Reference Books for New Advisers

JEA (Journalism Education Association) just released its recommended texts for new advisers. Here are a few personal picks if you've been teaching journalism 3 years or less:

The Radical Write by Bobby Hawthorne
The Newspaper Designer's Handbook by Tim Harrower
Associated Press Stylebook
NSPA's Yearbook Guidebook
Ideas: Practical Ideas for Teaching Journalism

Textbooks:  Scholastic Journalism & Journalism Today

Yearbook advisers:  check with your rep to access the online educational resources your yearbook company provides.  Each of the major companies have excellent curriculm available in workbook form and online.

Flip Cameras

If your staff hasn't invested in a hand held video camera, buy one now.  The Flip Video Camcorder with 4G has 120 minutes of recording time.  It has been a great learning tool for my newspaper and yearbook staff member.  It introduces a visual element that hadn't been addressed in previous years.

The students have gone from playing with the Flip--they need at least a week to "get it out of their system", to filming and editing broadcast style videos to embed in the online newspaper.  This generation is visual.  You have to give the staff the tools to appeal to their viewing audience.  It's also a wonderful teaching opportunity and learning opportunity for the instructor as well.

Buy the Flip and enjoy!

On The Fly

Today I found myself in a predicament, where a third of the class was PSAT testing, a third were wanting to follow the trapped miners story on TV and the rest were just hoping to escape work of any kind in any way.  On the fly, I switched on the TV, pulled up some news websites on the projector and handed each student a daily newspaper from our Newspapers in Education program.

Each student had to anaylze the coverage of the event based on specific media outlets.  We changed TV channels and online sites several times during the class period to allow for a fair representation of the event.  At the end of the hour, I led a discussion on convergent media. Without it, we wouldn't be watching real time footage of this historical event.  Their homework is to determine how a 20th century historical event would have been covered if the age of convergent media had happed earlier.

I'm hoping for some very interesting discussion tomorrow.

Alternative Teaching Activities

These are suggestions on enlivening, or even leaving, the classroom setting. 

Alternative Teaching Activities

Sub. Activities, Part 2

The substitute teacher activity generated some questions and a need for more, so here is another list of suggestions that make great time fillers without totally neglecting the need for education on those days when you're out.

They are also great bell ringers on days when deadlines hit and beginning classes need to disappear while you take care of business.

Reading and Writing Exercises