How do you teach these
skills to your staff?
Life long learning skills
 Reading
 Read other newspapers
 Exchange papers with other high schools – we do that with 200
 Critique those papers, evaluate them, steal from them, write to each other
 Establish a sister school – skype story planning, talk about issues, share ideas
 Daily newspapers
 Make the consumption of a daily newspaper a habit by having them in the
room, Newspapers in Education is a program that can help to get free papers
delivered to your classroom.
 Newseum.org
 Has daily front pages of papers from around the world, often has links to their
main website
Life long learning skills
 Writing
 Free-form expression. Using the production cycle to allow
student choice, encourage all staff members to write for each
section, especially the opinions section and allow for first person
narratives in other sections of the paper.
 Multiple stories in the paper about the same topic – news piece,
an opinions piece (if you can an editorial), and someplace else
where appropriate. Make sure there is on-line coverage too.
 Develop stories across a range of media – script dialogue for
instant message/SMS, story board using a power point/pdf, using
images appropriate for the internet, write a story, take a
photograph, record using a camera, illustrate with drawings.
 Work in teams – write, designer, artists/photographers
 Webquest for story ideas and research. Its not just resources, but
a new way to combine knowledge through multiple resources.
Life long learning skills
 Writing continued
 Reflective pieces are increasingly popular – it needs to be
reflective of the lives of teens, or they won’t read it.
 Build your reputation on showing teens as they really are, not how
someone wants them to be or thinks they should be.
 Teach news values and make them a critical component to the
story selection process.
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Timeliness
Proximity
Prominence
Impact
Conflict
Human Interest
Novelty
 Reflect on stories in the paper – I use blogs throughout their
career to track their growth, some kids keep them going after
they graduate.
Life long learning skills
 Critical Thinking
 Involves identifying, evaluating, and constructing arguments
 The examination of logical relationships among statements or
data
 View things from different perspectives
 Asking questions, making judgments and identifying assumptions
 Challenge students to write pro and con arguments for a select topic
 Teach students to find common themes for their stories
 Build a trusting environment where students feel safe to share ideas,
build relationships, fail, succeed, question and collaborate
 Diversity is crucial in the process – different people bringing different ideas to
the table. Decentralize so that not one person is dictating. Summary – get the
opinions into one collective verdict. Independent thinking – build a community
of trust so that people can worry about their own information and ideas and not
worry about what everyone else is thinking about them and what they think.
Remove barriers so that there is student comfort.
Life long learning skills
 Research
 Multiple sources, I require at least 5 interviews and 3 sources
quoted in each story.
 Use a story planning sheet to help direct writers – I have students
list potential sources and write open-ended questions for each
story. These are turned in ahead of time.
 I print every email that comes across my desk for potential
stories, I share these with students as they begin the writing
process.
 Soft skills
 Interviewing
 More than just asking questions – it’s a conversation – practice this
process in class – assign teams to interview each other – build on the
conversation – take their notes away – I often force them to take their
question list, narrow it to three crucial questions and then take the rest
away and have them practice having a conversation.
Life long learning skills
 Soft skills continued
 Communication
 Require students to create new “professional” emails that they use to
communicate from newspaper class.
 Teach them to make and keep appointments with adults on campus.
 Utilize SMS in every day communication with them
 Text, email, twitter, instagram, etc.
 People skills
 Have a classroom set of expectations on behavior
 In the classroom with the staff
 We had a classroom key word if someone came in while we were talking so
that everyone knew there was someone in the room besides staff.
 In public with peers and with adults, set those expectations and hold them
accountable.
 To the editors
 To the staff
 To you
Life long learning skills
 Technical computer skills
 Use of specific computer programs necessary to put out a
publication.
 Creative Suite
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InDesign
Photoshop
Illustrator
Lightroom
Bridge
Premire
Acrobat
 Email
 iMovie
 Microsoft Office
 Word
 Excel
 Power point
What my former students say:
 Things they remember from my classroom:
 Food – is always available and there were drinks in the fridge
 The florescent lights are always off – I use lamps and the room
was lit with those, which created a “mood” for newspaper
 The “lounge” – I created a sitting area in my room with a couch,
pillows, comfortable chairs, pillows and blankets.
 A place to get away, to think, relax, sleep, listen to music, a private
place for students to get away from school
 Music – there is always music playing in my room
 Allow students to plug in their music and play it through the speakers,
rotate so that each student gets a chance
 I “spoke their language” – I treat students as adults, yes I am in
charge, but they can always speak their minds, what happens in
the newsroom, stays in the newsroom and there is no recourse
with administration for anything that happens in the room.
TRUST.
What my former students say:
 Late nights and weekends – they happen every publication
cycle, get used to them and if you are running late on a
deadline, expect to be there.
 High expectations of completion to a minimum standard
 Its more than grades – if you don’t complete work, you impact more
than yourself or me, you impact your friends and the newspaper
 But there is a grade attached, so its going to hit you twice if you don’t
get things done.
 Required self grade with reflection for each issue
 Required editor grades with reflection for each issue
Other ideas, brainstorming, misc.
 Localism – community journalism – cover the local stuff, the closest to
home.
 Community journalism to bring the subject matter closer to hand.
