Installment+20

South of Denver

Chapter 20 - May 24, 2005

The future was on display during the week leading up to the fifth and final issue of the rock this school year.

We moved our publication date from Wednesday, May 18, to Friday after finding out about four weeks ago that the yearbook would be distributed on Wednesday. There's no reason to compete with the excitement of those new books and the autographs written in gel pen glitter. For our future file: work more closely with the yearbook staff and adviser (who will be brand new) on scheduling and joint projects. There is a natural rivalry between newspaper and yearbook, but it can be fun and healthy, can't it?

The freshmen stepped up even more than in prior issues. Part of that was the end of spring sports. Our publication week came just after the regular season for soccer ended, for instance, thus freeing up three girls to spend more time in the news lab. Chelsea and Sarah, moved up to the sophomore team - a team playing a varsity schedule that made it to state - were the only key staff members in a schedule bind. For the future file: Everyone plays sports in 9th grade (or so it seems), but as things sort out and choices are made, a few more kids each year will find their way to the journalism suite. We all know how "gym rats" spend inordinate amounts of time shooting hoops, soaking up tips, working with weights. Is it too much to hope for some "journalism rats"?

David's mother thought we needed some carbs for the final push on Wednesday after school, so she raided McDonald's for large bags of nuggets, fries, Sprite and more dipping sauce than I've ever seen in one place before. The seven freshmen who inhaled most of this food gathered around one table and told stories and teased each other and wasted time, before finally pushing back from the table and going back to the computers. For the future file: "wasting time" is the hallmark of a great newsroom. One of the beauties of high school journalism is the bonding, the hanging out, the silliness (and the sudden bursts of seriousness, when people feel comfortable enough). We'll be working the used furniture stores this summer, looking for a few comfy chairs, maybe a love seat and a lamp. The gym is a great place to hang, but we need to create our own compelling space.

Chelsea and Sarah's soccer team kicked off in the state 3A quarterfinals at a team down in Colorado Springs at 4 p.m. Wednesday. So Jenna, just finishing her first semester on the staff - a hard worker and perfectionist - had planned all along to stick around to include the results of the match in her soccer maestro page. She even had two headlines on the page, one for winning and one for losing. She had an intricate network of cell phone correspondents set to call her with results, quotes, stats, etc. She got the story and worked excitedly to get it on the page. The fact that our freshmen and sophomores lost to a team of seniors 2-1 didn't dampen Jenna's enthusiasm. Future file note: doing "real journalism" brings an adrenaline rush that can't be matched. We need to build that energy into all our papers next year (perhaps a "breaking news" page?).

Sarah didn't really know what she was getting into when she was told she would be writing the lead editorial for our final issue, but she smiled and accepted the assignment. Sarah is as positive a person as you could ever find. We teased her last issue about her excitement. In one eight graf piece she included five exclamation points! And let me add a few more !!!!!!! for emphasis. But as the deadline for this issue approached, she came to me and said she wasn't quite sure how to proceed with this editorial that tried to balance the good things achieved in our young school with the looming challenges of next year.

"It's a persuasive essay," I said. "Just use the same techniques you use in writing a persuasive essay in English Honors."

It turned out that they hadn't written much like that this year in other classes. For the future file: Don't assume that all the writing techniques are being taught anywhere else. If they are, great. If not, no whining. Just teach them.

So she hammered out a first draft and shared it with me.

"Sarah," I began, "you are writing on behalf of the staff here. No first person singular. You need to use your left brain more. Let's talk about your thesis again." I remembered that Sarah had not taken the introductory class. I'm pretty sure she had no actual knowledge of the nuts and bolts of an editorial. But she was ready to learn.

The second draft was not much better, though the first person had disappeared. It was draft four or five that finally ran. It was solid. It got read. Sarah was, of course, very excited.

Final note for the future: helping a young student stretch and find a voice she didn't know she had is why coaching journalists is a great gig. I saw it happen for Susie, back in October. I saw it happen in Chelsea when she wrote her Kent State anniversary story. I saw it this issue, when Aaron wrote a commentary that detailed the harrowing seventh year of his life, when he went through a bout of mental illness.

In our first year, many times we had to be satisfied with simply surviving, knocking out the coverage, the stories, the pages, settling for okay. Next year, at the ripe old age of 16, these students need to test the range of their voices.

I can't wait.

Jack Kennedy

Rock Canyon High School

Highlands Ranch CO 80124

 jkkennedy@comcast.net

 jack.kennedy@dcsdk12.org

Note: This is the final part in this year's series of columns on working with a completely untrained staff in the first year of a school newspaper. It is cryptotherapy for me. It may occasionally provide something positive for you. The saga will continue in August.