douglas High School 

Douglas, Arizona

In defense of Twitter

Farrah Fawcett, RIP. Michael Jackson dead. I just confirmed via the LA Times and CNN that Jackson had died even though TMZ posted it an hour ago. My Twitter feed broke the story and sent me to reliable media to verify it.

This seems to be the message that Carol Schwalbe, associate professor at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at ASU, and many other speakers impressed upon us this week. While attending the institute we experienced the Twitter revolution of the Iranian elections and just the normal tweets of every day human existance so provokingly reflected in the video about Twitter we viewed yesterday.

Slate's Cultural Gabfest #39 discussed this in detail. It is a 39 minute podcast and the dicussion is the first topic, perhaps 10 minutes. It is worth a listen. Steven Metcalf, Dana Stevens, and Julia Turner, all writers for Slate, discuss the following articles in recent media:

• Brad Stone and Noam Cohen's article in the New York Times about the Internet's role in protests by Iranians.
• Conor Friedersdorf's blog post on the Atlantic's Special Ideas Report about Twitter and Iran.
• Simon Robinson's article in Time wonders whether the election in Iran may have been rigged.
• In Slate, Jordan Ellenberg looks closely at the math behind the allegations.
• Ken Ballen and Patrick Doherty write in the Washington Post that Ahmadinejad's win may be legit.

(I copied and pasted the citations from the Cultural Gabfest page but relinked the articles.)

Debbie Aughey
The Spartan Chronicles
Campbell High School
Smyrna, Ga.
dlaughey on Twitter


I

A few thoughts on research and writing

We have been told over the past couple of weeks that the keys to effective writing are the same no matter what format or technology we are writing for. Keep it short and concise and stick with the facts. 

This last year, my first year as a teacher, I did teach a bit of journalism. We discussed a few basic techniques, churned out a hand few of written stories and went out on at least two dozen shoots.

My background is more film and video production so we spent a lot of time working on those types of projects. We did do a lot of interviewing as part of our shooting. From time to time we composed questions in advance but a lot our approach was to let our curiosity guide us and we formulated our questions during the shoot and even while conducting the interview. I asked the students not to rely on notes and use more of their observational skills and base questions on what they observed.

I produced a long-form documentary in Mexico City in 1995. This was my first attempt at doing so. The event I covered was a cross cultural performance and installation art exhibit in Mexico City.  I had my crew in place and was excited about this undertaking. The crew and I spent the first couple of days simply observing and getting to know the artists and talk abut how we are going to proceed. 

For our final project I asked my students to take a similar approach, not to just rush in and make their film. The groups that did turned out projects that were incomplete and not well thought out. Those that took their time fared much better. During this project I stressed that the key to good writing is the in the rewriting. Film, being a visual medium it is best to show action not have your actors talk it out. Have them leave not say they are leaving, as an example.

The students story boarded, wrote their first draft and then did rewrites, some at least 2 times.

Even though we were writing short fictional pieces the "rules" of writing applied.

Mark Silverstein

Douglas High School 

Douglas, Arizona

Let's go Mets!!!

Ok, so its not a Met game but on the day that we're going to a Diamondbacks game, (I am SOOOOOOO excited...I freaking love baseball!) we get a crash course in sports reporting.

Very practical, very straight to the point. Here are some important things I learned...
1. I don't know what "enterprise" and "advances" means or what "boosterism" is
2. I didn't realize how much deadlines affect sports reporting
3. I'm still confused about Hazelwood...how do they distinguish when its school supported or when it is in the public domain?
4. There is so much to write about...I NEVER covered sports in my school because there isn't much to cover and school spirit is really low. Now I know exactly what to have my students write about!

Melissa Cordova
Eli Whitney Technical High School
Hamden, Conn.

Absolutely agnostic = democratization of journalism

(At left- Jason Manning reflects the digital divide)

Jason Manning, ASU’s director of student media, seamlessly balances the art of storytelling and the craft of teaching. Using the best teaching techniques designed to keep our interest, he had us read and discuss compelling quotes and watch and interact with multimedia clips. No one in the room will forget “Googlezon” from Epic or the panoramic photo from the Chandra Levy crime scene from his work with the Washington Post.

