Adviser Update Adviser Update Spring 2017 | Page 19
19
However, I will never again be
without such a resource. We meet
two or three times a year to discuss
the goals I have for my students and
program. They provide feedback and
suggest tweaks to the curriculum or
expectations and outcomes. Then,
they tell me what my students can
do to be better prepared or how I
might earn more experience, and
therefore confidence, in the industry.
Last fall, I was frustrated with
my inability to bring a dynamic
instructor to my entire staff and
shared that with the committee.
The head of the Journalism and
Media Communication at Everett
Community College, T. Andrew
Wahl, asked a simple question,
“What do you need?” I considered
what I really wanted and needed
from that training, and I told him.
My students needed help with
brainstorming story ideas, writing
headlines and captions, and
interviewing. They needed to hear it
from someone other than me.
Wahl suggested that he could put
together a training for us. Instead of
his coming to my school, we would
go to him. My students would tour
the campus and the journalism
facilities there. His students and
other instructors would teach
sessions. We would open it up to
all area high school journalism
programs. Because community
colleges are expected to do some
outreach to local high schools,
there was no cost to the schools. I
would have paid him a presenter’s
fee had he come to my school.
Instead, I paid that to cover the cost
of pizza for the whole crew. The
best part was that there was some
amazing training that happened,
and I did not have to organize
a single thing (except field trip
paperwork).
This Journalism and Media
Communication Conference was
a huge success. We have already
set the 2017 date, and the other
schools that attended have been
spreading the word about what a
great opportunity this event was.
Our state journalism association
plans to help advertise it in the fall.
These opportunities to use my
local resources do not replace
the experiences of a national
convention. However, they do more
than supplement them. These local
resources have strengthened my
program to a point that attending
one or two national conventions
a year never could have. The
consistency and adaptability of
my local resources to address the
specific needs of my students make
more of an impact than any trip
ever could.
I encourage you to work smarter,
not harder, and to tap into your
local resources.
ANNE HAYMAN
Anne Hayman is the English
department chair and journalism
adviser at Arlington High School
in Arlington, Washington where
she advises The Stillaguamish Trail
yearbook and The AHS Eagle online
newspaper. Hayman is active in the
Washington Journalism Education, and
she is a Master Journalism Educator
and attended the Reynolds Institute
in 2014. She holds a B.A. from Eastern
Washington University and a M.S. from
Walden University.
Photo session with Everett Community College professor Nancy Jones at the Journalism and Media
Communication Conference on February 10, 2017. Photo by: Anne Hayman