9
Sophomore Elia
Warner helps new
members of the
Down Under staff
brainstorm coverage
ideas for mods on
portrait pages in the
Tesserae lab on
Wednesday, March 2.
Warner and the
Tesserae mentors led
the veteran Winfield
students in a
“Yearbook Anatomy”
activity earlier in the
afternoon to help
break the ice and
welcome the new
members to the staff.
Start ’Em Young
PARTNERSHIPS BETWEEN YOUNGER STUDENTS
AND HIGH SCHOOL JOURNALISTS PROVIDE
LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES FOR ALL
By Michael Simons MJE
I
never studied Latin in high school. No
philosophy, either.
But recently, I came across the phrase Docendo
discimus, which likely derives from the work of the
Roman philosopher Seneca. It means, ‘by teaching,
we learn.’
In June 2014, my 6- and 8-year-old sons brought
home a collage-based scrapbook-style yearbook
printed by a second-tier publisher. It sold for $12
and was wall-to-wall collage templates, clipart
and little else aside from portraits. With our boys
attending Winfield Street Elementary School about
five minutes from the Corning-Painted Post High
School campus, where I advise the 55-student
Tesserae yearbook, and my wife serving as an
officer on the WSES Parent Teacher Association, we
started talking. A kitchen brainstorm over a pile
of dirty dishes later that fall led to an idea: what
if we had students from our Tesserae staff teach a
group of WSES kids how to make a yearbook book
themselves?