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Michigan Interscholastic Press Association
Inside Scholarship opportunities for your students
3 Fall conference photos
4–5 Last chance to join MIPA
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About the Photo Kyle Reenders from the Bucs’ Blade at Grand Haven HS won first place in the Portrait category in the 2004 Individual Entry Newspaper Contest. The judge wrote “Good moment, great personality.”
December 2004 Vol. 32, No. 2
Stet The President’s Column
Education occurs when you least expect it
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Brian Wilson Waterford Kettering HS
t’s a fact, and you already know it, but I’ll reiterate it for you here. Education, it turns out, is almost always best doled out in informal dollops and occurs at times when you least expect it. Sure, you can, as a co-worker of mine likes to say, “get your learn on,” during the hours of the actual school day like everyone thinks you’re doing, but what fun is that? Sometimes I think the worst time for students to really be learning anything is during the 85 minutes that they’re actually, officially sitting in my class. I’m sure most other teachers who leave at a normal time (and get to see daylight! Jerks!) would disagree, but I find that I learn the most about my students, and they learn the most about journalism and life itself, during the times when they don’t necessarily have to be there. Of course, I guess I’m sort of forced to
think this way, since as I write this, school has been officially out for four and a half hours, we have already ordered and eaten six pepperoni pizzas, and we’ve heard the same Snoop Dogg and Eminem songs on the radio three times. This happens on a grander scale, too. Spending a few days in Atlanta with 12 of my yearbook and newspaper students for the JEA convention revitalized me as it always does. Breaking out of the deadline mode for just a weekend is the kick in the butt, the shot in the arm, the punch in the proverbial gut (you get the idea and I’m out of appropriate body parts) that we all need in order to look at 260 more pages of yearbook and seven more issues of newspaper without screaming uncontrollably. I’ve discovered that I love dropping everything during the week before Thanksgiving, when it seems
They’ll be commenting about modular design, or critiquing internal margins, or worrying about picas, and I’ll want to start crying. I mean it; crying. Over picas! MIPA Officers 2004-2005 President 1st Vice President 2nd Vice President Secretary Trustee Trustee Trustee Newspaper Chair Legislative Chair Workshop Chair Middle School Chair Broadcast Chair Yearbook Chair Hall of Fame Chair Executive Director J-School Director
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Brian Wilson, Waterford Kettering HS Rod Satterthwaite, Dexter HS David Hebestreit, Livonia Churchill HS Kim Kozian, L’Anse Creuse HS North Sandra Strall, Carlson HS Cheryl Braford, Portage Central HS Jeremy Van Hof, Grand Ledge HS Julie Price, Haslett HS Gloria Olman, retired, Utica HS Betsy Pollard Rau, H.H. Dow HS Open
like we’ve been in school for ages without a break. There’s nothing better than talking to other adults about yearbook and newspaper for a few days, without really caring (too much!) about whether or not pages are actually getting done back in Michigan. Of course, we always pay for this attitude when we get back and my editors and I have approximately 42,876 questions from students who are mad at us for “abandoning” them. This is not even the best part, though. The best part is that the students get more out of it than I do. They get on the plane to go home saying crazy things like “When do we get to go to New York?” and “Is it true that there’s a spring convention too?” and “Here’s what we’re going to do at MIPA this summer!” and “I’ve decided to scrap all my future plans and become a journalism adviser!” OK, that last one I just made up. Nevertheless, they are energized, and so am I. And (I’m convinced of this) it’s because they’ve found the perfect combination of academics and fun. To a smaller degree, this is
Please see PRESIDENT’S COLUMN on page 7
Stet
Stet is the official newsletter of the Michigan Interscholastic Press Association, an agency of the School of Journalism at Michigan State University. Stet is published four times a year by the MIPA executive director and MSU students. Send letters to the editor and advertising inquiries to mipa@msu. edu. The MIPA Web site is maintained by Josh Tacey and Penney Aiken. www.mipa.jrn.msu.edu
Vacant Diane Herder, Laingsburg HS Lynn Strause, East Lansing HS Jeff Nardone, Grosse Pointe South HS Cheryl Pell, Michigan State University Jane Briggs-Bunting, MSU School of Journalism
