CTE certificate:

        Recruiting students is a long-view and short-view approach, requiring a choir of participants. Each year a new round of students that join the organization will impart the importance of outreach and the student staff’s role in the process. Ways our program has done this is:

• Visibility throughout the school community so student staff fosters an image of approachability
  • Student staff work and photograph all events including portraits and dance photos.
  • Classroom distribution of physical products (newspaper, yearbook, literary magazine)
  • Engaging social media posts and web presence
  • Story-seeking activities (story tips, interviewing, presence at all the things)
• Upholding traditional events for community-wide visibility and interaction
  • Charity Fundraising Basketball event – Jam Session (jamboree and variety event).
  • Charity Fundraising Holiday event – Santa’s Breakfast (bazaar, music, food, photos, etc).
  • Hawk Walk – End of Summer clubs/activities information fair, open to the community.
• Student staff directed outreach
  • Summer camp offering (in partnership with other programs)
  • Club/Classroom content partnerships – program student staff partner with different groups or clubs to create unique issues or web content. ie:
    • Creative Writing Club partnership provides fictional content as a feature and special insert element.
    • Partnering with 9th grade ELA teachers in their persuasive writing unit to  instruct in editorial print format and to encourage students to submit theirs to the newspaper as well for extra credit (even if not chosen to be printed)
    • Partnering with the graphic design class in an assignment where the details dovetail with a t-shirt design competition (which will end up being voted on by students)
    • Partnering with the photography instructor to capture unique images for the yearbook as extra credit 
  • Visitation schedule to visit 6-8th graders – twice a year student staff leadership visits classrooms of feeder schools with outreach materials and games, networks with teachers and groups to draw interest to the workshop and program,
  • Invitational workshop day – a Friday 5-hr long free event where clubs/classes from local feeder schools come to us to engage in workshops led by the program’s student staff, giving the visiting students a chance to demonstrate their new skills.

Tiered course offerings are an established part of the journalism program in my school and district. The existing levels are further supported by extended introductory levels in summer camp and workshops to encourage new students to join. I would add clarity to the organization of the framework and make rubrics more explicit in expectations and definitions for each course offering. 

Supporting the program’s needs is also layered as staying current requires money. Much is available through requesting CTE funds and working toward beneficial legislation, but more can be achieved through expanding the number of streams feeding the program financially. I would seek grants and work to build more partnerships with community businesses, all while engaging the students in the process itself. The greatest involvement would be at the highest level of our courses (publication management) but would be available to any student in the program.

   Each year we set goals to improve the organization and procedures of the program. We further adapt our physical environment by reviewing the newsroom layout and features at turnover time, then cleaning and organizing our space in the summer. The newsroom and offices are offset from the classroom, allowing more freedom in the arrangement of the space. To keep the news organization program successful, we strive to match industry standards in our technology and training for use. One way we accomplish this is that the advisers seek software certification in Google and Adobe suites and student leaders attend extended learning workshops in their areas (layout and design attend Adobe InDesign intensive, the graphic design editor goes to an Adobe Illustrator workshop, photography editors take courses in using the latest versions of Adobe Lightroom,  etc.) allowing adult and student leadership to offer guidance to the rest of the students in the program. Keeping our digital and physical environments warm but professional and student-led will ensure sustainability over time.

I try to be blunt in expressing my lack of knowledge on any topic when a student inquires, so I can model the process of quenching that curiosity. Sometimes the need to have all the answers gets in the way of both teachers and students. We often fear being wrong or admitting we don’t know something, and that fear is antithetical to the learning process (and journalism). Neither learners nor journalists can stop at “I don’t know.”  I use a positive tone while verbally acknowledging my ignorance then narrate my process to find the information, simultaneously encouraging the student’s questions (or prompting them for the answers). This practice builds rapport with students and they absorb the process. Whatever the information sought, life experience has made me infinitely more informed in HOW to find answers. Encouraging curiosity and holding a reputation for honesty has created a classroom environment where everyone can grow.