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Journalism's best-kept secret

Denise Roberts, workshop director
Greenwood High School

MISSY WROTE “I want to say just one word...wow! I never thought I could have so much fun and make such good friends in this short amount of time. We are going to maestro...the concept, the quality and the bonds of friendship formed is the best way to go. I'm sold” to her Madison Consolidated adviser.

Liz wrote “Burrell, now is the time that you can say 'told ya so' because I loved this whole experience” to her Hamilton Southeastern adviser.

In fact, every single workshop evaluation expressed similar sentiments. In short, these kids had a blast and learned so much. They left Franklin College pumped up and ready to roll. I stopped counting the number of times students wrote in their journals that they had discovered keys to make this year's publications their own. One student even wrote that he had gathered so many ideas to not only improve the publication but give the staff its own identity.

But, I should have known this year was going to be special. We pushed back the camp one week to give some students time to end the school year and others time to enjoy a few days of summer. Our numbers grew with each day's mail delivery. I hired from a pool of incredibly talented advisers, including Heather Hughes, Ryan Gunterman, Jim Lang, Tom Gayda and Lisa Morris. And, I pulled in speakers who have shown their abilities to stimulate student thought, including Terry Nelson, Mike Frazier, Dennis Cripe and Susie Coleman. With that set-up, how could we go wrong?

Then, we threw into the mix some new sessions. Students conquered yearbook theme page development and newspaper flag redesign on the first night. On Day Two, they examined how they approached stories and brainstorming, began hands-on digital camera work, explored the maestro concept and analyzed staff member personalities to help them with problem-solving. Yes, that was one day of the four-day experience.

But, our best day involved Brown County. On a rainy, muggy Wednesday, we headed down to Nashville in maestro groups of three or four students to pinpoint a story, interview sources, take photographs and sketch designs in four hours. These kids were bursting out of blue van doors before drivers could come to a complete stop; they were eager to land the best story of the day. I saw them moving in and out of shop doors and weaving through pedestrian traffic. They were focused. They were reporters in search of a feature with a focus on the human element. All of them explored the same small town and generated quite different stories that ranged from an immigrant working behind an ice cream counter to one of the world's only holographic studios to a couple who owned a significant portion of Nashville. I believe that group renamed Nashville as Mr. & Mrs. Rogers' Neighborhood since the couple's last name was Rogers.

Finding the story, taking the photos and sketching design ideas on the back of restaurant napkins was only the beginning. The real world started when the vans unloaded next to Shirk Hall. Kids scrambled for the Shirk computers, exploring PageMaker, Quark, InDesign and Photoshop, to mold their designs. I had to walk through the computer labs at 6 p.m. to push kids toward the dining hall. They wanted “just a few more minutes” to reach stopping points. I think most of them gulped down their dinners so they could get back to work, racing their 11 p.m. deadline.

As advisers, we all want to see what happened in Shirk that evening happen in our own classrooms. Kids were bouncing ideas off each other, gathering around computers to consult and moving from Plan A to Plan B to Plan C without complete break downs. Oh, don't get me wrong. We had problems. Computers didn't quite work at times. Printers didn't quite work at times. Kids argued occasionally. They weren't functioning as successful maestro teams because they were working in a fantasy world where everything ran smoothly. But, they worked through those problems. I watched one student stomp away from her team. With a little prompting from her group leader, she returned to the group and explained to the boy who had hurt her feelings that he had done just that. She stood up for herself without yelling or crying. He probably heard for the first time that what he said hurt someone else. What an incredible learning experience.

A colleague of mine referred to the IHSPA Summer Editors' Workshop as the best-kept secret in scholastic journalism. I agree. We're small by choice with a focus on newspaper and yearbook editors so we can ensure a ratio of no more than 8 students to 1 group leader. When these kids left Franklin College, they knew that we knew who they were, had molded their group sessions around their needs and will keep in touch throughout the school year.

Mark your calendars for June 13-16 (2005). Your editors will thank you, and when you see the result, you'll kick yourself for not sending students earlier.

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