Tiger Squad News Roars Back To Life

by MAYA MCFADDEN

The ink is dry on the first issue of the recently revived Tiger Squad News as Celentano School reporters-in-training Nima Safdari, Alae Aboutalib, and Shayla Black return to the beat for a second newsletter that they hope will inform their classmates about just how much work goes into being a student reporter.

In October, Celentano Biotech, Health and Medical Magnet School secondgrade teacher Fran Holzbar gathered with a group of first- through fourth-grade students to revive the 400 Canner St. school’s print newsletter.

The student newsie group meets twice a week after school to discuss the latest with school happenings.

With the help of the printing team at Wilbur Cross High School, a first issue of a reborn newsletter known as the “Tiger Squad News” was released in February.

That four-page, color-photo-rich first issue has an article on afterschool programs and fundraising efforts.

The Celentano news team plans to publish a second issue before the end of the school year. It’ll then begin releasing new issues on a quarterly schedule next school year.

This reporter recently caught up with a trio of the Tiger Squad News students to answer their questions about about reporting tips, lessons, and strategies.

To prepare for the half-hour conversation, the student-reporters attached their blue press passes onto their shirts, grabbed their composition notebooks and pencils, and prioritized their most pressing questions.

They also showed off their first newsletter issue that they worked on for several months to keep the middle school up to date on after school programs, fundraisers, and field trips. The student reporters took the pictures throughout the newsletter and used a Canva template to format the pages.

Also a part of the news team but who were not present at the time of this visit were student-reporters Charles Pablo Lopez, Zain Alqaysi, and Elijah Wagner. When asked what the staff hope to write more about in the second issue they agreed that they want to discuss the process of making the newsletter and what it’s like working as a team, listening to others’ opinions, and making group decisions.

“When we work as a team, we got it done quicker,” Shayla said.

“I want them to learn that doing this is not really that easy. You don’t just put any picture and some words; you have to take time to process it and write and think and print it out,” Alae said.

Fourth-grader Shayla joined the newspaper staff because of her love for writing which she does often in her free time.

When she has free time in class after finishing an assignment early she often writes up short stories on her favorite topics like fairytales and myths. One of her most recent stories was about a person who gossiped too much and turned into a crab, she said.

She also writes about what vacations she hopes to go on one day.

“It’s quiet when I write and it calms me,” she said. “When I write people know me better and know how I’m feeling.” She added that she loves to share her stories with her classmates, especially new students so they can get to know her better.

Her favorite part about reporting so far has been interviewing people and learning new things about them.

At the start of the year the students learned how to introduce themselves to a potential interviewee by looking them in their eyes, shaking their hand, and sharing their name and outlet.

Shayla added that she enjoys informing her school about what’s going on, the hard work of students, and extracurricular actives they can get involved with.

Third-grader Nima said he enjoys being a news staffer because he knows what’s going on

“During Covid news was important because we learned what Covid was and to not go outside too much,” he said. “And it makes us aware of our surroundings.” While on the news staff, Nima added that he’s learned that writing and taking pictures can be fun.

Read more by going to THE INNERCITY NEWS .COM