august 2011 upfront newsletter
DESCRIPTION
Newsletter of Texas Association of Journalism EducatorsTRANSCRIPT
UpfrontTAJE
P.O. Box 5554Austin, TX
78763-5554taje.org
Texas Association of Journalism Educators August 2011
Susan DuncanPresident
903.295.5031, ext. [email protected]
Cindy BerryPresident-Elect940.393.7231cindy.berry@
decatur.esc11.net
Christine DavisSecretary
817.571.0271, ext. [email protected]
Mikyela TedderTreasurer
Alyssa ArmentroutState Director972.569.6151
Pat GathrightConvention Director
Brenda SlattonAssistant
Convention Director210.442.0300, ext. 350
Sue JettAssistant
Convention Director210.442.0800, ext. 262
Sheryl FloydPast President
Dianne Smith-HarperWebmaster
Rhonda MooreExecutive Director
Clip contest deadline is Dec. 11. Entry forms can be found on the TAJE website, taje.org.To present a session at the convention, go to the TAJE website, taje.org, and fill out a form under Fall Fiesta 2011.
Remember:
Late Deadline FeesSchools that enter contests past the deadline will be charged a $5 late fee per entry.
Carry-in photo contest entries will no longer be carried in. Entries will be uploaded onto the JEA website. Advisers must be members of JEA to enter students in carry-in photo con-tests. See the rules in the con-vention booklet and the Contest Rules. Deadline is Sept. 30.
Carry-in video contest entries are no longer carried in. Entries will be uploaded to Vimeo. See the rules in the convention booklet and the Contest Rules. Deadline is Sept. 30.
Convention Saturday• We will offer a “night shoot” for photographers Saturday night. Photography teachers will take students out and show them how to get great images at night. Sign up students for this activity when you register. Cost will be $5 per student and will be limited to the first 50 entries.
Reminders:• Students who choose to use computers for the on-site con- tests will need to bring a printer. Students from the same school can all use the same printer, but all contest entries must be printed and turned in by the end of the contest. No one will be given extra time.
• Bring a power strip if students will be using computers.
• Check the newsletter and con- test rules for changes to con- tests.
Tom French to present convention keynote speech
TakeNOTE
Tom French
Thomas French, a Pulitzer prize-winning reporter, will present the keynote speech at the Fall Fiesta convention Oct. 24 in San Antonio.
French has spent the past quarter century redefining the possibilities of journalistic story-telling, both in his writing and in his teaching around the world.
French grew up in Indiana and attended journalism school at Indiana University. After grad-uation, he worked for the next 27 years as a reporter at the St. Petersburg Times, covering hur-ricanes and criminal trials and the secret lives of high school students. He experimented with narrative techniques both on deadline and nondeadline work and specialized in serial narra-tives, book-length stories pub-lished one chapter at a time.
In 1998, he was awarded the Pulitzer prize for feature writing and a Sigma Delta Chi award for Angels & Demons, a series that chronicled the murder of an Ohio woman and her two teenage daughters as they va-cationed in Tampa. Two of his other serials, A Cry in the Night and South of Heaven, were later published as books. His most re-cent project, Zoo Story, explores the inner world of Tampa’s Low-
ry Park Zoo and was published by Hyperion in July 2010.
French is a Writing Fellow at the Poynter Institute and has taught there for more than 20 years. He also teaches in a non-fiction MFA writing program at Goucher College, and has led narrative workshops across the U.S. and around the world, from the Nieman conference at Har-vard to newsrooms in Dubai, Singapore and Johannesburg. He recently returned to his alma mater and is teaching at Indiana University’s school of journal-ism, where he serves as the Riley Endowed Chair.
2 Texas Association of Journalism Educators August 2011
From the PresidentSusan DuncanPine Tree HS
TAJE President
A year away and much to doVolunteers needed to help with 2012 national convention in San Antonio
Need one more thing to do? Sure, we journalism teachers are always ready for a challenge. The task before us is to stage the best national convention in the history of scholastic journalism November 2012 in magnificent, historic San Antonio.
After the 2011 convention attendees have frozen them-selves in Minneapolis this fall, we will bring the heat in 2012.
