SUMMER 2012
Adviser Update
Page 17A
Teens are teens
Teaching freedom of press to teens in Hanoi is challenging
By CAROL SMITH
nvited to teach American-style
INations
student journalism by United
International School
United Nations International School students, along with school librarian Joyce
Miller (left) and English teacher Thomas
Update photos by Beatrice Motamedi and Andrew Wiener Houterman (center) prepare for classes
The sixth grade newspaper’s editor in chief, Nozima Burkhanova, 11, on journalism reporting and writing by
of Uzbekistan, keeps track of proposed names for her publication
Newsroom by the Bay co-directors Paul
during a discussion with NBTB.
Kandell and Beatrice Motamedi (at right).
See TEEN on page 22A
P08.V53.I01
story generation, sourcing, interviewing, research and writing for
the ear and the eye.
Students in the core group
were given a template for an
online publication prepared for
them by School Newspapers
Online and were taught how to
use Wordpress, said Motamedi.
black
10 as well as a group of sixthgraders who they helped with
naming their publication. Using
the theme “what’s your untold
story” from a poem by Huu
Thinh, a Hanoi poet, the NBTB
co-directors worked on the basics
of journalism with the high school
students. The basics included
cyan
in Vietnam whose parents wanted
them to continue a western style
of education, but they had little
journalism training and no high
school publication.
From April 4 to 7, 2012, Kandell and Motamedi taught 10
classes in reporting and writing
to students in grades 8 through
“The ease of use of the SNO
site, in addition to the huge
enthusiasm for student leadership, student voice and digital
storytelling that we encountered,
meant that students were able
to actually generate and start
writing stories within days of our
arrival,” said Motamedi in an
email interview.
The Flame is expected to
launch in the fall, but there are
stories already online generated
by the students as a result of their
intensive journalistic workshop.
For a look at The Flame, go to
http://mshsnews.unishanoi.org/.
“The tagline says it all: ‘UNIS
Hanoi News – Get Your Curiosity
Burning’!” added Motamedi.
In an excerpt from The Flame,
Jessica van den Brink, editor, and
Megan Newell write of the journalism experts from California,
“They’ve given us a crash course
on the basics of good journalism
and have left us with the training
wheels needed to get
magenta
Newsroom by the
Bay co-directors
Beatrice Motamedi and Paul
Kandell with
United Nations
International
School librarian
Joyce Miller.
Carol Smith
is a freelance writer and
editor who lives in Springtown, Pa. The former high
school journalism adviser
and English teacher was
editor of The Bethlehem
News, a Lehigh