Dec. 2010 Upfront Newsletter

UpfrontTAJE

P.O. Box 5554Austin, TX

78763-5554taje.org

Texas Association of Journalism Educators December 2010

Sheryl FloydPresident

[email protected]

Susan DuncanPresident-Elect903-295-5031,

ext. [email protected]

Mikyela TedderSecretary

[email protected]

Cindy BerryTreasurer

940-627-6495cindy.berry@

decatur.esc11.net

Lisa Van EttaState Director281-856-1071

[email protected]

Pat GathrightConvention Director

210-325-7793pgathright@

yahoo.com

Brenda SlattonAssistant

Convention Director210-442-0300, ext. 350

[email protected]

Sue JettAssistant

Convention Director210-442-0800, ext. 262

[email protected]

Lori HerbstPast President

972-539-1591, ext. [email protected]

Rhonda MooreExecutive Director

[email protected]

Westlake High School of Austin won Sweepstakes at the Fall Fiesta convention Oct. 25 in San Antonio. Marcus High School of Flower Mound placed second, and placed third.

The Best of Show winners are as follows.

Online NewspaperBest of Show

therideronline.comLegacy High SchoolMansfield

2nd Placemycrimsoncourier.comCypress Woods High SchoolHouston

3rd Placeeaglestaleonline.comCanyon High SchoolCanyon

Honorable Mentionnewspaper.neisd.net/leeLee High SchoolSan Antonio

Newspaper Best of ShowSmall Newspapers

Best of ShowThe ChronicleTom C. Clark High SchoolSan Antonio

2nd PlaceThe Eagle’s EyeAkins High SchoolAustin

3rd PlaceEagle’s TaleCanyon High SchoolCanyonMedium Newspapers

Best of ShowThe PeregrineJersey Village High SchoolHouston

2nd PlaceFarmers’ HarvestLewisville High SchoolLewisville

3rd PlaceThe Hawk EyeHebron High SchoolCarrollton

Large NewspapersBest of Show

FeatherdusterWestlake High SchoolAustin

2nd PlaceThe MarqueeMarcus High SchoolFlower Mound

3rd PlaceThe RoarA&M Consolidated HSCollege Station

Austin Westlake High School wins sweepstakes at Fall Fiesta convention

Continued on page 7

This photo, taken by Sum-mayah Zidan of Brighter Horrizons Academy, won Best of Show in Photog-raphy at the 2010 Fall Fiesta conven-tion in San Antonio.

2 Texas Association of Journalism Educators December 2010

Sit. Stay. Meet deadlines.

From the President

Sheryl FloydTAJE President

Lessons learned from new puppy translate to classroomSo we have a new addition

to our family. Let me share with you some of my lessons learned and how I see them applying to what we do.

Our addition came in the form of a puppy adoption from the Humane Society shelter. We have a sweet, wonderful 3-year-old lab/spaniel mix, Max. But he was starting to show excessive neediness.

Now, I’m not saying he is at-tention starved. He’s a bit spoiled: he shares our bed, goes off leash when we walk, and gets a little “puppy whip” from Starbucks each week in his own special cup.

You might say that Max is a typi-cal student. One who has plenty of attention but sometimes needs more than I can give. As teachers, we can’t always be there for our students. We trust we have provided enough guidance so that they are able to survive on their own. Max does great alone during the day while we are gone. He was given guidance.

But we thought he needed a friend. Enter Sicily, a 7-week-old Australian Shepherd mix with two different col-ored eyes. We fell head over heels for her. After a meet and greet with Max, it became official.

Guiding Sicily through the day-to-day routines of our family is much like we guide our students day to day. We have set routines that we use to keep our students secure and knowledgeable. With our guidance, we set our students up for success and independence.

Isn’t that our goal? To have self-running staffs with student leadership, students learning from each other, and guidelines and routines that have been established to keep things running smoothly.

What? You mean your classroom isn’t completely worthy of “exceeds ex-

pectations” on a daily basis? Well, mine wasn’t either. But let me give you a few puppy lessons that may help.

• Some days are just poopy. It’s a fact of life. Dogs need training and re-

inforcement. It’s really hard starting over with a new puppy. We often took Max for granted. But with reinforcement and persistence, we

know Sicily will get there too. It’s not easy. But it will be worth it once she knows how to “go” successfully outside. Our students need reinforcement with rules, guidelines and procedures. And all of these take patience and planning. I often changed these rules annually. But I planned how to teach them and reinforced them regularly.

