Everett School District admits spying on journalism teacher

Every time it seems like the actions of the Everett School District can't get any weirder or more outrageous, Superintendent Carol Whitehead proves us wrong.

It turns out that Whitehead's district viewed Kay Powers, the former journalism teacher at Cascade High School, enough of a threat that it set up video surveillance in her classroom -- without her knowledge -- to see if she was helping students produce an underground newspaper.

For her part, Whitehead says she had no knowledge of the cameras when they were installed, but defends the district's actions as legal. The teachers union, of course, disagrees.

Legal or illegal, the words "hostile" and "unsavory" jump to mind.

Tri-City Herald picks up on NAA study

We've already talked here about the Newspaper Association of America study that suggests journalism kids do better academically than non-journalism students. The statistics are nice, but wouldn't it be really cool to put an article from an actual journalist who had determined the statistics to be valid in the hands of skeptical parents or administrators?

Now you can.

Ken Robertson at the Tri-City Herald wrote a nice editorial touting the NAA findings and encouraging parents to put their kids in journalism programs if they really want their students to succeed. Feel free to use it liberally for promotion of your program. I know I will.

Text of Plaschke's keynote available

If you attended the JEA/NSPA spring national convention about two weeks ago, you probably attended LA Times sports columnist Bill Plaschke's keynote speech on Saturday. And if you did, undoubtedly you walked away inspired and emboldened to carry out the mission of great journalism: To tell the stories of those around us.

If you didn't attend the convention, or did but somehow missed the most amazing keynote I've heard in my nine conventions, or you just want to relive the speech again, there's good news: Text of his speech is available at this link. I plan on using it in my class every year from here on out. It captures everything that we should aspire to as journalists and journalism educators.

Here's a preview to whet your whistle, or if you were there, to remind you how awesome it was:

I was a miracle. All because of my words. It was proof that words can take you place you will never imagine.

That can be you. Be that miracle. Your words can make you one. That’s why journalism is still the greatest equalizing business in the world. It doesn’t matter your color or your gender or your bank account or where you live or how you talk. If you can write, you can touch, and if you can touch, we will hire you, because that’s one thing newspapers still do better than anyone else, we can touch and be touched, the morning paper soggy from the milk and the tears.

Be the miracle.

And write the miracles.

Awesome. That's the only word I can think of.

Study confirms journalism kids do better

As journalism educators, we all believe that exposing kids to all of the trappings of journalism -- writing, design, photography, leadership, critical thinking and self management -- is good for their education. But for a long time, very little empirical evidence existed to back up what we all intuitively knew.

No longer. A new 2008 study by the Newspaper Association of America has reaffirmed the findings of a groundbreaking 1987 study that found that students with journalism experience had better grades and standardized college entrance test scores than students without journalism experience.

Just over 31,000 college students were sampled for the study, roughly 20 percent of whom had experience on their high school newspaper and/or yearbook. As in the 1987 study, the journalism students had statistically significant higher scores in the following areas:

• High school overall grade point average
• ACT composite score
• ACT English score
• College freshman English grades
• College freshman grade point average
  

While skeptics might say that students involved in journalism are probably better students to begin with, the study does "show conclusively that journalism experience in high school translates into better college performance in several key areas, such as the ability to express oneself clearly and reason incisively," according the study's executive summary.

According to the study itself:

"If nothing else, we can conclude that high school newspaper or yearbook staff involvement is an excellent outlet for talented, active and involved students. It also gives them a chance to apply their natural leadership abilities while also exercising their critical thinking, designing and writing skills."

Ah, yes - the start of a new school year

We had our first day of school today over here in Wenatchee, and it was awesome to get started with my two new publications. There's definitely a bit of a feeling out period -- my new staffs don't courtesy laugh at my lame jokes the same way my previous staff did -- but I'm so excited for what the new year holds.

How about you? What do you hope to get out of this year in working with your student publication? What are your goals? What are the things that are on your minds as you get your publication up and running once again?

Understanding how your staff thinks is the key to motivation

I was driving to school one day about a month ago when I heard this report on NPR. I found it fascinating because sometimes I have a hard time understanding the mindset of my students, who so often think about the world differently than I do.

As adults, sometimes we talk about "the good old days." To us, that includes just taking pleasure in a job well done -- not doing a job because it's going to get us some kind of recognition. Well, it's not just us who struggle with students who seem to be overly sensitive to criticism or need constant praise to work hard. It's a trend that's carrying over into the workplace:

Companies are hiring consultants to help manage the "over-praised" Me Generation. The result? Kudos for showing up to work on time! Awards for getting a report in! Forget Employee of the Month — how about Employee of the Day! Some managers are resistant, saying the only praise they ever got was a paycheck.

I know I'm not always real good at doing the kinds of things the reporter talks about in this piece, and as I search for ways to motivate my staffs, I'll be trying to do some of this stuff better -- even though I often don't understand the constant need for it.