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My school is very small. Next year we will have 300 students and our faculty is six teachers. I love it and I get to know everyone really well, but I think it will be a problem with our newspaper. I'm not sure yet how many people have signed up for the class next year and I am going to have to talk to our school counselor when I get back (yes, we only have one of those. Bless her heart she gets to counsel 300 hormonal teenagers).
I think at the most we will only have about 10 people for our staff every year. The team will also be mostly freshmen and sophomores because when the students are juniors and seniors, we expect them to primarily be over at the college taking classes. I'm trying to think how to do staffing. I don't think we could ever have editors for each section and have the students just work on topics they like. They are going to have to do everything.
That was a problem last year (well, besides it being a club) because except for one or two students everyone said, "I am only taking photos!" "I'm only doing cartoons!" "I am only going to edit!" "I am only writing about (x-topic)!" I don't have any problem telling the students that they have to be versatile, but I am worried that students will leave the staff once I tell them that.
This is what I am thinking for staff and I am wondering what you guys thing:
- 3 EIC or managing editors or lead editors (not sure what to call them yet)
- 1 photo editor, but he or she has to write too
- The rest will be reporters
What do you think?
Dana Savage
Innovations High School
Salt Lake City
It sounds as if you have your work cut out for you! You have to gingerly get students to be team players why focusing on publishing the paper. I'm wondering if you might want to have 2 instead of three managing editors. After all, you are taking about a third of your class to manage. It might be helpful if you were to rotate the role so that others might gain experience for the next year.
ReplyDeleteDana, my school is about twice your size, but I've the same concerns as you do about your small staff. I'll probably have the same when we start our newspaper next year. I like your approach with multiple leaders either sharing one or two roles, especially since we're also starting out. And like you, my newspaper will be a club, as there is something with our state's athletic association about making a product in conjunction with a class. (I need to look into that one.)
ReplyDeleteBut honestly, I'm really interested in how this works out for you, as you'll be a sort of model for how I might want to manage my future staff. I was overwhelmed by Alan's presentation (in a good way), but since I was also on newspaper in high school, I'm confident in what I can do someday. In the meantime, let me know how it works out for you. I'd love to have someone to bounce ideas off of in the future.
Laura M. Medina
Montini Catholic High School
Lombard, Illinois