MIPA 305 Communication Arts Building Michigan State University East Lansing, MI 48824-1212 Phone: 517-353-6761 Fax: (517-355-7710
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MIPA
Notes News
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NAHJ offers scholarships The National Association of Hispanic Journalists offers several scholarships for print, broadcast and online journalism. Each year NAHJ awards more than 30 scholarships to students pursuing careers as either English or Spanish language journalists. Past NAHJ scholarship recipients have gone on to be successful reporters, producers, photographers, designers and editors. Current high school seniors, college and first year graduate students are eligible to apply for an NAHJ scholarship. Please Visit the NAHJ Web site at www.nahj.org for complete details and applications. Deadline is January 28, 2005
MPA continues scholarship and internship program This program is a cooperative arrangement with a Michigan Press Association (MPA) member newspaper and the MPA Foundation. Students may apply for editorial, advertising, marketing, photography and circulation internships for the summer following their high school graduation (the vast majority are editorial applicants). Graduating seniors who plan to study journalism send their resumes, appropriate clips/portfolios, letters of reference and an essay to the MPA Foundation. The Foundation gets the applications, then forwards them to editors who have said they are interested in participating in the program. Editors review the materials, then decide if they wish to interview any or all of the applicants. If editors choose to hire a student under the aegis of the Foundation’s program, they agree to pay the student a salary, and write a tax-deductible check to the Foundation for $1,000. When the summer internship is complete, and the intern is enrolled in college, the Foundation awards the student a $2,000 scholarship— $1,000 from the Foundation and the $1,000 that the newspaper contributes. That’s the match! In other words, MPA Foundation Match Program interns receive a paid summer job and $2,000. This matching scholarship program was set up to encourage high school students “to go into the important and satisfying world of community newspapers,” according to Richard Milliman, president of the MPA Foundation. The Foundation directors, he says, believe that “the sooner we connect with young people to encourage them to consider newspapering as a career, the more effective our appeal can be. The combination of the newspaper funds, the Foundation award and the salary the student receives from the newspaper should pay most of a year’s tuition at a community college or state-supported university,” says Milliman. If the student and newspaper agree, the internship and scholarship may continue for a second year. Of 12 internships last summer, nine newspapers wanted the interns back; only one student chose not to return. For more information, please contact Janet Mendler at jmendler@ht.homecomm.net or visit michiganpress.org.
Strause receives Pioneer Lynn Strause, yearbook adviser at East Lansing HS, received a Pioneer award from the National Scholastic Press Association at Photo by David Stedwell the fall JEA/ NSPA convention in Atlanta last month. The Pioneer is the highest award NSPA offers to journalism educators. Pioneers are individuals who make substantial contributions to high school publications and journalism programs outside of their primary employment.
Photo by David Stedwell
JEA honors Dexter principal
The Journalism Education Association awarded Dexter HS’s principal Glen Stevenson as their Administrator of the Year at the JEA/NSPA convention. Stevenson’s award reflects his support of scholastic journalism at Dexter HS. Stevenson was nominated by Danny Dobrei, last year’s editor of The Squall, Dexter HS’s student newspaper; Rod Satterthwaite, DHS newspaper and yearbook adviser and Matt Martello, DHS video journalism teacher. Two years ago he was honored by MIPA as Administrator of the Year.
Check out UK & Ireland trip Download the itinerary and more information about the trip at the MIPA Web site (mipa.jrn.msu. edu). If you plan to travel with the group, a $250 deposit is due by Jan. 15, 2005. The two-week trip is scheduled for June 18–July 3. Please let the MIPA office know if you are interested as soon as possible.
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Many attend October journalism conferences Oct 5 at the Lansing Center
Two students stopped to share a smile. Nearly 2,000 students and teachers attended the annual fall conference.
It’s a MIPA tradition to take a photo of new advisers at the MIPA Fall Conference luncheon.
