Time for fun

We did more that work in Arizona. Over the weekend we visited a 50s diner. We were picked up in an old school bus which was fun for a bunch of teachers. We found a great Greek restaurant and attended a D-back Yankee baseball game!

Lessons in new media

A big reason I came to ASU was to learn to create mutimedia stories for our website http://www.rebelreview.org/ . One assignment was to team up in groups of three and venture out into downtown Phoenix and interview people about how they deal with the hot weather.

I teamed up with teachers from Texas and Colorado and we searched out a good story. We found an interesting character who is employed by the visitor's bureau and spends all day helping visitors. Setting up shots, tight, medium and wide as well as interviewing our subject and shooting b-roll were all things we did. Then it was back to the lab to edit the video. We screened each groups 2-minute video complete with photo and story (above right).

Information I can use

This has been a refresher for me of what I was taught in journalism school, but much has changed since the late 80s........Two things that haven't changed are ethics and using the AP Stylebook. I heard from former AP editor and ASU professor Steve Elliott (pictured right) on those two subjects complete with powerpoint presentations that I can modify and use with my students!

We also took a tour of the Arizona Republic newsroom (left), the 11th largest daily in the country. We sat in on a editorial meeting as they determined what stories would run in the next day's edition.

We took a tour of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communications. The facility is state-of-the-art and more importantly the school has sought out top journalists to fill faculty positions. Many of those journalists have addressed the institute fellows.

News room at the Cronkite School. A select group of ASU journalism students work for the Cronkite News Service and provide stories and photos for 30 Arizona newspapers.

Day Two

Writing opinion stories and shooting video were on the itinerary. We also met with our mentors who offered guidance for our stories that will be included in the Institute's online newspaper to be published at the conclusion of the two week institute.

We had practice both shooting and editing video using amazing Mac computers and Final Cut Pro. I'm attaching the video shot by one of my group members from a Colorado high school.

The first few days of this institute have been outstanding. I am one of 34 high school journalism teachers chosen from around the country to come to Arizona State's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication (shown at left) to learn from and network with some of the industry's finest journalists.

First we took a tour of the school and heard from Miton Coleman, senior editor, The Washington Post and president of the American Society of News Editors.

Day two included sessions on news writing, digital photography and photoshop. We then attended a news conference where we covered Leonard Downie Jr., former executive editor of The Washington Post and ASU professor. We questioned Downie on a number of topics and took photos.

Next we were expected to write a news story as well as edit our photos of the event on a two hour deadline. I loved this process and have learned a lot from the editing of my story by the director of the Institute, Steve Elliot, who worked for the AP as a writer and editor for 20 years before coming to ASU.