Just think-- the riverwalk with cool breezes rustling the leaves and the waft of great Mexican food tempting the palette. Imagine the sights and sounds as thousands stroll down the miles of eateries and retail shops. So, you are planning to join us, right? And you want to do your fair share to make the convention successful, right?
Well, the planning begins now. At the June retreat in Tyler, the officers began breaking up the workload and looking for chairmen for the committees. We have already had some volunteers/conscriptions, but there are still quite a few blank spaces begging for your name. There is no way the officers and convention directors, Pat Gathright (San Antonio) and Rhonda Moore (Austin), can possibly do all the work themselves. So, here’s what we need you to do. Pick up a phone and call one of the officers or send an email to let us know where you would like to serve. (If you don’t call us, we will call you, so make it easy on all of us.)
Although Texas is a big state, and some of us are several hundred miles from San Antonio, we can still help the teachers in the San Antonio/Austin area by taking charge of a committee that doesn’t necessarily need close proximity to the convention site. For instance, some of the East Texas teach-ers will work on the Friday luncheon. We can make a majority of the prepa-rations with a planning meeting and
some phone calls. (Charla Harris from Pleasant Grove and I will head up that committee and would love to have ET teachers volunteer to assist us.)
In addition to helping with one of the committees, advisers should start planning now to bring their students to the convention. It’s a big deal. A na-
tional convention in Texas only happens every 5-10 years, so 2012 is the time to go the extra mile to get your students to
San Antonio. Seeing 5,000 journalism students together learning from some of the best instructors in the nation is a mind-blowing experience.
I know money is a consideration, es-pecially in the current economic climate. Planning a year out will give staffs extra opportunities to fundraise this school year to have enough money to travel next year.
This event will be an unbelievable opportunity for students to increase their journalism skills and for teachers to grow professionally. Because I’m feeling a little like an infomercial at this point, I want to finish with “Call now, don’t delay” or something equally cheesy. The bottom line is that every journalism teacher in the state of Texas is a special person for taking on the responsibilities of an adviser position, and the board needs to bottle some of that creative ge-nius and Texas pioneer spirit to help us reach our goal for the best ever national convention. So won’t you join us?
**Committees and chairs are listed to the right.
To volunteer for a committe, contact the committee chair or any officer or regional representative. The officer and regional reps’ email addresses are on the website and in the membership directory. The committee chairs’ email addresses are in the directory. Thank you.
2012 Committees and ChairsMarketing/Promotion BrendaSlatton
OpeningCeremony/Welcome PatGathright,RhondaMoore
BreakwithaPro MaryGoldberg
SwapShops Nochairperson
WriteOffs SueJett
On-SiteCritiques SusanDuncan
Exhibits VelisaJewett
AdviserBags MoniqueSandoval
FridayNightAuction DeanneBrown,CindyTodd
IssuesSeminars MoniqueSandival
FridayLuncheon CharlaHarris,SusanDuncan
FeaturedSpeakers BobbyHawthorne
CurriculumCD LauraNegri
T-Shirts KelseyMartin,DinaWilson
ConventionScholarships MikyelaTedder
OutreachAcademy BenRosales
MediaTours AllsionBoerger
StudentEntertainment Nochairperson
Website DianneSmith-Harper
ListservPostings PatGarhright,RhondaMoore
August 2011 Texas Association of Journalism Educators 3
State Director’s ReportAlyssa Armentrout
McKinney HSTAJE State Director
My students really like going to con-ventions. Well, let me be clear. They love going to conventions. OK, more spe-cifically, I think my students are a little obsessed with going to conventions.
And that’s a good thing. When I took kids to the St. Louis
JEA/NSPA convention in the fall of 2008, I think we ended up with more than 30 kids on the trip, between year-book, newspaper and my staff – the broadcasting kids. I wasn’t sure what we were going to do when we got there. I mean, it’s St. Louis, right? We can spend a half hour at that arch thing, but then what do I do to keep these kids entertained all weekend?
That was the year the local committee scheduled an event at the City Museum downtown. So we rolled the dice and sent our kids to a museum for a few hours while we judged write-offs (perhaps I’ll write about judging write-offs for my next column).
They came back from the museum changed kids. Something about them was different. They looked, well, ugly.
