ASNE Institute June 6 (part II)

Monday (continued)

After Rosenthal finishes his talk, we take a break and then go over the ASNE website and the tools available to High School Journalism advisers, most at a minimal cost to the school. The two tools I will certainly use are the ability to host our school newspaper online (for a one-time fee of $25), and the Knight-Ridder Tribune wire service (for a one-time fee of $50). In case you missed the boldface, I must stress the fact that these are ONE-TIME FEES! The KRT wire service is especially valuable because it gives us unlimited, licensed access to national-style photographs, articles, crosswords, comics, etc.

Did I mention it was a one-time fee?

After Diana's presentation, we break and then launch right into Victor Merina's presentation on stories about cultural diversity and race. His address is enjoyable--rich in stories and examples-- and he refuses to take himself seriously. I sit at the table with Pat, Roland, Don, and Bill. No girls allowed, apparently. We enjoy talking sports, htough I note that those hwo drank at the happy hour last night have a special bond. Victor finishes and we retrieve our boxed lunches: sandwiches.

I sit across the picnic table from Rochelle, a teacher from Big Horn WY, and we chat a bit. She teaches at a K-12 school with 140 students total. The senior class is 10 people strong and she is chair of the English department (consisting of two members). I'll be interested in reading her newspaper. Don Bott sits to my right and I enjoy getting his perspective on my questions. I have decided I would like to model my program after his. Since he doesn't seem to mind, I'll steal liberally from him.

The bathrooms need some remodeling and I like the rodeo pictures in the display cases.

These workshops are moving fairly quickly and I'm comfortable, but goodness we are sitting a lot! The amount of food we eat is obnoxious, but fortunately it's all healthy enough. In fact, I feel like everything they bought for us to eat is from the local Wild Oats store. Most dishes seem to have asiago cheese something, pesto this and that, cilantro so and so, and an avocado whatever. Makes me crave a french fry.

They lead us to the computer room for an orientation. Nothing too strange here, except how open it is. The building has an open floor plan with light pouring through strategic windows. A courtyard in the middle provides a place for informal meetings and the wood paneled walls give it a cabin feel.

After the orientation, we have our afternoon training on digital photography. I don't know too much about digital photography at all, and I learn some valuable tips. Mostly I am relieved to know that we don't need a fancy camera to do a pretty decent job. More important is the technique used to take the photo. Scott, a Berkeley photojournalist (pro!), is unaccostomed to teaching our particular group, but does a bang-up job.

Side note --these teachers like to talk. It's only taken one full day to realize that there may soon be problems with the level (and volume) of conversation. More on that later.

After Scott finishes, we have a generously long dinner and I check my email. I write a brief blog entry and head back to my seat. Don then leads the most interactive part of the day. We learn we will be publishing an online newspaper for this workshop and we assign the various roles and duties of the newspaper staff. In addition to the duties as a staff writer (everyone is a staff writer) I volunteer to be a photoshop guy because I feel the least comfortable with that role. If I struggle, it will be a chance to learn.

At this point I don't know what to write about, but that's the beauty of this process: the Institute wants us to feel empathy toward the kids when they can't think of a good story. Smart.