Adviser Update
The Web and the ‘Rule of 3’
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SPRING 2012
Page 10A
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Teacher of the Year Aaron Manfull
is the director of student media
at Francis Howell North HS in St.
Charles, Mo. He is the chair of the
JEA Digital Media Committee and
is director of Media Now STL. He
can be reached on twitter @manfull or via email at aaronmanfull@
gmail.com.
Update photo by Kaitlyn Williams
Working on coverage for FHNtoday.com, staff video editor Jon Doty works to get video of presidential candidate Ron Paul during a talk at Lindenwood
University in St. Charles, Mo. By allowing students flexibility with what they want to do, many students tend to be more motivated to complete their
work and go above and beyond to find great assignments rather than just settling for an assignment.
By AARON MANFULL
he transition from a printT
only newsroom to a blended
print/online newsroom is a tough
one. I’ve been battling it for the
last eight years or so and am just
finally figuring it out – I think.
If you’re struggling with ways
to make your blended system
work, here are five takeaways
that drove my recent change and
could help you with your transition.
Fit the program around
your students, not visa versa
– I want to get the most out of
my students, so I tend to base my
program off the students I have in
the room at the time. If they don’t
choose social networking, don’t
force them. If I have a lot of photographers, I find ways to work
more photo galleries and multimedia opportunities into the mix.
I used to try to fit students into
roles on staff that I thought were
necessary. The students often had
a different vision. Things got a lot
easier for me – and them – after I
changed that philosophy.
Give students choice – I let
my students pick which three
things they want to focus on in the
room. This means I should be getting buy-in from students because
they have control over what they
are doing in the room. They get to
pick their three choices. It turns
many conversations from “Do I
have to do this?” to “You said you
wanted to do this.”
Let them pitch you an idea
– While I work to limit the options
somewhat based on where the
program is in its journey online,
I don’t overlook giving students
a chance to “Pitch an Idea.” They
often surprise me with something
I hadn’t thought of and it’s a great
way to give people who want to be
trailblazers a chance.
Give students an escape
route – Sometimes, things just
don’t work. I give students a
chance to get out of something
that’s not going well, and myself a
chance to switch things up when
needed. Sports seasons are a good
time to do this. It gives people a
chance to try out all three things
but not be stuck in them too long
if things don’t work. Set the three
at the beginning of the year, give
them the choice to re-up or change
in late fall and again in early
spring.
Keep the grading manageable – Make expectations clear
from the start. Work to train section editors to keep track of mini
deadlines their staffers have. Continue to observe and coach staffers
throughout the month. Collect
monthly evals from staffers speaking to each of their three choices.
Take a holistic approach to the
month’s work.
I didn’t learn these five takeaways all at once. They’ve come
from years of observation and
countless organizational attempts.
In my first years of teaching, I
had a pretty good system for keeping staffers busy. It was called the
“Rule of 2.” I figured if students
had a story and a page each
month (or some equivalent two
units of work), that was enough
to keep them busy through a four
or five week deadline calendar.
I used the same equation for
both yearbook and newspaper. It
worked well until the web entered
the arena eight years ago in my
newsroom, and it’s something I’ve
struggled with since.
My staffs decided early on, if
they were going to make the web
version work, they all needed to
contribute to one site. That meant
the video, newspaper and yearbook staffs would all bond together to feed the online medium.
I kept the “Rule of 2” in place
and included web work as a separate add-on. Assignments were
made separately from everything
else. A grade was entered separately from everything else. The
problem? Students viewed their
web work as an add-on rather
than just part of their daily work
in the “Rule of 2.” As a result, the
web work didn’t seem to matter
as much to many, and they saw it
as more of a hassle than another
chance to grab a clip.
This year, I finally did what I
should have done eight years ago
and turned my “Rule of 2” into
the “Rule of 3.” The we