Joe Grimm, recruiting and development editor at the Free Press, talks with a student, while Gloria Olman, speaker, checks out the display. The Detroit Free Press had a booth at the Fall Conference for the first time.
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Laingsburg High School students helped to register schools, a job they’ve done since 1988. Below left, video adviser Steve Ellis from Woodhaven HS shares his enjoyment of the conference.
Stet Junior High/Middle School Oct 26 at the MSU Union
Two junior high students discuss what sessions they’ll attend. Nearly 250 students and teachers attended the second annual Junior High Conference.
A student works on a session assignment about alternative copy in the yearbook.
Students use their investigative skills to piece together a story in “You Be the Reporter.” Betsy Rau, newspaper adviser at H.H. Dow HS presented this interactive exercise.
Students take notes during a session.
Above: Briget Sheeran, yearbook adviser at Traverse City East JH, presents a session on different ways of writing stories in yearbooks. Left: Students spend some time on the floor designing a Halloween page.
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Also on the Web
2004-2005 MIPA Membership Application Form Membership runs from September through August. Deadline: Schools must join MIPA by Jan. 31, 2005, to participate in contests for that calendar year.
Today’s date SCHOOL List school as you want it referred to on membership certificate and other documents.
Address City
State
Phone ( Check the publications that are joining.
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Newspaper Adviser )
Yearbook Name Home Phone (
Yearbook Adviser )
Lit. Magazine Name Home Phone (
Write very clearly, please!
)
Write very clearly, please!
Lit. Magazine Adviser E-mail Write very clearly, please!
Video Journalism Name Home Phone (
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Video Journalism Adviser E-mail Write very clearly, please!
No $10 fee for Web.
Web Journalism Name Home Phone (
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Web Journalism Adviser E-mail Write very clearly, please!
Anything you’d like the MIPA office to know?
MEMBERSHIP FEES $37.50 for one publication $47.50 for two publications $57.50 for three publications $67.50 for four publications
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1 publication or production
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Other publications or productions ($10 for each beyond the first one)
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Add $5 if this is being mailed after Oct. 5, 2004
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Total enclosed
Send this form and check made out to MIPA to: MIPA, School of Journalism 305 Communication Arts Bldg Michigan State University East Lansing, MI 48824-1212 For office use only please:
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Stet The Michigan-Indiana Connection
Some members of the MIPA Board recently met with the Indiana High School Press Association board to share ideas and discuss issues such as censorship. The meeting took place at Potawatomi Inn in Pokagon State Park in Indiana and may become an annual event.
PRESIDENT’S COLUMN, cont. from page 2 what our job is about every single day. Another thing that I love about this trip is getting to spend time with my students away from school. Amie, one of my yearbook photographers, put it best; “you learn something new about Mr. Wilson every time we go on a trip!” Inevitably, I’ll sing with them in a restaurant, or dance around like an idiot in the airport, or (horror of horrors!) wear jeans instead of a shirt and tie. They find it amazing when I do bed checks while wearing my glasses instead of my contacts. For whatever reason, donning a baseball hat also freaks them out. I know that my students aren’t always exactly learning from a book, but you can’t tell me that these aren’t some of the weird little details that they’ll remember forever. Want proof that they’re getting something out of journalism? Need evidence that this actually means something to them? My own verification comes when I see my section edi-
tors pass copies of their layouts back and forth on the plane while they think I’m not watching. They’ll be commenting about modular design, or critiquing internal margins, or worrying about picas, and I’ll want to start crying. I mean it; crying. Over picas! And I really have to keep myself in check by doing that weird swallowing thing that guys do when they’re listening to Tuesdays with Morrie on tape or watching The Fox and the Hound and don’t want to bawl like twoyear-olds. Not that I, myself, have ever been in either of these situations, mind you. Here’s the problem, though. I worry that the ever-increasing requirements on teachers are forcing us to abandon the wonder of the informal teachable moment. Just in the last two years I have had to learn a new (computerized) form of attendance, study how to utilize a ‘seminar’ time that we are implementing, work around a new block schedule, figure out our