• Other times are miraculous. Learn-ing how to do the little things is really important. Sicily is figuring out when it is time to eat, where her food bowl is and how to walk on a leash. She now sits in anticipation of a “treatie.” Our students do little miracles throughout the school year. Not all students are going to be full of initiative and at the top of their class. Like the puppies of the world, they are full of curiosity and will grow up to be big some day. The miracles you perform in the classroom are lasting for our little humans.

• Keep laughing. The laughter is my favorite part of my classroom. Laugh-ing at and with our stu-dents is one of the biggest gifts we can provide. We laugh at and with Sicily. She amuses us and we amuse her as well. By allowing our students to laugh and be themselves, it is unlike any other experience they will have in high school. It’s honestly what kept and keeps me going.

• Offer treats. Sicily al-ready knows about treats and gets excited about

mealtime. My students love treats as well. Whether it’s meals during dead-line nights or birthday cookies to cel-ebrate staff birthdays for the month or the flavored peppermint candy canes I gave during final exams at Christmas, students love treats—deserved or not.

• Help everyone get along. We were worried that Max wouldn’t take to Sicily well. We knew there were specific char-acteristics in a new puppy that would work for him. Your staffs are full of va-riety. We don’t always get to choose who gets put in our classes. But we can help by setting expectations, demonstrating the characteristics we desire to see and helping everyone share the resources we have. It’s been funny watching the dogs share their toys…they always want what the other has.

• Be positive. Offer praise! That’s an easy one. Sicily knows when we are happy with her. She gets lavished with praise every time she does the right thing. We also greet her with a smile every time we come in the door. I hope you are doing the same with your kids.

During this season of thanks and gifts, I want you to know how thankful I am for our journalism teachers. You all have given me so much. I am extremely blessed. Happiness and blessings to all of you.

December 2010 Texas Association of Journalism Educators 3

Upcoming JEA/NSPA

Conventions2011 Spring Anaheim (April 14-17) Fall Minneapolis (Nov. 18-21)

2012Spring Seattle (April 12-15) Fall San Antonio (Nov. 15-18)

Trailblazers, Friends honoredat convention

TAJE honored four individuals at the advisers’ luncheon during the Fall Fiesta convention.

Cindy Todd, Westlake High School, and Ray Westbrook, St. Mark’s School

New officers to be elected in February

In Brief

Officers for 2011-013 will be elected in February.

Offices include president-elect, secre-tary, treasurer and state director.

Anyone interested in running for of-fice should contact TAJE President-Elect Susan Duncan at [email protected] by Dec. 12.

Conventionfinancial reportRegistration# of students 813# of advisers 59# of speakers 42

Due for registration $23,250Paid 22,520Owed 730

MembershipTAJE membership $1170Paid 1110Owed 60

JEA membership $1150Paid 1050Owed 100

ATPI membership $180Paid 180Owed 0

ContestsWrite-offs $1505Paid 1460Owed 45

Photo/video contests $2060Paid 2030Owed 30

Carry-in contests $750Paid 750Owed 0

Breakfast with a ProDue $990Paid 915Owed 75

Best of ShowDue $670Paid 670Owed 0

On-Site CritiquesDue $750Paid 735Owed 15

Final Summary Total due $35,9905 Total paid 34,875 Still owed 1115

Association of Texas Photography Instructors

Winter Conference

For more information, contact Mark Murray at [email protected]

or go to www.atpi.org.

Feb. 11-13University of Texas

at Arlington

of Texas, both received Trailblazer Awards. The award is given to those in the classroom who have whose efforts to expand the scope and capability of Texas scholastic journalism benefit oth-ers who follow their lead.

Jeff Grimm of Trinity High School and Deanne Hullender of Dallas Coun-ty Schools received Friend of Journal-ism Awards. The Friend of Journalism Award is given to those outside the classroom who have worked to im-prove scholastic journalism in Texas.

Members are encouraged to nomi-nate others for these awards. The forms can be found at taje.org.

JEA High School Journalist of the Year Competition Guidelines


Qualifications• Be a graduating high school

senior• Have at least a 3.0 GPA on a

4.0 scale.• Have participated in high

school jounalism for at least two years.

• Submit a portfolio.• A student of a TAJE and JEA

adviser.• Fill out the scholarship ap-

plication form on page 8 and include it with your other materials.

Preparing Your Portfolio• Entry material should not ex-

ceed 46 one-sided or 23 two-sided pages with application materials not to exceed an ad-ditional 10 pages as follows:

national applicationtranscript (1-2 pages).

