I've encouraged participants to practice contributing to this blog by saying a little about who they are and what they want to learn at the institute, but what's posted so far has improved on that by noting things that you're eager to discuss. That's great.I think folks out there are eager to find out who is coming and what's on everyone's minds -- I definitely am -- so please practice by letting us know a little about your situation or by sharing journalism- or HSJ journalism-related things of interest to you. Practice leaving comments as well.
This is optional until we get under way at the institute.
Posts
I am Virginia and I have been teaching at Turlock High School in Turlock, CA for four years, I have taught journalism here for three years.
ReplyDeleteI took over our school paper under rough conditions. I have worked hard just to rebuild the newsroom after more than a decade of having it passed from teacher to teacher, no one staying for too long. Now that I have all the equipment needed and have resolved some of our business issues, I am interested in making the experience more beneficial to the kids. We have worked for so long on survival mode, just trying to have enough kids in the class to cover events, having enough computers that work, finding talented writers (at one time our paper was the dumping ground for any kid who did not have an elective), and dealing with a new staff every year (we had a high turn around) that we have not had time to build a solid understanding of journalist writing, reporting, layout and interviewing. My main goal is to learn how to take my students out of survival mode and start creating a more appropriate, higher level of education, a paper that we can all be proud of and better understand the laws that govern journalism.
Welcome, Virginia. In addition to the instruction you'll benefit from being around fellow instructors who will be a help long after the institute. It's fun for me to watch that network continue to pay dividends for previous participants.
ReplyDeleteVirginia,
ReplyDeleteI also took over a program that was tossed around a bit. Seven teachers held my position in the four years before I was hired.
I have just completed my fourth year and can really relate to you in the discussion of being in survival mode and in battling counselors and administrators that chose to place students in class because they need an elective and "doing the yearbook sounds like fun."
We just distributed my fourth yearbook this week and I have gotten so many compliments that my head is nearly ready to explode. I actually liked walking through the halls this week! Everywhere I turned, someone was complimenting me and my staff on the yearbook--administrators, other faculty, counselors, janitors, lunch ladies. It felt great. If our last issue of the newspaper is as well received on Tuesday, I'll be thrilled.
Can't wait to meet the rest of the group in Phoenix in two weeks.
Really looking forward to Phoenix as well.
ReplyDeleteI'm completing my second year of teaching at Frederick Douglass Academy II, a public school in Harlem. We don't have a school newspaper yet. I'm teaching a journalism class that is nominally an "elective" (i.e., "dumping ground" per Virginia above.) The principal's hope is that we can produce a school newspaper next year. This prospect is, uh, daunting.
Two weeks ago I met with a group of NYC high school newspaper advisors. Initially, I was a bit intimated by them: some of their schools are the "Ivy League" of NYC high schools, with well-established school papers. But when I got over my inferiority complex, I realized that their problems are not unlike my own. As we talked, resource sharing started to happen and I realized I didn't have to totally reinvent the wheel to get something started at my school. I'm sure a similar networking effect, as Steve mentions above, will take place big time at the Institute.
It's so good to hear that we share a lot of the same concerns.
ReplyDeleteJoanne, I'm sure that you are going to be able to take what we learn this summer and produce that newspaper next year. The first issue is definitely the hardest, but I would encourage you to try to make it a reality.
I remember my first paper. It was so biased, inaccurate, and ugly that my students today can't believe that I was ever a party to such a creation, but book learning could only take me so far, and taking the leap, albeit an ugly one, taught me more about newspaper production than any book could. It only got better from there. By the end of my second year, we had won several district and one state award, and we have continued to evolve and improve since then.
After all the great networking we're gonna do this summer, I know you'll do it!
I'm completing my first year as Student Publications Advisor at the Hockaday School in Dallas, TX. I advise the newspaper, yearbook, and literary magazine. Prior to Hockaday I taught at the college level graphic design and advertising. I have a passion for the printed page and I try to "infect" this passion to my students. Even though it was a very challenging year I enjoyed it immensely.
ReplyDeleteI hope that after Phoenix I'll be able to offer my students the best of two worlds: a beautifully planned publication filled with solid and engaging newsworthy stories. I'm also planning on starting an online version of the newspaper.