may 10 upfront
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Newsletter of the Texas Association of Journalism EducatorsTRANSCRIPT
UpfrontUpfrontTAJE
P.O. Box 5554Austin, TX
78763-5554taje.org
Texas Association of Journalism Educators May 2010
Sheryl FloydPresident
Susan DuncanPresident-Elect
903-295-5031, ext. [email protected]
Cindy BerrySecretary
940-393-7231cindy.berry@
decatur.esc11.net
Mikyela TedderTreasurer
Lisa Van EttaState Director281-856-1071
Pat GathrightConvention Director
Brenda SlattonAssistant
Convention Director210-442-0300, ext. 350
Sue JettAssistant
Convention Director210-442-0800, ext. 262
Lori HerbstPast President
Dianne Smith-HarperWebmaster
Rhonda MooreExecutive Director
When his advis-er called him and addressed
him as “Mr. Journal-ist of the Year,” it took Crandall High School senior Chase Ward a second to process what she meant.
“When I finally figured it out,” Ward said, “I was ecstatic. It was great to know that my years of hard work were being rec-ognized.”
Ward was named the Texas High School Journalist of the Year at the ILPC awards ceremony in Austin April 11. He was named a finalist for the National High School Journalist of the Year at the JEA/NSPA convention in Portland, Oregon, a week later.
“Sadly, I was not in Portland to hear the an-nouncement,” he said. “However, my eyes were fixed on my computer screen as I viewed JEA’s live broadcast of the awards ceremony. It gave me that chance to be in Portland without actually making the trip.”
Ward described being a finalist for the na-tional award as “awesome.”
“Just having the chance to represent Texas as a student journalist on a national stage was a great opportunity,” he said.
Ward took Journalism I his freshman year then went on to work on the yearbook and newspaper.
“The first day during the first lesson of my JI class, I knew journalism was something I want-ed to make a career of,” he said. “As a freshman, journalism was something new, exciting and, most importantly, intellectually challenging.”
As a junior, Ward was both art editor and web editor. His senior year he was named ed-itor-in-chief of The Pirate Press.
“I worked very hard as a junior and senior to move my paper from the print to online,”
he said. “I have made great strides, with the help of a great page designer, to completely change the look and content of The Pirate Press. I’ve been very fortunate to work with a great staff and hope that my greatest accom-plishments come through them as they continue
with their high school careers.”Ward said his adviser, Carol Countryman,
has had a tremendous impact on his high school and journalistic life.
“She is an amazing adviser that never fails to accomplish an amazing paper,” he said. “Year after year, she is challenging me to be a better journalist than I already am. I owe much of my success to her.”
Countryman said Ward led the staff to a re-cord year for awards.
‘He completely redesigned the paper and created the web page,” she said. “ He has shown the staff that hard work pays off. Be-sides being chosen as the Free Spirit from Texas and the Texas Journalist of the Year, he won the Lone Star Writing Contest, several Quill & Scroll awards including the Sweepstakes award for in-depth coverage, Dallas Morning News and ILPC awards, including Tops in Texas. He was named a Hunt Scholar for SMU and has re-ceived a full ride plus stipend.”
Ward said he loves in-depth reporting and hopes to continue that aspect of journalism in college.
“Journalism has taught me that no one is boring,” he said. “Journalism forces me to find stories in everyone I meet and challenges me to relate their story to readers everywhere.”
Texas High School Journalist of the Year Chase Wade of Crandall High School inter-views a senior whose mother was affected by Dallas ISD’s layoffs. Wade was names a finalist for National High School Journalism of the Year at the JEA/NSPA convention in Portland last month.
Wade named Texas High School Journalist of the Year
2 Texas Association of Journalism Educator May 2010
From the PresidentSheryl Floyd
Pflugerville HSTAJE President
So what will you say when school rolls around in August and people ask, “what did you do this sum-mer?”
• Here are some things that you might consider:
Which unit or subject was the hardest for you to teach or get across to your students this year? Find someone who can help you--this summer. Don’t re-invent the wheel. Ask others what they have done to teach (fill-in-the-blank). Use the wise “old timers” of our pro-fession who know how to do just about everything. Believe me, there are plenty of us...er, I mean “them”... who are willing to share. So if it’s been taught, then I betcha someone out there can help. Try www.hsj.org for tons of ideas.
