Sunday, October 18, 2009
Short but sweet
A former student emailed me last week about this blog. I just returned her email tonight and felt inspired to update again.
We've been pretty busy over the last few weeks in Room 137. Pasteup for Issue 2 is this coming Tuesday. Homecoming was last week. We reorganized our web teams in hopes of being more efficient at updating the site.
Overall, the jury is still out on how successful we have been. I feel like I am dragging the staff through web publication. They aren't kicking and screaming (which is wonderful), but they are quite picking it up and running with it yet. I'm not sure if this is because we only have 15 people on staff, so they are spread pretty thin. Or if it is because for the life of us (and I do mean us including me) we can't get our time management skills refined.
Last week was homecoming. We had a plan for posting every day. It didn't work out exactly like that. Too often, the web editor wasn't kept in the loop of what was going on with stories. Web teams didn't finish their reports in time. I ended up editing video footage to post on Friday.
I keep asking the kids to come up with a plan, but they don't seem that invested in it. This might just be my misperception and I am open to that. As the adviser, I am struggling with how involved should I be in the web publishing since as a staff we are so new at it.
On the print side, we're a little behind there too. It seems deadlines are our nemesis right now. As of this moment, there are feature and focus stories not completed. That floors me. Those stories should have been done last week. We didn't want to have to grade deadlines, but I think that's the only way to incentivize people to get their work done on time. It's really my pet peeve: people not making the easy deadlines (I understand the hard ones).
Okay, let's end on a good note. The staff is covering some really great stories this issue. The focus section is on pregnancy (teens and teachers). I'm so proud that they are covering the topic in a new and interesting way! We are also covering swine flu. The reporter reported and wrote the story all within 24 hours! The layout of issue 2 includes a lot of pictures, which is nice since too often we are way too texty.
I guess that's all for now. Tomorrow is color pasteup and I have faith in my EICs that we are going to get it done.
We've been pretty busy over the last few weeks in Room 137. Pasteup for Issue 2 is this coming Tuesday. Homecoming was last week. We reorganized our web teams in hopes of being more efficient at updating the site.
Overall, the jury is still out on how successful we have been. I feel like I am dragging the staff through web publication. They aren't kicking and screaming (which is wonderful), but they are quite picking it up and running with it yet. I'm not sure if this is because we only have 15 people on staff, so they are spread pretty thin. Or if it is because for the life of us (and I do mean us including me) we can't get our time management skills refined.
Last week was homecoming. We had a plan for posting every day. It didn't work out exactly like that. Too often, the web editor wasn't kept in the loop of what was going on with stories. Web teams didn't finish their reports in time. I ended up editing video footage to post on Friday.
I keep asking the kids to come up with a plan, but they don't seem that invested in it. This might just be my misperception and I am open to that. As the adviser, I am struggling with how involved should I be in the web publishing since as a staff we are so new at it.
On the print side, we're a little behind there too. It seems deadlines are our nemesis right now. As of this moment, there are feature and focus stories not completed. That floors me. Those stories should have been done last week. We didn't want to have to grade deadlines, but I think that's the only way to incentivize people to get their work done on time. It's really my pet peeve: people not making the easy deadlines (I understand the hard ones).
Okay, let's end on a good note. The staff is covering some really great stories this issue. The focus section is on pregnancy (teens and teachers). I'm so proud that they are covering the topic in a new and interesting way! We are also covering swine flu. The reporter reported and wrote the story all within 24 hours! The layout of issue 2 includes a lot of pictures, which is nice since too often we are way too texty.
I guess that's all for now. Tomorrow is color pasteup and I have faith in my EICs that we are going to get it done.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Spokesman fun
Steve and I were talking today about Spokesman as we were driving to a friend's get together. I was telling him about my plan to take Jack to school with me to help Spokesman/Lair decorate the hallway for Homecoming. His quote that prompted this blog - "You've got really good kids this year." Yes, I do.
Now, before any of the Spokesman Alum who read this blog get offended, I have great kids every year, there's no question. What makes this year's staff stand out is the fun they are having beyond just publishing the paper.
Here's a sample:
This video is from our UofI Press Day fieldtrip at the end of September. All but three staffers went (and those three wanted to go but had scheduling conflicts).
They hand out with each other on the weekends. They send fun-loving messages back and forth through Facebook and Twitter (and maybe other ways too, but I don't see everything). They laugh, they support one another even with stuff outside of Spokesman, like work and hard classes and crazy relationships.
My heart warms every day when the Spokesman periods start (there are basically three this year). I look forward to layout, pasteup, and fieldtrips because I get to hang out with these fun, smart, talented people.
Oh yeah, and they are doing some incredible work too. This week the Focus section moved forward on their plans to report on pregnancy at school (both teen and teacher). The web site has been updated regularly since the beginning of the school year. And this week they learned how to post slideshows and to get all sections of the web site populated with stories.
We still have to get our T-shirts printed. But if that's the one thing we're falling behind on, I'm alright with it.
It's a three day weekend, and the only reason I am sad that we don't have school on Monday is that I don't get to see my Spokesman kids. Oh wait, we're going in to decorate for Homecoming. Nevermind, life is good.
Now, before any of the Spokesman Alum who read this blog get offended, I have great kids every year, there's no question. What makes this year's staff stand out is the fun they are having beyond just publishing the paper.
Here's a sample:
This video is from our UofI Press Day fieldtrip at the end of September. All but three staffers went (and those three wanted to go but had scheduling conflicts).
They hand out with each other on the weekends. They send fun-loving messages back and forth through Facebook and Twitter (and maybe other ways too, but I don't see everything). They laugh, they support one another even with stuff outside of Spokesman, like work and hard classes and crazy relationships.
My heart warms every day when the Spokesman periods start (there are basically three this year). I look forward to layout, pasteup, and fieldtrips because I get to hang out with these fun, smart, talented people.
Oh yeah, and they are doing some incredible work too. This week the Focus section moved forward on their plans to report on pregnancy at school (both teen and teacher). The web site has been updated regularly since the beginning of the school year. And this week they learned how to post slideshows and to get all sections of the web site populated with stories.
We still have to get our T-shirts printed. But if that's the one thing we're falling behind on, I'm alright with it.
It's a three day weekend, and the only reason I am sad that we don't have school on Monday is that I don't get to see my Spokesman kids. Oh wait, we're going in to decorate for Homecoming. Nevermind, life is good.
