Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Fieldtrip Fun
Today was the official start of Issue 3.
Issue 2 came out on Friday while I was at U of I with seven of the staff members. We had a fabulous day overall. We met up with some graduates, Marie and Eric. I think this was a subtle motivation for my current staffers. It's always nice to see someone having success knowing they were right where you are not too long ago. Marie looks so happy, not that she didn't while she was in high school. However, she looks like she's in her element at U of I. Eric looked great too. He's really getting started in his major in the comm department.
I think my proudest moment on Friday was with Shivali. After the morning sessions, we met in the lobby of the union. She ran over and told me how she and Devi introduced themselves to Susan Tantillo. For Shivali and Devi to take the step out of their comfort zones and introduce themselves before Susan recognized them was huge!
Another highlight of Friday was seeing Lora and Hillary bond. I'm very excited to see Hillary take a strong leadership role, which she has been doing in her position as Focus editor since the start of the year. But she and Lora stuck together at U of I, and I think it's nice to see Hillary reaching out to her fellow section editors. Talking to Lora, that was good for her too. I think she now has a connection to the staff other than just a title.
Every student who went on Friday is coming back with at least one useful idea for the newspaper as a whole. We came up with a way for them to share these ideas with the rest of the staff. For Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of this week, each kid will create a poster on the easel in the classroom with helpful hints and explanations that they learned at the conference. Everyone on staff knows to look at the easel each day and take notes. We'll see how effective this is.
Usually, it's just the kids who go to the conference who benefit from the knowledge. I'm hoping this is the start of getting others on staff to benefit too.
Issue 2 came out on Friday while I was at U of I with seven of the staff members. We had a fabulous day overall. We met up with some graduates, Marie and Eric. I think this was a subtle motivation for my current staffers. It's always nice to see someone having success knowing they were right where you are not too long ago. Marie looks so happy, not that she didn't while she was in high school. However, she looks like she's in her element at U of I. Eric looked great too. He's really getting started in his major in the comm department.
I think my proudest moment on Friday was with Shivali. After the morning sessions, we met in the lobby of the union. She ran over and told me how she and Devi introduced themselves to Susan Tantillo. For Shivali and Devi to take the step out of their comfort zones and introduce themselves before Susan recognized them was huge!
Another highlight of Friday was seeing Lora and Hillary bond. I'm very excited to see Hillary take a strong leadership role, which she has been doing in her position as Focus editor since the start of the year. But she and Lora stuck together at U of I, and I think it's nice to see Hillary reaching out to her fellow section editors. Talking to Lora, that was good for her too. I think she now has a connection to the staff other than just a title.
Every student who went on Friday is coming back with at least one useful idea for the newspaper as a whole. We came up with a way for them to share these ideas with the rest of the staff. For Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of this week, each kid will create a poster on the easel in the classroom with helpful hints and explanations that they learned at the conference. Everyone on staff knows to look at the easel each day and take notes. We'll see how effective this is.
Usually, it's just the kids who go to the conference who benefit from the knowledge. I'm hoping this is the start of getting others on staff to benefit too.
