11/15/13

Grading Made Easier: Presentation from NSPA Fall Conference in Boston

Check out my NSPA Fall Conference Presentation on grading at this link: NSPA Presentation

8/10/12

Lawrence Journalism Workshop

Friday afternoon discussions

Writing for story?

  • What are the important elements of a journalism story?
  • What are the most important elements?

7/19/12

Student story: It’s gettin' hot out here

By Shelby Simpson/Advanced Writing
   
These boiling temperatures make students beg for air conditioning.

The Flint Hills Publications Workshop is usually in full swing around the third week in July. When the heat waves are on the rise, sweaty students walk the long steamy path from building to building for their tracks.

This year was especially bad in the midst of a record-breaking heat wave and the temperature hitting 107 degrees on Wednesday. Students walked around campus with their heads hung, trying not to make contact with the blazing sun. Groups walking past sprinklers put their hands out hoping to catch even the smallest droplet of water on their heated skin

“The sun can really make you tired,” said Madeline Maloney a junior from Blue Valley Northwest. “Back in my hometown the weather is just as hot, but I’m not used to having to walk everywhere. So I think that is the worst part about the heat.”

People who have attended the Flint Hills camp agree it’s usually quite hot walking around campus.

“I think that the weather this year is about the same as it was last year, temperature wise,” McPherson High School adviser Lois Johnson said.”

These high temperatures affected night activities as well, such as the ice cream social on Sunday night. Once students sat down with bowls full of Manhattan’s classic Call Hall ice cream, it was a race to finish it all before it turned into a melted shake.

A plus side to the summer temperatures was the swim party on Tuesday. The heat outside made it feel that much more refreshing to jump into the water.

Students have done everything they can to stay cool during this hot week, from laying on beds in air conditioned rooms during long breaks or getting Popsicles at meals.

“All week I have been trying to make sure I always have my water bottle and I fill it as soon as it gets low,” said Caroline Engle, a junior from Kapaun High School. “I hate this hot weather.”

Student story: Students enjoy extra free time

By Miranda Poulson/Advanced Writing

After seven hours of class, free time seems like the greatest gift of all.

Flint Hill Publication Workshop campers enjoyed more free time than in past years. Sessions ended this year at 5 p.m. compared to previous years when classes ran until 9 p.m. -- wrapping up 11-hour days.

Having more free time, students have to find good ways to fill it. Some watch movies on their laptops, take pictures, play on their phones or just sleep.

While most kids spend their extra hours relaxing in their dorms, Hayden Parks from Pittsburg High School likes to stay active.

“I think we should spend it doing other things,” said Parks, who enjoys his free time taking pictures.

Some advisers even take their students into town to shop, eat or sightsee for a couple hours. Places they visit include Coldstone Creamery, Target and Manhattan Hill.

“We went to Tuttle Creek right as the sun was going down,” Malory White said. “It was so pretty.”
          
No matter how students spent their time off, campers agreed the extra time was great. It gave them a chance to unwind after a long day or plan for the upcoming school year.  

“I like it,” Andover High School student Alex Hernandez said . “I’m not gonna complain.”

Student story: Uneven numbers shape camp experience

By Madeline Maloney and Gunnar Hein/Advanced Writing

Forty-four girls.

Eight boys.

One camp.  

The Flint Hills Publications Workshop has been open to journalism students across the states for 53 years. On average, there have been close to 150 students every year. This year is different. There are 52 students.

“There were so many fewer students than I expected,” student assistant Evert Nelson said.

That’s not the only new shocker this year. The amount of boys is significantly smaller than the amount of girls attending the workshop.

“I expected there to be a lot more guys,” senior Autumn Short said.

The difference in numbers has changed the atmosphere of the workshop. This leaves students at a loss how to speak freely to their peers, some said.

“It’s kind of awkward,” senior Alex Leff said with a slight smirk. “I think every one is acting a little bit more shy than they usually do.”

The planned activities have been thrown off. On Sunday night, students left the ice cream social immediately after they ate their chocolate and vanilla ice cream. Students stayed in school cliques.

“I thought that it was kind of awkward because everyone was eating in silence,” sophomore Shelby Simpson said.

Eighteen of 52 students came to the dance Monday night, but few interacted. The girls grooved, but boys were no where to be found.

“It was less awkward,” junior Katie Crandall said. “Us girls could really dance like crazy since the boys weren’t there.”

Tuesday night, the workshop rented two buses. One of the buses turned out to be a waste of money when only 12 girls loaded onto the other bus to go swimming. The boys did not tag along for the pool party, but the girls managed to keep themselves occupied.

