Blackfoot High School (Blackfoot, Idaho) finally dismissed for summer, and, as the yearbook adviser and newspaper adviser who has 4 preps, it was not a moment too soon.
I am hoping by the end of this week to have caught my breath and be ready for the challenge of the Institute. What I most crave from this experience is the interaction with other professional educators who are also trying to establish respectable journalism programs. I feel I work mostly in a vacuum. Our school has been delighted to have regular issues published since I took over the program 2 years ago, but I suspect most our audience is less than discriminating, and the Institute is just the place to go for legitimate feedback and help.
I just want to be with other grown-ups! I adore my students, but they lack the perspective I am hoping to find. As I see the posts thus far and read the participant bios, I am excited (and intimidated) to see such diversity and varied life experiences. What a perfect place to immerse myself in new ideas and re energize for next year.
See you all soon.Teresa Gallegos
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Hi Teresa - I share your excitement about meeting with other like-minded professionals. I, too, hope to gain some legitimacy to our coverage. On the one hand, I know that our coverage is really light and fluffy, on the other hand, I also feel that my kids have helped drag me out of the Dark Ages of my vision of journalism by bringing me fresh angles, story ideas, and layout ideas that I would never have considered. Their input has been instrumental in driving up our readership over the past three years. If left up to me, our coverage would all be about stuff that only 10% of our readership would even attempt to read. I mean, I want to write about the Hawaiian sovereigncy movement, the disproportionate amount of alcohol abuse in native populations, and the school visit of one of our sitting judges, while the kids bring me ideas for stories about the parking enforcement officer who has given tickets to nearly everyone on the island (including his mom), road kill, and unusual student names and how they got them. Their input keeps our coverage fresh and young, but not as "newsy" as I would like it. I, too, look forward to learning to blend the two.
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