PORTFOLIO MIAH THIRION SEMESTER ONE 2019
SELF REFLECTION SELF REFLECTION This semester I was thrown straight into the storm. Walking into the semester, I did not know what to expect. I had very little knowledge about InDesign, and my skills were minimal. However, as the semester has progressed, I feel that I have gained so much knowledge and skills. I went from barely being able to create a text box or line on Indesign, to being able to produce a full page that can be published. I believe that the skills I learned design-wise are something I can use in my future if I want to pursue a career like working at a magazine company or newspaper. Learning how to use Indesign successfully is something that taught me a lot about tenacity and determination. There were so many moments where I wanted to give up on learning a new skill. However, by not giving up on it and by continuing to put the time and effort in, I learned that the final result will always be rewarding. Deadlines where another thing that I did not understand the real importance of until this year. The entire production and success of the paper revolve around deadlines. If one person does not get something done, there is a domino effect, and it causes other people to have to take responsibility for your mistake. This was a very tough lesson to learn as an editor when the staff did not meet deadlines. As an editor, all of the pressure is on you to fix and finish what was not completed. I also learned that by working hard and getting things done early, I was able to be more intentional when helping the staffers who are working on things for my page. If I finished my articles and pictures early, I could help them with their work for my page, resulting in a more successful page. As the year continues, I will continue to do everything I can to get ahead on my personal work so I can be intentional with staff and be as helpful and supportive as I possibly can be so that the deadlines are met. Another significant aspect of a successful paper is teamwork. This semester, I was editor in chief of the online paper with Max, and this taught me so much about teamwork. We had to continuously communicate with each other about everything we had to get done and make sure that we split up the work and did it on time. Even though there where a few times where the communica-
tion was lacking, causing us to fall behind, I think that we worked super well together. I also think that I worked well with the other staff. I was attentive and did my best to ensure that I was clear on my expectations for the articles for my page. I checked in on the staff and was there to answer any questions. In terms of improvement, I feel that next semester, I can focus more on encouraging staff and give more “shout outs.� I have learned that when people are rewarded and recognized for their hard work, they are more likely to put in the same amount of effort again. So next semester, I am going to focus on encouraging writers and shouting them out if they are putting in a lot of apparent effort. This semester I also learned a lot about ethics. I learned a lot about being objective and how important it is. In society, journalists and the media can many times have a bad reputation because of opinions being showcased as truth. People depend on journalists to tell the truth, because we are their source of news. So it is our job as the CS Press to make sure that the information we publish is the truth, and I have learned how important that task is. We have an individual duty as staff to publish the truth. Dedication, in my opinion, is the most significant aspect of a successful paper. Every person on the staff has to have the drive to complete their work, other the paper is not successful. In terms of my dedication- I believe that I was an asset to the publication this semester. I put in a lot of time and effort to ensure that my work was done on time or early, and I did what I could to help other staff members succeed. I came to all the production days. An example of the extent of my commitment is that for the December issue, the night before articles were due, I texted all the staff members that had to write articles for my page, and I asked them if they had any questions or if they needed help. I also made outlines for a couple of articles to help guide the writers with the articles that were harder to write. Another example of the extent of my commitment is that I completed my pictures for the December issue early so that I was able to be helpful and intentional with the staff and so that my page would be completed on time because I did not have to focus on my own
SELF REFLECTION CONTIN SELF REFLECTION CO
NUED NTINUED picture assignments. This semester was the most hectic and demanding out of all the years that I have done newspaper. Being editor in chief of online, along with being a new editor and barely having the skills to complete a page, and being one of the few staff members from last year brought a lot of new challenges. One of the challenges of this semester was completing my personal assignments while also trying to be intentional with the new staff, and be a valuable leader to the online staff writers. There were many class periods where an online staff writer needed help, and I still had to take my pictures and check-in with the other staff that were writing for me. I dealt with this by ensuring that I did a majority of my personal assignments outside of class, like during lunch or after school. I was in the newspaper room working on production stuff most lunch periods to ensure that I did everything to the best of my ability and on time. This problem is something that will continue throughout the year because of the amount of responsibility I have as an editor and editor in chief, and to continue to be successful, I will continue to do most of my personal work outside of class. From this problem, and being a new leader on the staff, I learned so much about productivity and perseverance. There is so much time that we waste during our day like being on our phones, and that time was something I could use to ensure my work is done. Also, persevering always leads to the reward of your work being done and the feeling of success.
