The wheels of Spokesman

Tomorrow, we finish our second week of school and the last day before layout. While there are lots of great things going on, we've got a few issues (hehe).

First, I'm finding that not all staffers are clear on what needs to be done for a deadline. I think they might also be having trouble adjusting to the self-directedness of the Spokesman classtime.

We also had our first blow-up (or at least the first one that I know of) this afternoon. Diane came out of the back room during ninth period with an awkward smile on her face. It was obvious that things in the back room were uncomfortable to say the least. When Elizabeth came out laughing and then cringing, I got a little worried. I decided not to go back and intervene after both Diane and Elizabeth assured me that it was not a Spokesman issue that was causing the disagreement. However, they also said it could turn into one if we are not careful. I think I'll keep an eye out for now. I hope I'm doing the right thing in letting these girls figure out their problems on their own. Time will tell.

The Photo department is slowly getting it together. Unfortunately we are starting the year off with communications problems there again. Hopefully though, we've figured out a solution early enough. The photo staff is going to have mandatory meetings the first Tuesday after pasteup each issue, no excuses. At these meetings, they'll go over the photo assignments and make sure everyone has assignments. I hope this gets them moving in the right direction.

Okay, so now on to the good stuff. The people meeting deadlines have awesome research going. Just based on what I have seen so far from afar (hehe again), I'd have to vote Shivali reporter of the issue. That girl is working her tail off getting interviews for her Unsung Hero story (and has turned it in early for every deadline!) In addition to working on the clubbing story with Elizabeth (they tell me that they are going to a foam party at a club this weekend. I've very proud of their investigative prowess!)

Andy is also earning some recognition for being professional and helpful! He drove Sarah home when it was raining the other day. He also received a compliment from the yearbook adviser at BG for his professionalism.

Sarah and Fernando were also reporting all-stars this week. They went to Pico de Gallo for an interview and photo session that lasted 2 hours. I can't wait to see the results.

Okay, I now have to move on to grading and vocab test writing for my other classes. Bummer. This is just too much fun!

I am so excited about the start of this school year for Spokesman. We have finished three days of school, but they have accomplished so much that I feel like we have been back for a month.

So far, my favorite moments (and I do have many) have been when the staffers come in through the door all excited about what they just accomplished. It is so fun to listen to their "wins" as the tell me or someone else in the room. I don't think I can count the number of good interviews I have heard about so far. I love it!

Elizabeth has put together a list of all of the accomplishments of the week. (I love this about her; she has an innate talent for seeing good and motivating people). I think I'm going to ask her if I can post that list on here. The best part of this list is that I didn't realize half of the things on it had happened! People are doing great work all over the place! I really want to share all of the great things going on in the Spokesman room.

I feel I should mention one milestone tonight though. Krissy made it to the first editorial board meeting. It was a huge struggle for her last year to come. In fact, I don't think she made it to a single one last year. But she was there this morning, on time and everything. I owe her a Chai tomorrow morning, and I will be so happy to give it to her.

Okay, I need to get some sleep!

We started the 2006-07 section meetings yesterday. All seems to be going well so far. I think I am doing a much better job hanging back and letting the EICs lead. (This also allows me to get MY work done!). I think the EICs are also learning exactly how direct they need to be. It was interesting to watch them in the first meeting kind of struggle through what to say and do next, especially when the section editor didn't talk much. I think they are getting it though.

I am very proud of how efficient my EICs are. The section meetings are getting done in less than an hour! I think this has a lot to do with me keeping my big mouth shut. Jake and Anna also got a lot done on the new design. It is very clean and modern looking.

I think it's pretty funny to watch them try to pick fonts. This is where Jake usually loses it.

"I hate fonts. Who ever thought of fonts anyway; they're dumb."- Jake

They do a good job of picking them though! I think we are going with Didot as a main font (nameplate and such), Baskerville for text, and I don't remember what the headline font is. They are also doing some cool stuff with reverses and rounding of corners. It looks really good.

So today we have two more section meetings: Advertising and News. So far, so good!

I met with the 2006-07 Editor-in-chief and his assistants on Tuesday, and it was pretty fun. I think I just like talking about Spokesman, but that's okay too.

In the tradition of summer EIC meetings, I took the three of them out to lunch. They chose Olive Garden, which was great with me since I love the breadsticks and minestrone soup, not to mention that the chocolate mints at the end are pretty good too. Now, if I was clever, I would write some kind of metaphor comparing our meeting to the good food of Olive Garden, but I'm not clever, so you'll just have to read the blog ramblings instead.

The EICs came up with a good goal for the year. We're going to work on Good Ideas - for stories and for design. I'm excited about this because I love design and I've been learning some cool stuff this summer. I also think it's about time for us to truly focus on our story ideas since that is really where the paper starts and ends.

The current challenge for the EICs is getting the staff started. We're still missing section editors who were supposed to plan meetings. The EICs are on it though. We divided up the people to contact and it seemed like minimal work then.

Besides all of the Spokesman talk, we also got to share summer stories. Mine was pretty boring, but Anna's adventures in Israel were really interesting. Jake tried to explain to us all of the important speakers he heard at Georgetown (it's really a shame that the journalism teacher is not so familiar with these important political people). Elizabeth was busy with college visits and math, although she really only told us about all of the colleges and crazy tour guides.

Now, it's really time to get down to business. Meetings start next week!

I sent the email to the section editors who hadn't scheduled meetings. And the good news is that I have heard from two of them. I think we also might have our first quitter this year. I tried very hard not to pressure anyone into joining so that this wouldn't happen, but I guess I should just expect at least one person to quit every year. Sometimes, I just don't understand high school students.

On a another good note, the classroom is almost set up. I've rearranged the tables again. It turns out I'm scheduled to have 29 students in JW1, which is awesome on the side of people being interested in journalism, but bad on the side that there isn't enough room in the classroom to put all of those people. I'm working on it though.

I've also got a meeting with the EICs next week. I'm really looking forward to seeing them, hearing about their summers and officially getting started with Spokesman. I hope they are as excited as I am.

Now, all I have to do is make up new grade sheets, finish cleaning the classroom, make the Spokesman calendaars, make my lesson plan calendar for JW1 & 2 and then I'll be ready for the year!