• Sign up for an e-edition of a na-tional or local newspaper. Use the professional media. “The New York Times” digital edition is free and can be delivered to your inbox daily.
• Are you new to video or con-vergence? Then try the great training provided by TAJE/ILPC on conver-gent media this summer. Other solu-
tions include the JEAdigitalmedia.org website and STN (Student Tele-vision Network: www.studenttel-evision.org)
• There are so many summer workshops-- let me repeat-- so many workshops that will help you be a bet-ter adviser for whatever subject you
are teaching in our field. ATPI.org has a teachers only workshop in Commerce. The door prizes alone are worth going for! The yearbook
companies in your area often piggy back other workshops along with their summer yearbook workshops so you could sit in on the newspaper or photo or video section if they are offered. Ask the yearbook teacher at your school for names of workshops too.
• Did you join JEA? Again, tons of resources, a listserv, magazine and website at JEA.org. If you join through TAJE, our organization gets an extra five bucks.
• Phone a friend and get them to join TAJE too! It’s more fun with a friend. Come to the convention in October with your friend and learn some great stuff. Judge some con-tests and go out on the town in San
Antonio. If there is a new adviser nearby that isn’t a member then en-courage them to join. The first year is FREE! And don’t forget to tell them about the benefits of being a member--especially the free sum-mer scholarships for new teachers, and scholarships for seniors.
• Relax and enjoy some good journalism-related periodicals on your iPad or Nook or Kindle.
• Subscribe to some great blogs and read those on your iPad. Or follow some cool people on Twit-ter that know a lot about something that you want to know too. I follow techie, geeky and newsy people and organizations.
• Figure out a new way to keep your staffs motivated...did you ever appoint a “social editor?” They can keep track of birthdays, create a Facebook page for the staff and tweet about staff stuff.
• Start your own blog. Writing will do so much for your soul. If you don’t write regularly now, start! You can keep it private. Writing releases energy and engages your brain.
If you check off even one of these this summer, then you REALLY have accomplished something. And if you don't--that's OK too. Enjoy the summer.
Find ways to relax, rejuvenate this summer
ATPI to host summer workshop for advisers July 14-17 in CommerceThe ATPI Summer Workshop
for Instructors will be held July 14-17 at Texas A&M University in Commerce.
The $225 registration fee covers the workshop, all lunches, dinner on Wednesday and Friday evenings and other fun items. Teachers who have attended the Summer Workshop in the past who bring one new person with them this year can register both individuals for $200 each.
All workshop participants will re-
ceive a certificate for hours earned.
Participants can stay at the Holiday Inn Ex-press in Com-merce, less than five minutes from the campus. The hotel has free wireless internet ac-cess to all of the rooms. The rate at the Holiday Inn is $89.99/night plus 7 percent city tax. Make sure you
bring your state sales tax exemption form in order not to pay the 6 percent state tax. Rooms must be reserved by July 1 with a credit card. Contact the Holiday Inn at 1-903-886-4777 to make reservations. Tell them you are with the ATPI group.
The classes to be offered include Sports Photography, Digital Video, Digital Processes and Visual Com-munication. For more information, including full class descriptions, go to atpi.org.
Short items
May 2010 Texas Association of Journalism Educators 3
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The 2010 Fall Fiesta convention will be held Oct. 23-25 at the Sheraton Gunter Hotel in San Antonio.
Speaker forms are on the website.
Dates set for 2010 convention
Time to renew membership
Invoices for TAJE membership for the 2010-11 school year have been mailed.
Members should check the in-voice to see when their membership expires. Those who do not need to renew TAJE membership this year
Clip contest winners announced
Certificates for clip contest win-ners were mailed to schools in Feb-ruary.
A complete list of winners can be found on the TAJE website at taje.org.
To start off my last column of the year, I get to begin it with good news. I just re-turned a few weeks ago from the JEA/NSPA National Convention in Portland where Texas High School Journalist of the Year, Chase Wade from Crandall High School, placed in the top six finalists. Chase will receive a $2000 scholarship from JEA.
I saw TAJE Executive Direc-tor Rhonda Moore and ILPC Director Jeanne Acton there checking out the best sessions and soaking up ideas for the upcoming nationals to be held in Texas in the fall of 2012. It’s never to early to start planning.