I also learned that I am very driven when I am passionate about something. Personally, the newspaper is something that I genuinely love and am passionate about. I love the adrenaline and the feeling of success when you see the picture you took and are proud of printed on a page, or the feeling of achievement when you see someone reading your page and talking about the way that you designed it. This passion is what continues to drive me, even when the work seems overwhelming or when the work seemed like too much, I was constantly reminded that I could do it because it is something I am passionate about. My greatest weakness publication related is that I get overwhelmed pretty easily. When we first assign our work for the month, it seems like a ton, and it can be super overwhelming, especially with all the new responsibilities I have taken on this year. To overcome this weakness, I will continue to take it one thing at a time, and spend time outside of class so that I do not have to cram all of the work into the short hour of class time. Next semester, I will work on planning things out more. This is something that Max and I started doing at the beginning of the semester, but as the semester continued, we planned things out less. By planning out when I will do my personal assignments, when I will edit online articles and check in on the online staff, and when I will check in with the staff writing for my page, I am able to ensure that it is all complete but that I also do not get too overwhelmed in the process.
REFLECTION ON EDITOR REFLECTION
FOR ONLINE ON EDITOR FOR ONLINE This school brought an entirely new challenge for me, editor in chief of the online paper along with Max. Walking into school in the first week, I had no idea what to expect, and I didn’t even begin to understand how much I would learn from being in that position. Editor in chief has taught me so much about intentionality, organization, planning, and leadership. Intentionality is one of the main things I learned this year, and it crucial to being a successful editor in chief. The more you are intentional you are with the writers, the more successful the paper. This meant that the more you check in on how they are doing, the more you help them with research, and the topic of their article, the more successful they are. There were most definitely weeks where Max and I were not as intentional, and it led to us falling behind, and not being able to publish some stories because of multiple reasons. Organization and planning is another essential thing, Max and I had to learn this year. We had to edit weekly articles, make sure we were both editing stories, keep up with uploads, and also continuously keep up and check-in with the online writers. This brought probably the biggest challenge of this position. Staying caught up with online and also staying caught up with our work and the editor work for the printed newspaper. The thing we did that made us the most successful planning wise was that we created a board that kept track of what the stories they were writing were, what we had uploaded and not uploaded, and what we still had to do this week. This allowed us to stay on top of all the work for the online paper and stay caught up with everything else. Another huge thing I learned this year was that leadership is very crucial when it comes to a successful team. Being a
leader that knows the team, cheers them on while they are working, and pushes the writers to be their best is something that I had to learn. In the past years of the newspaper, I was not put in a leadership position, so I never really understood what it took. However, by being thrown straight into the position, I learned so much and grew in my leadership skills. Along with learning a lot, there are some things I feel that we can improve on next semester. One thing is that we can make more of a schedule for the stories. Towards the end of this year, we made a schedule, but we weren’t able to stick to it because of whatever other things were going on at school that week. So for this upcoming semester, I think it could be beneficial to make a schedule with specific dates so that we know we are always able to follow it. Another thing I think we can improve on next semester is that we can teach online writers more about the actual knowledge of the newspaper. Since this is their first year of being on productions, they don’t have a lot of prior experience on how to write. This is a big issue we ran into in terms of editing this year. There was a lack of knowledge when the writers wrote the article, so we weren’t able to publish it. Another thing that I feel we can improve on next semester is communication. We need to be more consistent with communicating due dates with the writers. There were a couple of weeks this semester where the writers did not know the due dates, so they did not complete their articles. Overall, I am so thankful for this semester of being in this position, and I am looking forward to what I continue to learn next semester.
THREE EXAMPLES THREE EXAM
I am proud of this pictu climbing. I worked really and get an interesting a person climbing to intrigu looking at it. I love the fa can see how focused he small the holds a
I am proud of this picture of Mrs. Wells. Getting pictures in classrooms many times result in pictures that are very boring to look at, but this picture is very intruguing and inviting. It invites you into her classroom and portrays her relationships with her students well
MPLES THREE EXAMPLES
ure of rock y hard to try angle of the ue the person act that you e is and how are.
I am proud of this sidebar because of the creativity. I had a really cool vision for what I wanted it to look like and then the end result was exactly what I envisioned. I love how the pictures go off the sides of the sidebar and the way I designed it font wise.
TEAR SHEETS TEAR SH
S E P T E M B E R
EETS TEAR SHEETS
O C T O B E R
TEAR SHEETS TEAR SH
N O V E M B E R
EETS TEAR SHEETS D E C E M B E R
DESIGN
SEPTEMBER
DESIG
GN
DESIGN
OCTOBER
DESIGN
N O V E M B E R
DE
SIGN
DESIGN
D E C E M B E R