What is Life?

What is Life?

As David Knight, the Public Information Director for Lancaster Count School District, spoke to students on Monday, he became very animated shouting, “What is Life?” 

"That's not it" Knight said if a student gave an answer he considered to be lame.

His animated discussion of life for high school students reminded me of the first time I saw him teach this lesson. Three summers ago, I was sitting in an old conference room in Rudder auditorium and he broke out into the same “What is Life?” discussion. It was funny, entertaining and straight to the point all at the same time. “These are exactly the types of questions and stories I want my students to engage in” I thought to myself.  As an advisor, I am lucky. My students have always proposed good story ideas. Where I think we fall short is in the interviewing process. This coming year, I would like to focus on the types of questions that are being prepared, researched, and asked by the reporter in order to gain the information they need to give their story good “human interest”.

I would like for us to brainstorm and put a “What is Life” chart on one of the walls to assist the reporters in creating better interview questions.

Guidelines for Posting to the TPP Blog

All staff members will contribute during the year to the classroom blog, which can be found at http://bellairetppblog2012.blogspot.com. These posts will relate to the classroom curriculum. Blogging is an important part of journalism and is a specific form of journalistic writing that must be developed. Remember, everything you post will be online and available for anyone to read.

Format

The text for the blog should:

v  offer insights and observations that would benefit others

v  explore issues in depth

v  provide a forum for sharing thoughts and ideas

v  provide information about news events and provide analysis on those events

v  provide further research about a topic

v  tie lessons to your experiences

The text for the blog should not:

v  critique sessions or lessons

v  agree or disagree with a point or issue raised

v  provide commentary on the community, news events, weather, random thoughts, accommodations at workshops or school, etc.

Each post should:

v  be at least 200-250 words but no more than 500.

v  focus on one event, one experience, or one point raised.

v  be clear as to why the posting is relevant to you and your audience

v  always end with the following information flush left –

Ø  first name & last name

Ø  position

Ø  school name

Ø  city, state

Requirements

Each staff member will post:

v  at least two separate postings before the deadline (listed below)

v  at least one of the postings should have a photo uploaded and placed in the text of the posting

v  photos from cell phones are acceptable

v  photos should complement the text of the posting

v  offer a comment on at least one posting from other staff members before the deadline

Moderation:

The instructor will moderate all posts and comments. All text must be educationally approved. Any inappropriate text will be removed.

Styleguide

Follow the AP Style Guide for all text. Guidelines will be given in the staff manual.

Deadlines

Deadlines for all blog posts will be strictly enforced.

The deadline for the July summer workshop at Texas A&M is following Tuesday at noon.

The deadline for the August summer workshop at Bellaire is Monday following the workshop at noon.

Welcome the TPP Classroom Blog for 2012-2013

Welcome to students of the Three PennyPress newspaper classroom at Bellaire High. We will use this blog site for the school year. It will be part of the curriculum. We will be exploring the rapidly changing world of journalism and the influence social media.

You will have an assignment to complete a posting before you leave camp - either the July or August camp.

Take notes at the sessions that you attend during the workshop, create a blog posting of something that you learned or something that impacted you and post before the last day of camp at noon. This will be your first classroom assignemnt for the 2012-2013 year!

I will moderate all postings and comments. You will be graded throughout the year on postings and comments. All postings are to be classroom related.

You will receive an email from the google group on how to establish an account so that you can feed this blog. If you are going to the camp in July, please setup an account as soon as possible. All other staffers will setup an account before the August workshop.

Thank you and welcome to the Three Penny Press class of 2012-2013!