With the convention in Washington D.C. going down in the record books as the larg-est convention to date, we Texans have our work cut for us if we are to top its numbers. And as everybody knows, both in Texas and across the nation, everything is bigger and better in Texas. If we are to retain those brag-ging rights, the advisers and journalism stu-dents of Texas need to get busy.
Two years seems like a long time away, but if you think about it, that’s only eight to 10 yearbook deadlines, and we all know how fast deadlines come and go.
It was Linda Putney’s last convention to serve as JEA’s Executive Director. JEA has narrowed down its search for a new director to four candidates. The organization’s com-mittee in charge of choosing her successor
says they will announce the new executive director in late May. No one was saying who the final candidates were, though.
I know all ‘yawl’ advisers are winding down the school year. For some, that means
meeting the last yearbook deadline, for others, receiving yearbook shipments and distributing the 2010 books. Advis-ers will have a few
weeks to rest before loading on buses and heading out to summer workshop, prepar-ing for next year’s publications.
I hope everyone has a great summer, and I look forward to seeing all the state’s advis-ers and journalism students in San Antonio at TAJE’s Fall Fiesta in October. There will be lots of new sessions and contests. If you have any suggestions for the fall state con-vention, contact your TAJE regional repre-sentative, an officer or me ([email protected]).
Finally, congratulations to the schools from Texas whose publications won NSPA’s Pacemaker at the spring convention in Port-land. The schools were McKinney High School, McKinney Boyd High School, St. Mark’s School of Texas and Pleasant Grove High School. The following schools won for digital yearbook: Flower Mound High School, McKinney High School and McKin-ney Boyd High School.
State Director’s ReportLisa Van Etta
Cypress Falls HSTAJE State Director
Texas shines at national convention in Portland
Short items
With the convention in Washington, D.C., going down in the record books as the largest convention to date, we Texans have our work cut for us if we are to top its numbers. And as everybody knows, both in Texas and across the nation, everything is bigger and better in Texas.
may use the invoice to join JEA, ATPI, PIEA or SIPA.
Members who need to join JEA may do so through TAJE. TAJE re-ceives a rebate from JEA for each member who joins JEA through TAJE.
Members are urged to sign up to present a session at the convention.
The earlybird registration dead-line is Sept. 24, and the hotel deadline is Sept. 24.
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 May 2010
Regional representatives to meet with BoardRegional workshops
are planned for mem-bers in August and September.
Workshops will in-clude lunch, and par-ticipants will receive a certificate for in-service credit.
For more informa-tion, contact your re-gional representative. The representatives and their e-mail ad-dresses are as follows:
Region ILaura SmithCanyon HS1701 23rd St.Canyon [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 512.464.6405 theresa-proctor@ roundrockisd.org
With summer vacation just around the corner, many advisers will be looking for workshops for their students.
Two of the biggest in the state are ILPC and the Gloria Shields All-American Workshop, Information for these workshops is as follows:
ILPCJune 25-28UT AustinContact Jeanne Acton at
Gloria Shields All-American WorkshopJuly 5-9Dallas Marriott Quorum HotelE-mail: [email protected] companies also host
workshops. If you need a work-shop other than the two listed, contact your yearbook represen-tative.
Vacation? What vacation?Summertime meansworkshop time
Region VILaura NegriAlief Kerr HS8150 Howell Sugarland Rd.Houston 77083281.983.8484 ext. 267- School8 3 2 . 3 7 9 . 9 9 2 4 -
Homelaura.k.negri @aliefisd.netlauraeku@yahoo.
com
Region VIIKelsey MartinMemorial HS101 E. HackberryMcAllen [email protected]
Regional representa-tives will meet with the Executive Board in June. Members with questions or concerns for the Board should contact their re-gional representative by May 31.
May 2010 Texas Association of Journalism Educators 5
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“My Dear Journalism Friends,
I cannot begin to express what your prayers and loving thoughts have meant to me in my time of deep sorrow. Mark always agreed with me that my fellow journalism teachers were the most caring group of people
I so appreciate all of the restaurant gift cards from the Austin-area teachers. Food has always been a priority in my life, but lately I just haven’t had the energy to care. Know-ing that a great meal is just a call and short drive away is so helpful.