“We had handstand contests,” junior Caroline Engle said. “It was awesome.”

What are the social dynamics in the tracks like? Senior Hayden Parks said it’s not easy to stay in touch with “my kind” when he is working in the Photo Journalism track.

“It doesn’t surprise me,” Parks said. “Photo journalism has more of an artsy feel. Guys are generally more straight to the point.”

The girls are more at ease while in their tracks due to the lack of the boys’ judgment in the classes, some girls said.

“I feel like my camp experience has changed somewhat because now I can take less time getting ready since there are fewer boys to impress,” sophomore Madeline Fitzgerald said.

The faculty and staff at the workshop also have their own feelings about the uneven ratio of girls to boys.

“Honestly, I felt sorry for the guys,” student assistant Morgan Buchholz said. “I was jealous of their leaders because they only had eight guys on their floor [to look after].”

Student story: Students traveling alone forced to make new friends

By Gallagher Martin-Chavez/Advanced Writing

All alone, with nobody to turn to. The idea may scare many people, but three students are embracing it.  

Imagine attending the Flint Hills Publications Workshop by yourself. Nobody to eat lunch with. Nobody to gossip the details of your day. Nobody to sit with at night. The only option is to make new friends. Easier said than done.

“Getting to know people has been the biggest obstacle,” Wichita Southeast senior Ryan Lawless said. “I just stay in my room and hangout with my roommate.”

Students said a big key to surviving by themselves was meeting new friends and overcoming their fears of new people. Once they opened themselves up, they said making friends became much easier.

“I’m used to knowing people, so this has helped me get to know new people,” Lawless said.

For Blue Valley West junior Sierra Deitz the key to a good time wasn’t listening to music, or getting on Twitter. She had her own style.

“I’ve been designing flute T-shirts and sweatshirts for my marching band,” Deitz said. “I’ve also been studying for AP exams.”

Deitz was roommates with another student attending camp alone.

“I’m the only person from Gardner Edgerton, and my roommate is the only person from Blue Valley West, so we’ve been getting along fine,” sophomore Shelby Simpson said of Deitz. “We haven’t had any arguments.”

The opportunity to be by themselves has been beneficial, the students agreed. It made them stronger, and a lot less timid.

“I’ve had to reach out and meet other people,” Deitz said.

Student story: Socializing at a minimum at camp

 By Caroline Engle and Katie Crandall

Eight people dancing. Twelve people swimming.

At first, these numbers seem to indicate a group of friends having a good time. But when one considers that these are the numbers for activities sponsored by the Flint Hills Publication Workshop, which has 52 campers, it is a very different situation.

“I know there were more kids in the past and [the camp] was bigger,” said Alex Durano, a senior from Andover High School. “The dance was so weird in a big room and hardly anyone was there.”

While the drop in attendance for FHPW-sponsored recreational activities is partially because of fewer campers overall, it may also have to do with campers’ personalities.

“I’m actually very antisocial,” said Malory White, a senior from Pittsburg High School. “I kind of considered going when I heard about them but none of my friends wanted to go with me, and I didn’t really want to go by myself. Another reason why we didn’t go was because we were also exhausted from the walking and heat during the day, and we just wanted to go straight to bed.”

Students who did not attend camp activities participated in a number of other diversions.

“One night our adviser took us out because she went here for college and and showed us around a bit,” White said. “We went out for ice cream, and last night my roommates and I hung out in the basement lobby and gossiped. ”

The small quantity of male campers did not bother a large number of either gender.

“I would have been fine with it, but I didn’t want to split up from the other kids from my school,” Durano said.

Another issue was a lack of knowledge about some of the events prior to camp.

“We didn’t go because we didn’t really know about the pool party, so no one [from our school] brought swimsuits,” Durano said. “I could have swam in basketball shorts, but the girls from our publication wouldn’t have been able to swim.”

At least one of the attendees of the pool party  -- Mill Valley High School sophomore Cassi Benson -- was happy she went.

“[Swimming] was laid back and everyone wasn’t really watching you while you were at the pool with your friends and going down the water slides,” Benson said.

7/18/12

Student story: Packing more than a toothbrush

By Emma Eveld and Malory White/Advanced Writing

   
Take one look at anyone’s suitcase and most of the time, it appears to be a regular old suitcase filled with basics like shirts to toothbrushes.

This is not so, however, for a few Flint Hills Publication Workshop attendees, who have found that they brought unusual or unique items to camp.  

Take Star Wars bed sheets, for example.

“I just bought them specifically for camp,” student assistant Caroline Sweeney said. “I thought they would be something fun, and I’ve always wanted Star Wars sheets. Being nerdy wasn’t cool when I lived in the dorms, but it is now.”