I guess the City Museum wasn’t so much of a museum as it was a gigantic, surrealistic fun house. A kid’s dream. Forts to climb into. Slides to careen from one floor to the next instead of taking the stairs. Surprises around every corner.
One floor of the museum housed a hipster thrift store with which must have had racks upon racks upon racks of gently worn wool sweaters, the likes
of which I seem to remember my sec-ond grade teacher wearing.
Some were holiday themed. One had squirrels and nuts knitted across the front and back. One was a simple light pink color. One was a large-pattern hound’s tooth sweater with yellow and red trim. Ugly.
But something about that trip to the museum invigorated them. They wore them to all their classes the next day,
to the awards ceremony that afternoon and on the plane ride home. It was like their new team uniform.
Five months later when it came time to head to Phoenix for the spring
convention, every single kid showed up at the airport wearing an ugly sweater – even several kids who weren’t even at the St. Louis convention. It was nearly 100 degrees in Phoenix, but they didn’t mind.
Three years later with the entire St. Louis group long graduated, McKin-ney yearbook and broadcasting kids sit in the front row of every session and awards ceremony of convention they go to wearing an ugly sweater.
NSPA director Logan Aimone even refers to the staff as “The Bad Sweat-ers” at each NSPA awards ceremony. I’m sure most students now don’t even know why they wear them or how it got started. And when a new student doesn’t have a sweater, my producers organize a
staff trip to Goodwill.
Now most students know they’ll need a sweater before applying for broadcasting. It’s that big of a deal.
These ratty, disgusting and frankly smelly garments have provided more bonding opportunities for my students than any team building exercise you’ll find. I have the local committee from the fall 2008 JEA/NSPA convention in St. Louis to thank for that.
And come November 2012, it’ll fi-nally be my turn to help make lasting memories for thousands of students from all around the United States.
As we begin to plan this exciting event, I encourage you to not only plan on bringing your students to San Anto-nio in 2012, please tell a board member if you have a great idea for students visit-ing Texas. Or better yet, please volunteer to work on a planning committee.
With all the culture, delicious food, historic sites and unique opportunities the city of San Antonio can offer, I can only begin to imagine the possibilities.
Let’s make the 2012 fall national convention in San Antonio as special as the local committee did for me in 2008. I’ll never be able to thank them enough, but with the 2012 convention, I’m sure gonna try.
The ugly sweatersIt’s up to us to make 2012 in San Antonio a convention to remember
TAJE ...........Oct. 22-24, San Antonio
JEA/NSPA ..Nov. 17-20, Minneapolis
ATPI ............Feb.10-12, UT Arlington
2011-12 conventions
CSPA. .........March 14-16, Columbia U
ILPC. ..........April 28-29, UT Austin
JEA/NSPA ..April 12-15, Seattle
El PasoOdessa/Midland
Lubbock
Amarillo
Wichita Falls
DallasFt Worth
WacoTyler
Beaumont
Houston
Corpus Christi
Brownsville
Austin
San Antonio
I
II III
IVV VI
VII
4 Texas Association of Journalism Educators August 2011
Members to elect regional reps in FebruaryElections for regional representatives will be held
in February.Anyone interested in running for regional rep
should contact TAJE president-elect Cindy Berry at [email protected].
The executive board voted to increase the num-ber of TAJE regions from seven to 10 at its annual retreat in June 2010. Because the state is so large, regional representatives often have trouble reach-ing all teachers from their areas. Board members hope the increase in the number of regions will help representatives reach more teachers.
The state is divided into 20 regional services areas. The new TAJE regions will each be a combi-nation of two of the regional service centers. This will make it clear to teachers which region they belong to.
Regional reps must host a workshop at least once during their two-year terms. They also help teachers who need a mentor find one. Anyone who wants a mentor or wishes to be a mentor should contact his/her representative.