‘improved’ tardy system, fill out ‘tally sheets’ for my special ed students who behave properly (or misbehave, I can’t remember which tally means what), and discover the joys of posting online grades for parents with wildly unrealistic academic expectations for their children. These are the parts of education that overwhelm me; not the deadlines and the public’s response to our publications, but the administrative duties that keep piling up with no end in sight. And it makes me think about those teachers just getting started. When do they ever have any time to actually make themselves better educators? And the average publication adviser lasts only three years? What on earth would make them quit? It’s ironic that so many experts (all right, it’s a term used loosely) believe that education will improve through increased testing and seemingly nothing else. Well, not through the testing itself, but because of something
called accountability. The theory goes something like this; if I’m making sure that all of my students are successful on the 37 standardized tests that they take before they graduate, then I’m a good teacher. The way I see it, teachers who complain about losing classroom creativity by being forced to “teach to the test” are justified, but only half right. Worse than that is the fear that these shackles will have an impact on out of the classroom learning. After all, even though we know how much value is in the informal part of each day, you can’t really quantify the positive educational benefits of late night rap sessions, or picnics with the staff, or secret snowman gift exchanges, at least not on any standardized test. And so I worry that the day will come when anything that doesn’t have a direct impact on test results will be eliminated. That, my friends, will be a lousy day. Because that will be the day that this job starts to seem like work.
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BURSTINGWITH PRIDE Hearing others brag about my students felt just great By Julie Price Haslett HS
I
had the unexpected pleasure—and that word’s not nearly big enough to describe how I felt—to hear a friend talk to another person about one of my students. No, not just talk, rave about this young woman and how she is one of the best kids he’s ever taught. What a weird and wonderful feeling to be on the outside as two top people in the scholastic journalism world talked about one of my kids. It came out of nowhere, totally unexpected, and unsolicited by me. I thought I was going to burst with pride. Kaboom—I sat a little taller and couldn’t help but let a silly grin invade my face. Those who have children know what it feels like to hear people say good things about your own kids. Raising children is a crapshoot, or at least it has been for me. I’m doing the best I can, but often feel like I’m flying by the seat of my pants. I haven’t raised kids because I’m looking for compliments on their good manners, strong personalities or intelligence. But when those compliments do come my way, it somewhat validates the 19 years of hard work I’ve devoted to the task. I burst with pride. Nonetheless, it’s a crapshoot. I’m not sure I deserve credit for what they’re becoming. I’m lucky. Teaching feels much like that, especially teaching journalism and inspiring kids to want to take their publications seriously. I work hard every day to not waste students’ time. I want every lesson I teach to have relevance to journalism and publications, but
I will not deny how good it feels when you see success or when somebody tells you you’re making a difference.
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MIPA/School of Journalism 305 Communication Arts Building Michigan State University East Lansing, MI 48824-1212
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also to their lives. I want them to feel respected and that they have a place in this world called high school. Maybe, just maybe, that will help them feel they have a place in the real world. Do I always achieve my goals? Am I always effective and good for the kids? Heck no. But I am dedicated to trying. And sometimes, out of the blue, we get to see that our efforts are paying off. A student who struggles writing a basic news story that has any resemblance to a news story, turns in a piece resplendent with a solid basic lead, followed by a quote and then adds more facts and quotes. Hallelujah. It’s a story. Or a mother hugs you and says, “You are a blessing from God,” all because you let her kid dig into Photoshop as much as he wants. He also hangs out in your room most of the day doing photography, independent study journalism, newspaper and even eating lunch there. “I don’t think he would have made it through high school without you,” she says, while I’m thinking, “Shoot, I’m lucky to have him. Who would create those cool graphics if he wasn’t here? Not me. I don’t even know how to use Photoshop.” I will not deny how good it feels when you see success or when somebody tells you you’re making a difference. We need to enjoy those moments. I know it’s not why I’m doing this job. I know it’s not why you’re doing the job. But let’s enjoy that we do make a difference. Potentially, a big difference. And that’s why we work hard all day and long into the evening. It’s why we teach journalism and advise student publications. Hoist those shoulders, let the silly grins spread across your faces, because I hear you have a kid who…