As a new school year begins, the Student Center is preparing to connect students, teachers, advisers, and professionals in new and exciting ways. Our vision is to create an online community committed to supporting student journalists and furthering student press rights. This is site where students can pose questions and ideas to one another along with teachers and advisers. It is a place where students can get feedback on their work, tips from professionals, conduct polls and discussions, and share resources and classroom projects.
Browse some of the posts to get an idea of the possibilities. All of the posts were credited to me (Tom McHale) when we switched to WordPress, but most were posted by students. Of course, the success of this site depends on the participation of student journalists creating and responding to frequently updated content. That’s why we’re asking you to join the site by e-mailing Tom McHale at tmchale@hcrhs.k12.nj.us You can also follow the Student Center on Twitter and get alerted of new content by adding the GSSPA Facebook Page to your favorites.
My Journalism 1 class completed a project in which they interviewed school personnel and other experts on press rights through video recording and Skype (Unfortunately the Skype videos were not useable). The class edited down the videos to what you see here. They also created a wiki which contains full transcripts of videos, news and opinions, and other resources on press rights and ethics.
Please leave a comment on some of the viewpoints that were expressed in the video.
By Anna Kowalczyk, University of Maryland
Facebook is no longer solely for making friends and sharing bumper stickers.
As journalism evolves, journalists need to move beyond the pen and paper and begin utilizing tools available through the internet. Facebook is often a good place to start. As a writer and public relations intern for College Magazine and a staff writer at my college’s student paper, I have used Facebook to reach out to a larger group than would have been possible through simple phone calls and traditional reporting.
I started a recent story on college pregnancy for College Magazine (www.collegemagazine.com) by sending a message to all of my Facebook friends asking if they knew any college students who were pregnant or parenting while in school. Though I did not receive many helpful responses, I then began to search for pregnancy groups on Facebook. I joined the groups and made discussion board posts, explaining my story and asking for women to volunteer to tell their story. I also contacted admins of the groups as many of them were pregnant or parenting themselves. These two final steps were the most helpful. Many girls contacted me and were happy to share their stories and experiences. Because social networking is an international form of communication, I was able to reach girls from all over the country, and if needed, I could have reached girls from around the world.
Thomas McHale, an English teacher at Hunterdon Central Regional High School, who is passionate about good writing, has asked me to provide five tips for feature writing. I’ve been a feature writer most of my professional life, and these following tips have served me well. I hope you find them useful.
1) Show, don’t tell.
Anyone who reads my stories will see that they rely heavily on telling details and quotes. My goal is always to create an image in the mind’s eye of the reader, to let him see. I do this by trying to create scenes, by observing the subjects of my stories doing what it is they love. The best quotes often come not from direct interview questions, but from observing the subject of my story interacting with others. Let’s focus on the story at my website, www.michaelvitez.com under “my favorites” titled Penn’s Greatest Success Story. It is about a custodian named Dan Harrell. He is in charge of the Palestra basketball arena, and also had spent ten years working on his undergraduate degree and was about to graduate in his 50s. I chose to focus the story around his busiest and most exciting day — the last home game of the basketball season — against Princeton. You can see all of my five rules put to good use in that story. For this particular rule — show, don’t tell — I point to the ending of the story. I let the reader see. This is my favorite ending of any story I’ve ever written.
If the link to the story doesn’t work for any reason, read it in a Word document by clicking on the link below.
By Frank LoMonte, Executive Director of the Student Press Law Center
Forty years ago, the Supreme Court reaffirmed in the Tinker case that students are “persons” entitled to the protection of the First Amendment, and that they do not “shed their rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.” What John Tinker, Chris Eckhardt and Mary Beth Tinker did back in 1965 was a tiny act of courage – just wearing a black protest armband to school – but that act changed the course of American history. Their victory demonstrates that students who get informed about their rights and exercise them in a smart and non-disruptive manner can bring about amazing results. Teenagers have a vital stake in the war, the environment, the economy and all of the other issues impacting America’s future, and they deserve to be heard.
Do students have the right to turn down a drug and alcohol urine or swab test while they are on school property or at a school function or event? It seems that there are many different views and opinions on this, but what is the correct answer? Many questions are left unanswered: Why the need for random drug and alcohol testing? Is it in fact random? Is this an invasion of privacy?
Here at Hunterdon Central Regional High School a majority of students give consent to be randomly drug tested if they participate in clubs, sports, and/or activities. If students are under suspicion of drug use they are allowed to be drug and alcohol tested. Consequences for testing positive for drugs and/or alcohol are as follows: for first offense temporary suspension of activities, five in school suspensions, five drug and alcohol education classes, and five student assistant counselor meetings.
This article talks about a girl who sent nude photos to her boyfriend through her camera phone. After the couple broke up, her boyfriend sent these photos around the school, mortifying the girl. As a result, the girl ended up committing suicide, unable to cope with the taunting.
Sending photos of this nature has been deemed with the term ‘sexting.’ This issue could easily be replicated at Hunterdon Central if people aren’t careful.
I am writing a profile story about a student at Central who was born with a heart condition. Her condition makes it difficult to get around the school to her classes and she regularly has to visit the school nurse. I’m not sure which angle to use with my story though. I could solely focus on the hardships she has to go through every day just to make it through school or I could focus on how she doesn’t let her condition get in her way of doing the things she loves. Or I could use both, focus on the hardships but give examples of how she overcomes them to do other activities. Which angle would be the most appealing to the reader?
Aaron and Hilary Anderson, a couple from Colorado, recently used a special procedure to examine the genes of their child Ava Anderson, who is only 13 months old. Using the procedure, the parents were able to look at the future athletic potential of Ava, and discovered that she is built to become a “power athlete with the steady engine of a marathoner.” Many coaches, therapists, and genetic experts are worried that parents might misuse this data and that the procedure will only add even more pressure and politics into childhood sports.
I found this site useful because it can give you and gave me good cold hard facts. The site has alot of interesting facts about the american people, population, huosing, business, governement, and maps. This is a trusted site because it is put out by the governemen and is updated often. The United States Census Bureau, who put out this site takes censusus often, and would be a good place to find if you want facts about the united states and its people and given information.
