First Amendment Award application available
We know there are a significant number of open forum student media out there, and we’d like to see you apply for JEA’s First Amendment Press Freedom Award (FAPFA).
Being an open forum for student expression, besides having exceptional educational validity and offering excellent learning opportunities for students, also can help protect a school system in cases of liability.
If you think your student media are forums, by policy or practice, then go here and download the application form for FAPFA. Application for the honor comes in two parts: the initial application of 25 questions for a media adviser and an administrator. Those meeting the criteria for the award will then receive a second application to be filled out by the principal, all student media editors and advisers. Deadline for applying is Dec. 1, 2009. Those meeting the final criteria will be recognized at the JEA/NSPA convention in Portland.
Good luck!
Read MoreKeeping up with legal issues
Most advisers have a long list of things they want to learn: how to create Soundslides, what the heck Joomla is, where to find the best examples of personality profiles, what AP style uses for the short form of microphone. And the list goes on.
However, that list doesn’t always include keeping up with court cases or finding out what legal issues or trends might impact their programs in the future. Those don’t seem quite as in-your-face as solving a lab network problem or finding ways for students to sell ads.
But they could be just as debilitating.
What ARE administrators concerned about these days? What topics make them twitch — and perhaps should then be reported even more thoroughly and professionally? What is happening to others that all advisers should know about and understand?
A look at the Student Press Law Center shows everything from a student quote about gays being “freaks” — and the superintendent’s fear this could be disruptive — to a district that wanted to make advisers be their publications’ editors. The JEAHELP e-mail distribution list, with 1,000+ members of the Journalism Education Association, also shows the angst those in student media face. The topics there include covering improper sexual contacts with teachers to underground papers on campus.
Reading about these is a good dose of prevention or at least a clue to some cure. What would happen if one of these sensitive topics came up during your staff’s planning meeting? What would you do if the superintendent told you to be your student paper’s editor? There’s plenty to learn from what is happening to others and how they cope, what they wish they had done sooner, what lawyers say they should do now.
Yes, the computers have to work to publish the newspapers, and knowing how to install software or wipe a hard drive could be vital. But other things have to work, too. Keeping up with legal issues is a good way to avoid being blindsided by something that may take more than a reboot to fix.
Read MoreWhat core values do we share with administrators?
As my colleague and good friend Jan Leach keeps rightfully reminding me, the toughest choices we make are about questions of right versus right.
That thought is also at the core of an online ethics course for scholastic and collegiate media teachers I teach for the first time this fall.
And I wonder if it is also at the core of trying to bridge what seems to be a growing gap between media advisers and school administrators.
Illinois journalism adviser Randy Swikle said it well many times: on what can We Agree?
To me, the core principles we should be able to agree on include accuracy, completeness, transparency and honesty, all in pursuit of truth. To achieve those I would add the educational values of critical thinking, decision-making, responsibility and civic engagement.
I am sure there are more we might have in common or might be able to agree upon.
What do you think?
What would you add? Share your thoughts below. It might make a difference.
Read MoreJ programs deserve saving
Budget concerns are causing schools all over the country to cut one of the programs where students learn the most, journalism. Isn’t learning by students the primary goal of schools? Students in publication classes learn not only writing skills, they learn to work as a team to produce a publication. They learn to work with deadlines and budgets. They sell ads. They learn computer skills. These are sellable skills in anyone’s mind. Running a student controlled publication is like running a small business.
When they are given the freedom to do make the content decisions, they learn critical thinking skills that will help them no matter what career they choose.
Students who are given the opportunity to do investigative reporting on subjects of interest to their readers learn the most. Let’s face it, research for most papers in other English classes is done on the internet these days. Reporters for a publication talk to people instead because they have to localize their research. Interviewing people about subjects they may not really want to talk about is a skill taught nowhere else. Preparing good questions, taking good notes, plus thinking up new questions when answers lead to other directions, teaches students invaluable skills. Researching legalities is a whole other blog.
We need to fight to keep these valuable classes alive by reminding administrators about what students learn there. Learning the most possible is what schools should be all about.
Fern Valentine, MJE
Read MoreSchool Publications Become School History
Recently my husband and I attended his high school class reunion.. Everyone was glad to see old friends especially those who had traveled across the country to attend. These reunions are something you high school students can’t really imagine, but you need to take care.
Reunions always feature a memorabilia table covered with all sorts of “stuff” but prominently featured are always high school newspapers and yearbooks from “their year.”
You may not think of your senior year as “your year,” but, believe me, it is for all time as far as your school is concerned.
So, whenever, you are tired and want to go home early on layout night or wonder if all the time and work it takes to write an in depth story is worth it, remember that you and your friends will be looking at it at least every five or ten years for the rest of your life. School newspapers and yearbooks become the historical record of that school year.
Also, when senior picture time comes around, put on your best smile. I can guarantee you, it will be on your name badge at every reunion.
Fern Valentine, MJE