It has recently come to my attention that all courses for the AV Communications Pathway require specialized endorsements. That is to say, whatever English Language Arts certification allowed instructors to teach communication technology courses under VE2 is no longer valid for Career Pathway approval. A journalism, business, or art endorsement…...
Mill Valley and SM East websites earn national honor
Two news websites from Kansas high schools — Harbinger Online from Shawnee Mission East and Jagwire News Online from Mill Valley — have been named finalists in the National Scholastic Press Association’s Pacemaker competition. Both websites will be up for scholastic journalism’s highest honor in April at the NSPA national…...
Two Kansas news sites named online Pacemaker finalists
Two news websites from Kansas high schools — Harbinger Online from Shawnee Mission East and Jagwire News Online from Mill Valley — have been named finalists in the National Scholastic Press Association’s Pacemaker competition. Both websites will be up for scholastic journalism’s highest honor in April at the NSPA national…...
Shawnee Mission yearbooks named Pacemaker finalists
Three 2011 yearbooks from the Shawnee Mission School District have been named finalists in the National Scholastic Press Association’s Pacemaker competition. Books from East, North and Northwest all will be up for scholastic journalism’s highest honor in April at the NSPA national convention in Seattle. The three yearbooks were among…...
New weather policy has best interests of student journalists in mind
By Jill Chittum, KSPA President After years of kicking around the idea, and multiple meetings where member concerns dealing with the regional contest weather policy were addressed, the KSPA executive board passed a new inclement weather policy following its December meeting in Wichita. The goal of the new policy (which…...
Motivation without conflict, Part I
By Travis Feil KSPA President-Elect After the fall conferences this past week, I’ve been contacted by several students and advisers across the state with some meaningful questions about staff relationships, leadership and dealing with problems that arise during production cycles. We’ve all had to deal with these types of concerns…...
You can lead a student to journalism class, but can you make him like it?
By Travis Feil, KSPA President-Elect A Common Problem My basic journalism course is offered opposite band and choir – both very popular courses in my district. My J1 desks, consequently, have traditionally been populated by students more interested in avoiding music than embracing journalism. They confess it, and I’m fine…...
Yet another reason every student should enroll in journalism
By Travis Feil KSPA President-Elect Last week I was sitting at my desk working on American Literature lesson plans. Exhausted and overwhelmed from moving into a new classroom, I sat staring at my computer, knowing students would be arriving for the first time the next day. My yearbook editors were…...
KSPA President: Membership pays dividends
Dear Kansas journalism advisers, Welcome back for yet another year of scholastic journalism excellence! At this time of year, most of us are just getting our teaching “sea legs” under us again after what I hope was a relaxing and restful summer vacation. That re-acclimation process takes time (which we…...