 Make the news quick, newsy, and useful.
 How do we combat the role of social media, which embraces the SMS
(short message service) like twitter and texting?
 Embrace the media, and use it to expand with links
 Consumers are now hunter and gatherers of information – pulling from
multiple sources – make sure to vary your coverage in print and on line.
 Use storytelling on video based productions using journalistic
standards.
 Use infographics to help expand reader connections to the page/story.
 Remember your audience.
 Monomedia versus multimedia
 Write talking points for your campus using your school newspaper. Help
your classroom teachers find ways to integrate the newspaper into their
teaching. At my last campus we used the newspaper to promote literacy
by determining the lexile levels of each story in the newspaper.
 Quill and Scroll induction ceremony text. Create ownership of the
publication.
 According to the Society of Professional Journalist code of ethics,
professional integrity is the cornerstone of a journalist's credibility
Other ideas, brainstorming, misc.
 Branding your publication as a whole. Develop a logo/symbol, a
distinctive symbol. Branding concepts:
 i.e. Name: The word or words used to identify a company, product, service, or
concept.
 Logo: The visual trademark that identifies the brand.
 Tagline or Catchphrase: "The Quicker Picker Upper" is associated with Bounty
paper towels. "Can you hear me now" is an important part of the Verizon
brand.
 Graphics: The dynamic ribbon is a trademarked part of Coca-Cola's brand.
 Shapes: The distinctive shapes of the Coca-Cola bottle and of the Volkswagen
Beetle are trademarked elements of those brands.
 Colors: Owens-Corning is the only brand of fiberglass insulation that can be
pink.
 Sounds: A unique tune or set of notes can denote a brand. NBC's chimes are
a famous example.
 Scents: The rose-jasmine-musk scent of Chanel No. 5 is trademarked.
 Tastes: Kentucky Fried Chicken has trademarked its special recipe of eleven
herbs and spices for fried chicken.
 Movements: Lamborghini has trademarked the upward motion of its car doors.
 Customer relationship management
Other ideas, brainstorming, misc.
 Craft a quality editorial policy that fits your needs keeping in
mind prior review policies at your school, be honest with your
community about the status of your paper.
The Eagle’s Eye is the official student newspaper of Akins High School. It is published six times a year,
generally once per six weeks for the school’s students, staff and community. The Eagle’s Eye is an open
forum for student expression. The Eagle’s Eye is not reviewed by school administration prior to
distribution, and the advisor will not act as a censor. Content represents the views of the student staff and
not school officials. The Eagle’s Eye will work to avoid bias and/or favoritism. We will strive to make our
coverage and content meaningful, timely and interesting to our readers. Our articles will reflect our
genuine objective of reporting news and will be held to a high standard of quality. We will make every
effort to avoid printing libel, obscenities, innuendo and material that threatens to disrupt the learning
process or is an invasion of privacy. We will avoid electronic manipulation that alters the truth of a
photograph. Staff editorials represent the opinion of the editorial board arrived at by discussion and will
not be bylined. Bylined articles are the opinion of the individual writer and do not necessarily reflect the
views of the Eagle’s Eye staff or administration as a whole. The Eagle’s Eye welcomes reader input.
Please send any letters, articles, comments or corrections to akins.journalism@gmail.com or mail them
to 10701 South First Street Austin, Texas 78748 or drop them off in room 223 with advisor Michael
Reeves or an editor. Letters must be signed, and emailed letters will require verification before
publication. We will not necessarily publish all letters received and reserve the right to edit for length and
clarity. The Eagle’s Eye does not necessarily endorse the products or services found in advertisements
from local businesses.
Journalists Creed
 I believe in the profession of Journalism.
 I believe that the public journal is a public trust; that all connected with it are, to the full
measure of responsibility, trustees for the public; that all acceptance of lesser service
than the public service is a betrayal of this trust.
 I believe that clear thinking, clear statement, accuracy and fairness are fundamental to
good journalism.
 I believe that a journalist should write only what he holds in his heart to be true.
 I believe that suppression of the news, for any consideration other than the welfare of
society, is indefensible.
 I believe that no one should write as a journalist what he would not say as a gentleman;
that bribery by one's own pocket book is as much to be avoided as bribery by the
pocketbook of another; that individual responsibility may not be escaped by pleading
another's instructions or another's dividends.
 I believe that advertising, news and editorial columns should alike serve the best
interests of readers; that a single standard of helpful truth and cleanness should prevail
for all; that supreme test of good journalism is the measure of its public service.
 I believe that the journalism which succeeds the best-and best deserves success-fears
God and honors man; is stoutly independent; unmoved by pride of opinion or greed of
power; constructive, tolerant but never careless, self-controlled, patient, always
respectful of its readers but always unafraid, is quickly indignant at injustice; is
unswayed by the appeal of the privilege or the clamor of the mob; seeks to give every
man a chance, and as far as law, an honest wage and recognition of human
brotherhood can make it so, an equal chance; is profoundly patriotic while sincerely
promoting international good will and cementing world-comradeship, is a journalism of
humanity, of and for today's world.
 The Journalist's Creed is a code of ethics written around 1906 by Walter Williams shortly after founding the Missouri
School of Journalism.