This should be opened and presented as part of the portfolio.

personal photo (1 page)self-analytical essay

(1+ pages)• Plastic sheet protectors are ac-

ceptable. All letters should be opened and included as part of the 46 pages.

• The pages should be inserted into a three-ring binder de-signed to hold 8-1/2-by-11-inch paper.

• Here are some questions to help you get started on the self-analytical evaluation:

How do you feel about journal-ism?

How did you get started in journalism?

What have you contributed to journalism?

What have you had to go through to achieve?

What are your journalism plans for the future?

The evaluation should be long enough for the judges to reach a decision as to your creative quali-fications and short enough not to be redundant.

• Samples of work should be care-fully selected. Provide judges with a good cross section of your best work rather than everything ever produced. Date, name of publica-tion and relevance should be on the page with each sample.

• Include samples showing one or more of the following character-istics. They should be grouped according to what they represent, and these groupings should be labeled.

Skilled and creative use of me-dia content - writing, produc-tion, photography, etc.

Inquiring mind and investiga-tive persistence resulting in in-depth study or studies of issues important to the local high school audience, high school students in general, or society.

Courageous and responsible handling of sensitive issues — local or societal — de-spite threat or imposure of censorship.

Variety of journalistic experi-ences, each handled in a

quality manner — news-paper, yearbook, broad-cast, photography, Web design, other design work, community and other outside-of-school journalistic work, etc.

• At least one issue of your news-paper or magazine or pho-tocopies of relevant spreads from your yearbook (not the entire book) should be en-closed so the judges can see the context of your work. One audio or video tape (CD, DVD, Mini DV) should accom-pany an entry that focuses on broadcast work. Time is lim-ited to 15 minutes. The tape should be cued up to the work the judges should view or hear and should have the entrant’s name on the tape case.

• Photocopies of letters, clip-pings and art are acceptable; however, original prints of pho-tographs should accompany entries based on published pictures.

• Portfolios will be forwarded to the scholarship committee. Students must turn to page 8 and fill out the scholarship ap-plicantion form and include it with your other materials.

• Send entries to Lisa Van EttaCy-Falls HS9811 HuffmeisterHouston, TX 77095

Deadline:Feb. 15, 2011


PLEASE TYPE

Date

First Name MI Last Name

Home street address

City State ZIP

E-mail address

Home phone number

Parent(s)/Guardian(s) name

School name

School Address

City State ZIP

School phone number

Adviser ‘s name Phone

Adviser’s e-mail

Hometown media

Address

City State ZIP

How long have you been involved in journalism?

Media Names

The official application form should include answers to the following questions on a separate piece of paper. • Has any of your work been used by the professional media? If yes, please explain. • What aspect of journalism and mass communication is your career goal? • Do you plan to enroll this year in a university journalism degree program? • List the colleges which you are considering attending in order of preference. If you have definitely decided which school you will attend, list only that college.

VERIFICATION: The examples submitted are the student’s original work.

Adviser’s signature Student’s signature

DEADLINE: Postmarked by Feb. 15, 2011.

Official Entry FormJEA High School Journalist of the Year

CHECKLISTn Adviser must be

member of TAJE and JEA.

n Entry formn Official transcriptn Self-analytical ex-

planation of your “journalistic life”

n An action photo of you doing some-thing “journalistic”

n 3 or 4 letters of recommendation

n Entire portfolio should be no more than 46 one-sided or 23 two-sided pages. Broadcast tape, limited to 15 minutes, should be cued to the student’s best work

n One issue of your newspaper or magazine or photo copies of relevant yearbook spreads (not the entire book)

n Deadline: Feb. 15, 2011

postmark. Mail to: Lisa Van Etta Cy-Falls HS 9811 Huffmeister Houston, TX

77095

Applicants will have their portfo-lios forwarded to the scholarship competition. If you would like to have your portfolio returned, please check the follow-ing:

m I would like my portfolio returned. I am enclosing $20.70 for post-age, $10.35 to send the portfolio to the scholar-ship chairman and $10.35 to return it to me. Please make checks payable to TAJE.


Administrator of the Year Nomination Form NOMINEE:

Name: Position:

School:

Address:

Phone:

Number of years in current position:

Professional organization memberships/offices nominee has held:

What awards/honors has the nominee won?

What is the nominee’s position on prior review and/or censorship?

Nominated by:

Name/Mailing address of local newspaper:

Each year TAJE honors a school ad-ministrator for his/

her support of journalism in the junior/high school

curriculum. The winner of this year’s award will receive a

plaque in April during the awards

ceremony at the ILPC convention in Austin.