Current representatives and their e-mail ad-dresses are as follows:
Region ILaura SmithCanyon HS, 1701 23rd St.Canyon 79015 [email protected]
Region IIChristine DavisTrinity HS500 N. Industrial Blvd.Euless 76039817-571-0271, ext. [email protected]
Region IIICharla HarrisPleasant Grove HS5406 McKnight Rd.Texarkana [email protected]
Region V Theresa Proctor McNeil HS
5720 McNeil Dr.Austin 78729
Region VILaura NegriAlief Kerr HS8150 Howell Sugarland Rd.Houston 77083281.983.8484, ext. 267- School832.379.9924 -
[email protected]@yahoo.com
Region VII Kelsey Martin Memorial HS 101 E. Hackberry McAllen 78501 956-632-5240 [email protected]
Region IVNo representative
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57
8
9
10
6
TAJE regional map beginning in 2012
Current TAJE regional map
August 2011 Texas Association of Journalism Educators 5
TAJE, ILPC to host invitational meet
TAJE and ILPC will again host an in-vitational UIL meet Jan. 14.
ILPC is offering a documentary con-test, “UIL: Our Story.”
Contest entries can focus on a school’s academic/athletic success from start to finish within one year or an individual participant in a contest and show his/her story. Students are encouraged to highlight individual ex-periences with UIL activities.
The documentary can be up to 10 minutes in length. Each school may enter three entries, and cost is $25 per entry. Schools must be current ILPC members.
For more information, go to the UIL website. Contest deadline is May 11.
ILPC offers contest for documentary film
Students must be pre-registered to compete in convention contests.
Advisers will receive a confirmation e-mail when entries arrive.
Many times advisers will mark that their students will enter contests then send the names later. This is fine as long as the names arrive by the deadline.
Schools sending in entries after the deadline will be charged a $5 late fee per entry.
Name changes for contests can be made at registration, but if a name has not been entered before the conven-tion, students will not be allowed to compete.
Students must be registered for contests by deadline
In Brief
Harris, Winter to receive Trailblazer Awards3 to be named Friends of Journalism at Fall Fiesta convention
Charla Harris and Scott Winter will be honored with the Trailblazer Award at the convention Oct. 23. In addition, Mike McLean, Debbie Vaughn and Linda Lavelle will be named Friends of Journalism.
Harris advises publications and the broadcast program at Pleasant Grove High School in Texarkana. Both the Hawk yearbook and the Edge news-paper are consistent state and national award winners. Harris was the 2007 Max R. Haddick Teacher of the Year and is a regular presenter at the ILPC and CSPA conventions.
Winter is a lecturer at the University
of Nebraska’s College of Journalism and Mass Communications. He’s advised publications, on-and-off, for 10 years in three states. He teaches national work-shops during the summer. His students have won several awards, including Best of Show rankings and Pacemakers.
Mike McLean is Texas-based free-lance photojournalist and teaches pho-tojournalism workshops throughout the nation. In 2003 he was inducted into the Journalism Hall of Fame. He is a co-author of Get The Picture, a photojour-nalism curriculum published by Jostens. Recently McLean developed a digital photography storytelling course that is
Beginning this year, UIL journal-ism contests will have mandated verification periods. These verifica-tions will allow teachers to make sure the student number on an entry matches the placement it is given in the contest.
UIL will again host four Student Ac-tivities Conferences this fall. The con-ferences introduce students and advis-ers to UIL contests. They will begin at 9 a.m. and end at 1:30 p.m. without a break for lunch. Tentative programs will be posted on the UIL website.
The dates and locations of the conferences are as follows:
UIL to beginverifications for journalism contests
Schools will email or fax entries to the address/fax number given. De-pending on the number of entries, re-gional sites may be used for some judg-ing.
The first contest will start at 10 a.m., and the last will start at 1:30 p.m. Reg-istration forms can be found on the TAJE website.
Deadline for meet entries is Dec. 17.
Sept. 17: Texas Tech, Lubbock
Sept. 24: Sam Houston State University, Huntsville
Oct. 1: University of Texas at Austin
Oct. 15: University of North Texas, Denton
Membership forms for ILPC can be found at http://www.uiltexas.org/journalism
part of a digital media degree program taught through a University online.
Vaughn, a Balfour representative, taught at Whitehouse High School for 10 years. She was one of the first TAJE regional representatives and was in-strumental in increasing membership in TAJE in the East Texas region.
Lavelle is the Interactive News Edi-tor for DallasNews.com (The Dallas Morning News online edition). She also works with student journalists to organize workshops, internships and scholarships. Each April, she organizes a free workshop for student journalists and advisers.