Adviser Update Winter 2013
DOW JONES NEWS FUND
Winter 2013
VOLUME 53, NUMBER 3
These Struck
Our Fancy
Copyright © 2013 Dow Jones News Fund, Inc.
https://www.Newsfund.org
Student news sites:
Looking good, providing
great content
‘Don’t be afraid to leap’
BY ELLEN AUSTIN
I
See LEAP on page 2A
magenta
Update photos by
Bradley Wilson
and Randy Swikle
cyan
out the evening to create a
hybridized stream of coverage from kickoff through
final buzzer.
If I could read minds, I’m
pretty sure a Tumblr meme
floating in the air right now
might read, “Sweet: living
in California’s wonderland
of student free expression,
with a new building and
rooms full of students singing
‘KumBahYah’ and then writing and posting all weekend
long.”
So I’d like to tell you, as
radio commentator Paul Harvey used to say, “the rest of
the story…”
I live my life by several mantras that drive
me: “Leap, and the net will
appear” is the primary one.
yellow
The text of the speech
from the News Fund’s
2012 Teacher of the Year
Ellen Austin delivered at the
Advisers’ Luncheon at the
JEA/NSPA Convention
in San Antonio in November.
t is a great and humbling honor to be
addressing you today. I
would like to talk this
afternoon about leaps of
faith.
I teach English and journalism at Palo Alto HS. We
have a journalism fleet at
Paly, where I work with
some astonishing colleagues:
Paul Kandell, a good friend,
outstanding teacher and my
anchor; and colleagues Mike
McNulty, Esther Wojcicki
and Margo Wixsom.
About 20 to 25 percent of
Paly’s 2,300 students pass
through the doors of our journalism programs.
We are building a bondfunded media arts building,
with doors slated to open
next fall. That building represents tangible support from
our parent community, which
is willing to take another bite
in taxes because they understand that our schools are
our futures.
Let me paint a picture of
what it looked like yesterday in Viking’s classroom as
editors staffed up weekend
coverage for the football playoff game: video and DSLR
cameras being checked out;
sideline reporter’s passes
getting picked up and distributed; editors organizing the
timeline expectation for the
game recap and photos — by
midnight? 1 a.m.? Friday
night. A crisp discussion of
how tweets, real-time game
photos and videos and Facebook posts would flow and
converge together through-
black
P01.V53.I03
inside: Hurricane Sandy coverage - Pages 16A/17A