I learned that I am a sideways driver that contributes to 66 percent of the traffic to the washingtonpost.com site as I point and click on a couple stories per day originating from their staff. I wonder how many people are driven to our site and for what reason.

When he asked if data was journalism, I think it depends of the era of journalism. One hundred years ago, journalists filtered data for their readership, which was comprised mostly of literate white males. The audience, purpose and tone were a given. With today’s transparency and availability, professional journalists have to mine unbelievable amounts of data and present it to a diverse audience so that it doesn’t skew towards a certain bias. This is quite an undertaking.

Manning urged us to teach media literacy. I have been thinking of renaming my course just that since it encompasses all the publishable platforms. His basic skills can be easily integrated into my program.
• Basics of shooting and recording video
• Audio and video editing
• On-camera story synopsis (4 bullet summary)
• HTML and data skills

Debbie Aughey
The Spartan Chronicles
Campbell High School
Smyrna, GA
dlaughey on Twitter

Stats, self promotion and sports in journalism

The Arizona Republic's Tom Blodgett presented on the topic of sports journalism today at the Reynolds Institute.  He briefly mentioned ethics in sports journalism.  As the adviser of the newspaper as well as a coach at my school sometimes it's difficult to know if I'm shamelessly promoting my sports or encouraging my students to be good journalists.  I tend to encourage coverage of topics and sports in which I'm most invested.  How do you avoid doing this?

Also, I know with many high school sports, student managers keep stats for the team.  A coach usually does not have time to do all of this during a game/meet/match.  I have found that although these stats often require verification, team managers can make great resources for student journalists.  If nothing else, they usually can explain how scoring works...usually.   

Ashley Barnes

Bel Air High School

Bel Air, Md.

Sports Reporting for Students like Me

Often times I have wondered about sports writers.  What inspires these journalists?  How do they gather ideas?  I mean a game is a game and yes, stuff happens, but is there really a story beyond that.  The answer...YES and thanks to Tom Blodgett of The Arizona Republic, I know how to instruct my students how to find them.

Several ideas Blodgett offered to cover in the sports section:

• coaching changes
• recruiting
• awards
• features
• much, much more

He also cautioned about the ethical dilemmas that sports reporters/editors at high school newspaper face.  Upon listening to his presentation, I am happy to "blog" that I think I know how to accurately guide my students through sports reporting.

Marc Garcia

Sunset High School

Dallas, TX 

Manning multimedia

Jason Manning, the Washington Post politics editor, spoke about using multiple platforms in reporting. It was a great presentation, Manning sure knows his history. He ain't scared about the future either. The unknown seems to invigorate the reporting process. New rules are being invented.

People complain about kids not reading, getting dumber. They said the same thing when the novel became popular. Their kids couldn't read Latin. Doesn't matter. Old ways die, that's the way it is. When our kids run the show, some of them won't know comma splices. If enough of them don't know it, it will no longer matter.

Some of the ways people are now reporting seem very novelistic to me. 360 degree camera shots showing instead of telling, referential asides, video footnotes.

The Chandra Levy Story is a perfect example of this new media.

Embrace it. It's exciting.

Adam Haller
Nortwestern High School
Baltimore, Md

Don't face plant

Embarrassed myself yet again -- took a dive in the middle of the street. I was lucky to be in the company of three gentlemen who swooped to my rescue (thanks guys!), and rescued my pile of papers and wounded dignity. (I told them if I'd known there would be such suave gentlemen around I would've swooned sooner.) 

There's a pothole if you cross from the corner of Taylor across kitty-corner to the Sheraton. Two of my esteemed colleagues at Reynolds have also taken a dive. One was much more scraped than I (I won't reveal any ids.). 

It'd be good if ASU could take a look at that area -- there's also a small-in-diameter hole in close proximity to the pothole that looks like a sinkhole wannabe.  The pothole is not deep -- only about 2 inches, but big enough to twist an ankle.  

Lynn Wolf Dulcie

Rock Hill High School

Rock Hill, SC

Inventing diversity

What is the difference between making sure you cover everything that is going on, as Rick Rodriguez said and being inclusive in order to report truthfully as Sharon Bramlett-Solomon stated?