Your generosity and sup-port has been something that I have always appreciated and cherished throughout the years. Now, it means more to me than ever. Thank you for all of your thoughtfulness and support.Sincerely,Janet Elbom
Patrick Patterson named Administrator of the Year
Principal Patrick Patterson of LBJ High School in Austin was named Administrator of the Year at the ILPC awards cer-emony April 11.
In her letter of nomination, adviser Janet El-bom described Patterson as “the dream principal for any publica-tions adviser.”
“He is both an adamant sup-porter and advocate of the First Amendment,” Elbom said. “Mr. Pat-terson is always of the mindset that we are responsible and ethical, and it our job — our duty — to tell the truth. He continues to be passionate about democracy and makes sure
that it is alive and well at his school and in its publications.”
Elbom said Patterson would visit the journal-ism room to talk and in-teract with her students every issue of the paper.
“He liked to come and hold ‘press con-ferences’ with the stu-dents,” Elbom said. “He was always and con-tinues to be accessible to them, never putting them off or telling them not to cover a subject.
When each paper comes out, I take him the issue and he always stops what he is doing and goes through the paper page by page making pos-itive comments. When he is done, he always says ‘You guys always do an awesome job.’”
Elbom sends thanks
Online mediaworkshopto be offered
TAJE and ILPC have teamed to offer a new media workshop for advisers Aug. 2-4 at McCallum High School in Austin
The workshop will cover building a newspaper web-site and adding multimedia components, including how to edit audio for podcasts and how to put together audio slideshows.
A flier and registration form are available on the TAJE website, taje.org.
TAJE presented the following scholarships at the ILPC convention in Austin April 11:
Chase WadeCrandall HS
$1,500 Bill Taylor Memorial Scholarship
Natasha Smith LASA Academy HS
Austin$1,000
Bobby HawthorneScholarship
Jacqi BontkeJersey Village HS
Houston$1,000 Jim Davidson
Memorial Scholarship
Alexa Junek Houston Memorial HS
$1,000 DeWitt C. Reddick
Memorial Scholarship
Summer workshop scholarships:Catherine LaraEbe Emeanuru
Alief Hastings HSHouston
Jessica HuynhAlexandra Karr
Alief Kerr HSHouston
Eliza LoomisAustin McCallum HSAriana HallenbeckNorth Garland HS
Teacher workshop scholarship:Andrea Negri
Alief Hastings HS
TAJE scholarships presented in April
Mr. Patterson is always of the mindset that we are responsible and ethical, and it our job — our duty — to tell the truth.
Janet ElbomLBJ HS adviser
Signature of TAJE member nominating
Purpose: To recognize individuals/staffs whose initial risk-taking efforts and subsequent experiences (whether wholly successful or not) to expand the scope and capabil-ity of Texas scholastic journalism benefit others who follow their lead.
Eligibility: Those who endeavor to “push the envelope” of conventional scholastic journalism to new venues or methods.
Entries must be postmarked no later than June 5, 2010.Mail nomination forms to:Rhonda MooreTAJEP.O. Box 5554Austin, TX 78763-5554
Name of Nominee:
School:
Please explain this individual’s contributions to the field of journalism on a separate sheet of paper. Include examples of how he/she has helped to improve scholastic journalism in Texas and how these improvements have benefitted others. Attach this form and send both to the TAJE address.
Trailblazer Award Nomination Form
6 Texas Association of Journalism Educators May 2010
May 2010 Texas Association of Journalism Educators 7
Signature of TAJE member nominating
Purpose: To note outstanding contributions to scholastic journalism by persons/organizations not directly involved in the daily instructional process (i.e., outside the classroom).
Eligibility: Those whose instruction, service and/or assistance, financial sponsorship or personal dedication and advocacy toward the betterment of scholastic journalism in Texas deserves recognition.
Entries must be postmarked no later than June 10, 2010.Mail nomination forms to:Rhonda MooreTAJEP.O. Box 5554Austin, TX 78763-5554
Name of Nominee:
Business/Organization:
Please explain the contributions of this individual/organization to scholastic journalism on a separate sheet of paper. Attach this form and send both to the TAJE address.
Friend of Journalism Award Nomination Form