Having something sent by your mother can also be considered nerdy, though for one camper, an item sent by her mother was useful. She was sent with a cooler filled with drinks.

“My mom made me,” said Alex Scimecca, a student from Blue Valley North. “I have water and Gatorade in there. It was actually kind of helpful...until the ice melted.”

On the sweeter side of things, one camper brought a framed picture of her boyfriend of two years. To some, it might not be unusual but instead, somewhat romantic.

“I’ve been away from home for the past two weeks and I haven’t had much time to spend with my boyfriend, so I brought his picture with me for comfort,” senior Michaela Wagner said. “The photo has no significance. It’s not the photo, it’s how the photo makes me feel.”

Whether weird or unusual, romantic or sweet, items packed by campers and faculty members have caught attention and show personality.

“I can let my freak flag fly,” Sweeney said.

Student story: Life on the Kedzie Krier for three days

By Emma Eveld/Advanced Writing

The conversations that happen on the “Kedzie Krier” staff aren’t typical teenage fodder.

“Overpack. Is that one word or two words?”

“Two, right? I mean, I think it is.”

“Someone go to dictionary.com!”

“It has to be two words. I swear.”

“Nope, I just checked. It’s one. Ha!”

This is just one example of the types of conversations floating around the “Kedzie Krier” “Royal Purple” publication room. These kids aren’t the normal staff as fewer campers applied than previous years. And they have less time since workshop days are shorter by about three hours.

These Flint Hills Publication Workshop campers applied to be on the “Kedzie Krier,” the camp newspaper, to get the fast-paced experience of life on a college newspaper.

“My teacher [Alison Long] thought that applying would be good for Maura [Eveld] and I because we’re going to be co-editors for our newspaper next year, and we need to experience that sort of time crunch and work together,” said Delaney Bates, from Notre Dame de Sion High School in Kansas City, Mo.

Their goal is to produce a copy of the newspaper in only three days -- in time for other campers to have their own copy to take home.

“It’s a little overwhelming because we have to be done with the paper in three days when usually at my school we get about two weeks to finish it,” said Jen Manning, from Kapaun-Mount Carmel High School in Wichita.

Some staffers described working in the grape purple room as crazy and chaotic, while others said it was laid back. Kyler Jost, from McPherson High School, described the room’s atmosphere as a “five person ant farm.”  

As for the work load, the “Krier” staffers agreed it seemed like a lot as they scurried around campus to interview people and then bolted back to write and layout graphics and pages.  

In their temporary newsroom, papers were scattered in clumps and wide-screened Macintosh computers lined the wall of windows. Chairs squeaked and chatter faded in and out. The click-click tapping noise from keyboards was a common sound.  

They even had a giant white board perched at the front of the room with names, story ideas and assignments that needed to be attended to.

“Once someone completes something, Caroline, one of our editors and teachers, checks it off,” said Maura Eveld, from Notre Dame de Sion. “It really keeps us organized.”

Staff members are excited for the paper to come out the last day at camp and agree it will be top notch. Even if the room seemed a little chaotic, they said everything was going according to plan.

“I guess the best way to describe it is ‘organized chaos,’ ” Manning said.

Student story: A mix of newspaper formats represented at camp

By Malory White/Advanced Writing

As about 50 students came together for the Flint Hills Publications Workshop, they brought different publication styles.
 
Out of the 13 schools that attended the workshop, three print a news magazine and nine print a traditional newspaper. One school, Central High School in St. Joseph, Mo., will publish online only for the first time this year after printing in a traditional format.
 
“I think students are more likely to look at it if it’s in their hands rather than online,” Central student Miranda Poulson said.
 
Among the campers are those all for the traditional to fans of news magazines and everything in between.
 
“I would rather do a news magazine,” junior Sarah Allen said. “For now, I wouldn’t want to go the traditional news side, but I do appreciate how traditional a newspaper is.”
 
At Notre Dame de Sion, where Allen attends, the newspaper is printed in a news magazine format. Meanwhile, junior Autumn Short attends McPherson High School, which prints a traditional newspaper.
 
“I like that it looks professional, but we can still incorporate designs and infographics,” Allen said. “I wish that it was all in color because in some issues, for us, it’s all black and white.”
 
Mill Valley High School senior Jillian Mullin said schools that have news magazines risk having a design style that could step on the toes of yearbook staffs.
 
“I would prefer a traditional newspaper because there’s certain elements they stick to otherwise they would start trickling into yearbook format,” Mullin said. “I wouldn’t hate it, but I feel like they would get ideas from yearbook. We have mutual respect because we are different.”