Entries must be postmarked

no later than Feb. 14.

Complete nominationshould include

a nomination formand a letter of

recommendationfrom the adviser.

Entries must be postmarked by

FEB. 14. Send entries to:

Sheryl Floyd18913 Hilltop Canyon Cove

Pflugerville, TX 78660


Honorable MentionLone Star DispatchJames High SchoolAustin

Yearbook Best of ShowSmall Yearbooks

Best of ShowSoaring WingsCanyon High SchoolCanyon

2nd PlaceTravellerLee High SchoolSan Antonio

3rd PlaceAerieAkins High SchoolAustinMedium Yearbooks

Best of ShowTraditionJohn Paul Stevens HSSan Antonio

2nd PlaceWitnessClark High SchoolSan Antonio

Large YearbooksBest of Show

El Paisano Westlake High SchoolAustin2nd PlaceThe ArenaLegacy High SchoolMansfield

3rd PlaceThe BroncoBoyd High SchoolMcKinney

Honorable MentionThe CitadelClaudia Taylor Johnson HSSan AntonioFalconJersey Village High SchoolHouston

Literary MagazinesBest of Show

The Final DraftWestlake High SchoolAustin

A complete list of individ-ual winners can be found on the TAJE Web site, taje.org.

Rachel Knight, Wakeland HS Arlene Salazar, Homer Hanna HS

Jessica Ragan, Northwest HS

Ashley Leitschuh, Northwest HS

Paul Mathieson, Westlake HS

Shannon Fowler, McKinney Boyd HiS

Each of these photos received a su-perior rating at the 2010 Fall Fiesta convention held Oct. 23-25 at the Sheraton Gunter Hotel in San Anto-nio.

List of Fall Fiesta Best of Showwinners continuesContinued from page 1


Application for Student ScholarshipAPPLICANTName

Home Address

City/State/Zip

Phone ( ) Social Security #

School Name

School Phone ( )

Adviser’s Name

Relate your involvement with journalism while in high school.

List any journalism awards and honors you have received.

List any other high school awards/honors.

What are your college plans?

In addition to the $1,500 Bill Taylor Scholarship awarded to the Texas High School Journalist of the Year, TAJE awards four $1,000 scholar-ships to graduating high school seniors each year. To be eligible for one of these scholarships, a student must:

• have an overall B average• submit completed application• submit a portfolio of published work

In addition, his/her adviser must be a current member of TAJE.

All students who wish to apply for scholarships must fill out this form, even those applying for Journalist of the Year.

ChecklistPlease be sure your application and/or portfolio contain the fol-lowing:• Any editor positions you have held and how many years in each position.• Your anticipated college major• If you have an interest in becom-ing a journalism teacher.

If you want your portfolio re-turned, please check the follow-ing:

n I would like my portfolio returned. I am enclosing $11 for postage.Please make checks payable to TAJE.

Entries must be postmarked no later than March 2.

Please send your portfolio along with this application by March 2 to:

Mikyela TedderLindale High SchoolJournalism Dept.P.O. Box 370Lindale, TX 75771


TAJE may award up to six student scholarships for up to $150 per scholar-ship. Schol-arships are not awarded solely on need but rather on all compo-nents of the applicant’s complete presentation. Applicants are limited to students of TAJE mem-bers only, and a maximum of three students per school may apply.

TAJE SummEr WorkShop STudEnT ScholArShip ApplicATion

grade in next fallo middle school o 9th o 10th o 11th o 12th

How long have you been involved in journalism?

What publication will you be on next year?

What position will you hold next year?

Which workshop are you planning to attend?

Dates of workshop Cost of workshop

Create a one page essay explaining your need and desire to be the recipient of this scholarship. Include information such as how you expect a summer work-shop will help you in preparing for next year, how the workshop will prepare you for the future, and financial need. Attach the essay to this application.

Return application and essay by March 2 to:

Mikyela TedderLindale HSJournalism Dept.P.O. Box 370Lindale, TX 75771

name

home address

city/state/zip

phone #( ) social security #

school name

school phone #

adviser’s name

adviser’s home phone #


TAJE may award up to three teacher scholarships for up to $250 per scholarship. These scholar-ships may be used for sum-mer workshop tuition or for a journalism course that contributes to the teacher’s continuing professional development. Scholarships are not awarded solely on need but rather on all components of the appli-cant’s complete presentation. Applicants are limited to TAJE members who have taught five years or less.

