What experience do you have with Journalism?

I taught for five years in Robert E. Lee high school, and it’s my third year at Thomas Jefferson high school for science and technology. I teach 9th grade English and AP English and I’m the photojournalism teacher, which would make me the yearbook advisor.

Why journalism?

I’ve been working with yearbook since I was 13 when I was on the yearbook staff of my middle school yearbook. I wanted to be a teacher since my sophomore year of high school. I did yearbook through high school, and in college I got my teaching license. I wanted to be a yearbook advisor for sixteen, seventeen years.

What’s been the most rewarding experience you’ve ever had?

I would say the most rewarding year was my second year advising the yearbook. It was nominated for a pacemaker award. [The kids began] rebuilding the program, kids did everything by themselves. [When I told them about the award,] hearing their excitement when I told them the news was the best thing by far.

Tell me about your favorite journalism trip.

I try and take my students to at least 3 a year. This year, we want to go to Kansas city, New York, and Anaheim. I’ve taken students to NY and D.C. last year, and two years before that we went to Philadelphia. If any kids ever want to go to a convention, I make sure that they’ll be able to go. [Students get to] network with fellow journalists, and hear nationally recognized speakers talk about heir craft. [My favorite trip] I think was probably last years New York Trip, the CSPA convention. It was my first time taking Thomas Jefferson kids. [I had] 5 girls and they were so good, so well behaved, and we all tried tot navigate subway system. They learned so much and were so excited. They would take pages and pages of notes and tell me all about the classes when we got back to the hotel. It was a very joyful experience.

Who are your journalism role models?

I would say Woodward and Bernstein. In a yearbook kind of level, I would say Jim Jordan and Cathy Bailey. Kara Peterson, my publishing rep. I have such a great network of yearbook advisors, it’s like a family unit. I look up to all of them for a variety of reasons. I think we all have our particular strengths and when anybody has a problem we know exactly who to talk to. Meghan Percival [is another role model]. I met Meghan probably in 2006/2007; she is the yearbook advisor in McClain high school. She’s so great at working with kids and getting them to work with teams. I try to model Chad Rummel, a yearbook rep. [We’ve been friends for] 6 years. I look up to him on a daily basis [for his] lesson plans on motivating kids to go beyond what they think they can do. It’s nice to have a network of support. It motivates me to be better.

What piece of advice would you give other advisers?

I would say the biggest thing to succeed as a yearbook advisor is that you need to learn as much as you can. Never stop learning. If you come into it with no experience, go to conventions and talk to fellow yearbook advisors, even if you come in with experience. When I first started, I thought I knew more than I already did. I had to learn about yearbooks in 2006, since they changed since 1999 and look for new trends in journalism.

What does a journalism advisor do?

First of all we have to teach the staff everything they need to know. So there’s that teaching aspect. If you have a good editor in chief, then they can do a lot of what an advisor does. Motivating students, staying organized – if you have editors in chief who are with the program, then it usually works out. You are the contact person for any parental question, administrative question, anything not really coming from students. If there’s anything wrong with the yearbook, I have to handle all that troubleshooting; I have to organize the senior portraits and the underclassman portraits. [When I first started advising,] I had no idea that I had to be business woman. I have to keep track of finances, to make sure we break even. I had no idea that I would be in the business world. There is lots of PR and marketing. You have to sell those books. You have to recruit new staff members. [With every class I have,] I’m always looking for the next staff of kids. It’s very stressful, but I love it.

I fell in love with yearbook 17 years ago. I get to work with kids on another level other than student and teacher. There is a different dynamic between an advisor and staff. There is a different level of trust. I get to work with kids differently. I am a yearbook nerd. I love it when we find the right picture, the perfect graphic design. All [of those] nerdy things give me chills. That’s what keeps me going.

Describe one student who really changed your life or rocked your world.

There’s been a lot. My very first editor in chief when I first started advising became one of my favorite people in the whole world. He had to get talked into taking yearbook. He’s just a doll – I want to miniaturize him and put him in my pocket. He had such a positive attitude. He was a brilliant graphic designer. We stayed in touch, and he always tells me how his time as a yearbook editor influenced his career. [He is in] VCU for graphic design and mass communications. His yearbook experience got him into that field. It’s great to know that what I’m doing is making a difference beyond high school.
Kids who go above and beyond what they are expected to [are the ones I remember].

Describe a funny event that took place in your journalism room.

So in my second year advising, the theme was “Give and Take”. So we’re in the publication lab doing work and we’re listening to the radio, the classic rock station. The station would have themed lunches every day and play songs related to that theme. Then the DJ says, “Today’s lunch team is Give and Take” and we flipped. Because that was the theme of our yearbook. I ran next door to journalism to ask for a blank tape. We put it in the radio to record the lunch. And then one of my girls actually called in and told the DJ the whole story, and she actually got on the radio. He dedicated that lunch hour to our high school yearbook staff.

What role do parents play on your staff?

I would say that right now parents play a very minimal role. I love parents because they’ll pick up kids on late work nights. I love my students; therefore I love my student’s parents. As far as production goes, they have little involvement. I love the PTA; they volunteer for underclass pictures. But other than that, it is an almost completely student run publication.

What’s the coolest thing(s) decorating your publication room?

We’re in transit right, actually. My temporary journalism room is kind of messy and gross. We are still working on building it, so there’s not that much cool stuff hanging out. I am planning to get a futon to brainstorm and relax. In my old school I had a fake ficus tree. I’m thinking of getting another tree. For some reason, I like having trees in my journalism room.

What is your staff’s favorite food to have when they are working?

Last year, it was definitely Goldfish. I would buy huge gallon box and it would not take every long for it to get eaten. This year the favorite is Rice Crispie treats.

What have your students taught you throughout your career?

[They taught me] to kind of take a step back. My first year, I was brand new, so I had my hand in everything. Over the course of five years, they proved that they were capable of producing a good quality [yearbook]. They taught me to let go of my control and taught me to trust them that they can do it. They can do it. And they did.

Day in the life of an advisor.

I wake up in the morning and stop at Starbucks. I have four English classes are thrown in the mix. During my planning period, sometimes I’m planning lessons, sometimes I’m handling yearbook crises. I never know what’s going to happen; it’s really a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants sort of job. In yearbook class, I remind the students of what deadlines are going to happen and then they have the rest of the period to work. Most of the period I’m sitting at my desk twiddling my thumbs, hoping they’d ask me a question.

Right now I have 10 students in photo journalism, 30 kids who participate as a club. Probably about 35 students total in yearbook. [The photojournalism class and the yearbook club are] pretty much the same, but training for club is much briefer. We cover everything in four 45 minutes training sessions. Generally there are more kids on a spread if it’s in club, but kids in the class do more work and are getting a grade. They’re not much different.

Tell about your proudest moment in journalism.

I feel like I’m proud every day. But I think that my proudest moment was during the snowmaggedon of 2010. We still had a deadline. My editors in chief got together managed to get the pages done almost virtually, over the Internet, because no one could leave their houses, and when they sent their pages off they were really decent. Despite not having the lab and the yearbook room, they could do that, three of those kids could do it.