"Get broad in terms of culture; reflect the reality." Is it reality if we have to go out of our way to find it?

On the one hand, I understand how you need to report everything so that you get a wider range of readers and a more realistic sense of what is going on in the world.

But on the other hand, do you actually go out of your way to find the one white guy on the basketball team when the other players on the team are all black?

Or do you throw away your picture of the woman in the soup kitchen line because she's wearing a hijab and wait for the white woman because you don't want to perpetuate a stereotype of the kinds of people that go to a soup kitchen?

I have issue with that. As I said in class, and I will pick on Puerto Ricans again, if 25 Puerto Ricans are in the news for rape, murder and drug dealing and 2 white guys, is that the fault of the media that no Puerto Rican put himself in a position to be represented in a positive light? Do I just go and report the 2 white guys and cut the 25 Ricans?

On the flip side, if I post a list of the most successful CEOs and they're 93% white, does that mean I'm slanting the media?

I just feel that if you go out of your way to look for that obscure picture to be sure you're showing everything and everyone, you're fabricating diversity that isn't even there.

And maybe, just maybe, if we stop coddling people so much and make an effort to present the raw truth for what it is and stop worrying about PC, what we say or how we say it, then it could be possible for these people who don't like the way they're being shown in the media to do something about it.

Guess what I'm going to say the next time someone says, "Hey, there aren't really any positive role models in the Puerto Rican Community!"

I will be able to say, "sure there are, and here's my story."

And perhaps that will inspire others to say, "I don't like how Puerto Ricans are perceived, let me do something about it!"

Perhaps instead of teaching our kids to go out and find obscurity in the name of diversity, we should teach them to analyze diversity in the news and evaluate the impact it has on their own self-image or view of the world.

Melissa Cordova
Eli Whitney Technical High School
Hamden, Conn.

It is in the attitude

I want to be a Stardust teacher!

Working with Dave Cornelius is everything I hope for when I am asking for help. He is gentle, thorough and supportive.

But, first and foremost, he is a fountain of information. I found from an interview I did with him that he immediately sees things in a visual manner.

It may be the years spent dealing in a visual medium or it may be his bent on birth. But like his points about the page of any news delievery, he is: visual; undated daily; quick; flexible; possessing of a great reservoir of information; and permanent in his influence.

But, in addition, he is a bit of a hobbit. He has a sprite spirit and an intensity that moves his listener. Dave is totally pleased with his life choices and enjoys each day he wakes up or so he told me. But judging from his demeanor and the picture below, I think it is a pretty accurate assessment. He is a link to a critical site.




See, he's a hobbit in not so much disguise.








Carol Clarke
Visalia, Ca
Mt.Whitney High School

Sports writing made simple

Thursday afternoon's presentation on high school sportswriting truly hit home for me, as I've served as a high school sports editor, a sports columnist in college and now a freelance sports photographer.

While my school is not known for excelling in the sports field, I found it an enjoyable challenge to help my students seek sports features. Yes, our football team went 0-10 this year, but our readers still needed to know about the defensive end that was practically raising his younger siblings and working full-time hours at a local store.

We even found it interesting to do an in depth feature on cheerleading, which most don't even consider to be a sport. I do believe we changed the views of many about cheerleading once they read about the long hours before and after school, the high-jumps, the leg lifts and the many bumps and bruises. 

The star athlete on my campus happened to be a female student, standing shorter that five feet tall and weighing less than 100 pounds. Her initials are O.V., and I'm sure many of the readers here have probably seen or heard of her in the news. Small frame and all, she took on competitors larger than herself and walked away with 51 medals for her high school career. 

O.V. and her family moved from Mexico to Texas when she was two, and because of immigration laws she was unable to accept the full scholarship she received to attend a Texas institute. Regardless of our individual beliefs on the subject of immigration, O.V. has a very compelling story. She recently graduated and this story developed after our last issue was sent to print, but we will definitely be following up on her in future issues.

I've never had a problem with developing sports story ideas, but listening to Tom Blodgett has made me even more curious about sports reporting. Just because we may teach at schools that have less than impressive sports programs, that doesn't mean we just ignore sports and the children devoted to them.  Even in losing, there is definitely a story...

Ariawna Talton

Molina High School

Dallas, TX