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.