Cool Links #29: Coolness Just Won’t Stop The Bad Economy

This was a really long week.  First week back from spring break and my wife’s campus announced that there would be a RIF (reduction in force).  My wife is on the RIF list.  She can still be retained in the district if enough other English teachers leave and she can then be offered a position.  [...]

The Power of Video

This is why some stories need to be told in different ways.  This story would not be as powerful if told via text.  A news story in a paper or online would not have the power or the emotion of video.  This got the attention of the President of the United States.
[...]

Cool Links #28: Cool Floor Edition

I now have a new floor in my house and I’m glad to get rid of the old carpet.  The yearbook is finished for one more year and we are in the down slope of the school year.  So, I’ve been inspired to issue an additional cool links post!  Two days trapped in the breakfast [...]

Cool Links #27: Busy Week Edition

It has been a busy week.  We are on Spring Break right now, but I will likely have to go in to the school tomorrow and resend eight yearbook pages to the plant.  But even still, we are done with the book.  Happiness will now ensue.
On a personal note, we are getting new floor at [...]

Is Journalism Education The Problem?

I am a both a journalism educator and the product of journalism schools.  And I wonder if the current problems facing newspapers in particular and journalism in general are a product of that education?
I’m not out to slam any j-profs or j-teachers.  I am one and know a great many.  They are all great at [...]

Get Out Of Your Comfort Zone

In the last year I’ve really had to get out of my comfort zone.  It really started when I went to the ASNE Reynolds Journalism program last summer.  When I went to that program, I was stuck in my old ways of thinking.
I was the sage on the stage.  I also forgot what it was [...]

I Do Read Magazines

Last month I wrote about how I don’t read the newspaper, (the actual printed kind) but today I picked up my skinny magazines from my school mailbox and I realized how much I would miss them if they fold.
I do enjoy reading magazines in their real printed forms.  I can’t imagine reading magazines online in [...]

Money Does Make A Difference In Education

I’ve worked in education for more than 15 years both at a junior college and a high school.  And I’ve heard the old canard repeated over and over again, that we have to stop throwing money at education because it doesn’t make a difference.  I’ve come to believe that it is bull-o-ney.  Money makes ALL [...]

Cool Links #26: The Recession Edition

Wow – in a really bad way.  February was a bad month with more than 600,000 jobs lost in the US in a month.  Not to mention the Seattle PI and the SF Chronicle talking about or moving towards total shut down.  Everyone is feeling it – education is not exempt.  Budget cuts, hiring freezes, [...]

Yay Us!

If I was London Tipton, I would shout Yay Me!  But it is for our yearbook, so yay us.  Our 2008 yearbook staff won a 2009 National Taylor Publishing “Yearbook-Yearbook” Award of Excellence for Photography, Layout and Design.  Only 240 of the thousands of books that Taylor publishes made the national publication.  My editor this [...]