TAJE SummEr WorkShop TEAchEr ScholArShip ApplicATion

name

home address

city/state/zip

phone #( ) social security #

school name

school phone #

degrees you have earned (majors and schools)

How many years have you taught? n 1 yr. n 2 yrs. n 3 yrs n 4 yrs. n 5 yrs.

subjects you will be teaching next year

How did you become involved in journalism outside of teaching?

What workshop do you plan to attend this summer?

Dates of workshop Cost of workshop

Explain your need and desire to be the recipient of this scholarship. Include information including your future goals as to scholastic journalism and any special financial need (you may use an additional sheet of paper if necessary).

Return application and essay by March 2 to:

Mikyela TedderLindale HSJournalism Dept.P.O. Box 370Lindale, TX 75771


Where does the time go? It seems just last week, I was writing my column for the beginning of the school year on being optimistic. Hope that bit of savory advice worked out for some of you.

It was great to see so many of you along with students at TAJE’s Fall Fiesta. We had over 900 registered, the larg-est number prior to 9/11. Executive Director Rhonda Moore reported ev-eryone registered online except for one school and the walk-ins. For those of who didn’t attend, you missed a great presentation by keynote speaker John Isaac. He showed work from his time as photo editor for the United Nations up to current projects involving saving the tigers in India.

The uploading and judging of digital entries went fairly smooth. I know, some of you had a few problems. The board members are working on getting those solved. Please e-mail one of us if you had any specific problem we are not aware of. We can’t fix it if we don’t know it’s broken.

Just got back a week or so ago from nationals in Kansas City, Mo. Texas was well-represented. I saw Deanne Brown and Cindy Todd from Westlake High School in Austin along with advisers from San Antonio, Houston and the Dallas area. Five Texas schools received the coveted Pacemaker Award for newspaper. Congratulations to John B Connally HS, Burges HS, Midothian HS, Tom C. Clark HS and Texas HS for a job well done.

The convention was all abuzz about going to Anaheim and Disneyland in April for the spring convention. How-ever, the talk I was more interested in

was about the national convention to be held in San Antonio in 2012. There is only one more fall convention (Minne-

apolis) before aspiring journalists and advisers descend on us Texans. We’ve got to get ready.

I know, I mentioned it in the last few col-

umns, but time is wasting. We need committee chairs and people willing to serve on various committees. If you are willing to help, contact chairmen Rhonda Moore ([email protected]) or Pat Gathright ([email protected]).

I attended a wrap-up meet-ing with the new JEA exec-utive director, Kelly Furnas. He’s very open to new ideas for improving the conventions. O n e o f t h e main topics of concern is the entertainment provided for the students for Friday and Sat-urday nights. In the past, dances have been held, but it looks like that may not be an option. So, we need to get creative and come up with some event or form of entertainment for 5500 plus teenagers. This is where all of you advisers can help. E-mail me or a board member any suggestion or crazy idea

State Director’s Report

Lisa Van EttaCy-Falls High SchoolTAJE State Director

Convention conversationTime to plan for JEA/NSPA gathering in San Antonio in 2012

The convention was all abuzz about going to Ana-heim and Disneyland in April for the spring conven-tion. However, the talk I was more interested in was about the national conven-tion to be held in San An-tonio in 2012. There is only one more fall convention (Minneapolis) before aspir-ing journalists and advis-ers descend on us Texans. We’ve got to get ready.

you might think of.Come, let’s get creative. Let’s show

the rest of the world how Texas can throw a party (convention).

The last topic I need to mention is the JOY applicants. Changes are a’coming. By the year 2012, all JOY portfolios will be submitted digitally. The JOY committee will meet in Anaheim to hammer out the final details on rules of submission. But, until then, I still need Texas applicants to submit all JOY portfolios in three ring binders by Feb.

15. Please, read the directions on the JEA website carefully and follow them. Forms may be download-ed from either the JEA or TAJE web-site. Another form applicants for the JOY will need to fill out is the scholarship form for TAJE. All entries not winning the JOY award will be sent to the TAJE scholarship committee for consid-eration for one of six scholarships. But, the portfolio must have an TAJE application/scholarship form sub-mitted with it or sent to the scholarship committee.

I am looking for-warded to receiving lots of portfolios. It’s time a Texan held the title of Na-tional High School Journalist of the Year again. We have had six; we need that lucky number ‘7’.

Hope to see everyone in Austin in April at ILPC.

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Dec. 2010 Upfront Newsletter

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