We've moved! Find us now at wjea.net/blog

It's been a fun run here at blogspot for this WJEA blog. Unfortunately, Blogger has outlived its usefulness, and we've now moved the blog onto our own server using the wordpress.org software. Check it out at http://wjea.net/blog.

We hope to see you there early and often, and we hope you love the changes as much as we do! And if you want to find something we've written in the past, don't worry -- all of our posts from here appear over there, too.

Taking some time off, but leaving you with a proposal

You might have noticed that the posts here have gotten pretty sporadic as of late. That's because summer is here, and things get a lot slower on the education front.

Have no fear. We'll still post things that are newsworthy as they come up, and we'll really ramp it up as we get closer to the beginning of the school year. But until then, don't count on a lot of fresh content.

In the meantime, I have a proposal.

If you're a journalism educator or a student journalist in the state of Washington, we're looking for blog contributors. We're not asking for a huge commitment; just a commitment to post once or twice a week on scholastic journalism topics that are important to you. We're ESPECIALLY looking for student voices!

If that sounds like something you might be interested in doing, contact me here so we can start working together! No previous blog experience required.

Get WJEA blog content delivered your way

Looking for a way to get your hands on content from the WJEA blog that doesn't include visiting the site 10 times a day to check for updates?

You now have more options than ever for getting the blog's content delivered to you. Check down the right-hand side of the blog, and under the "How YOU can contribute to this blog" piece -- which by the way, not many people have taken advantage of -- you'll see three new options for getting content delivered just the way you like it.

• Subscribe via e-mail: This is just what it says. Enter your e-mail address, then follow the confirmation link on the message that is sent to you and you'll be all set to receive daily content updates. The downside (or upside, depending on your perspective), is that it only sends you updates once a day, between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. No instant notifications when content changes.
• Subscribe via RSS feed: This option is if you use an RSS reader, a great tool available through most every Web browser and e-mail client. The benefit here is that you get content delivered to you instantly when it's published. If you click on the link, it will take you to feedburner.com's feed site, which will help you get it into things like Google or My Yahoo. If you're just interested in the XML link, here it is. (If you have no idea what I'm talking about, read here. Basically, RSS feeds keep you from having to visit a hundred sites a day to check for new content by delivering new stuff straight to you. Huge time saver once you learn how to use it.)
• Add blog to Technorati favorites: Use Technorati to keep track of your favorite blogs. Click on this link to get started.

I hope this helps. If you have any questions on getting any of that stuff set up, feel free to e-mail me here. Happy reading, and, as usual, suggestions welcome!

New WJEA Blog unveiled -- and at your service!

Welcome to the new incarnation of the WJEA Blog, designed to serve the student journalists and scholastic journalism advisers of Washington state!

If you've been to this site before, some of the changes you'll notice right away, such as a redesign of the site. But other changes will be more subtle. For example, we're going to use this space to pass along information more frequently, hoping you'll check in a couple of times a week to catch up on the world of scholastic journalism. We'll post information that we believe will be useful to you, and give you a take on what it might mean for you.

We've added a number of features to the site to serve you better:

• If you look down the right-hand side of the site, you'll see a statement of purpose and some information on how all readers of the blog can contribute.
• Beneath that, you'll see some useful links -- headlined by a link to WJEA.net -- to many of the organizations that support scholastic journalism.
• Next, you'll find a series of links dedicated to information on House Bill 1307, the proposed legislation that, if passed, would prohibit school administrators from censoring student media except in certain instances of unprotected speech.
  
• After that, you'll find a series of links provided by RSS feeds from the Poynter Institute on a variety of journalism-related topics. If you're not familiar with Poynter, get familiar -- they do awesome stuff that is extremely useful, from high school journalists on up to professionals.
• Lastly, you'll find a list of "labels" that will help you get to posts that interest you quickly and easily. For example, if you're looking for all the posts related to House Bill 1307, you would just click on that label, and it will search for all the posts with that label. And beneath that is the archive.

With that said, your first two posts are below -- one an update on the status of House Bill 1307, and the other a look at many of the scholarships that are out there for student journalists.

I hope you enjoy -- and, as usual, feedback is welcome!

Bear with us as we change!

The WJEA blog is going to be undergoing some significant changes over the next week or so. Please bear with us as we work through the glitches ...

If you have questions about the new setup (or, better yet, have suggestions for what you'd like to see), you can e-mail us at wjeablog@comcast.net. We'd love to hear from you!

Thanks for your patience.