Tuesday, June 15, 2010

The assignments begin


Having absolutely no experience in journalism, I feel excited, overwhelmed and ill-qualified all at the same time. However, the support here has been exceptional. I am all about learning, but today brought the challenge of application, and the result is yet to be seen, as Steve has my story draft, and I await editorial feedback (which could result in something like "let's talk about this" meaning: I have too much to correct on this paper, so I will tell you and have you start all over). I learned how to use photo shop today. I had no idea how to use photo shop, and I think I will stick to my caveman ways of photography, to keep up the integrity of my poor photo taking skills in my personal photo life- but I am excited to work with this program with my students, as they seem to suffer even worse when it comes to photography skills, and I think photo shop can be quite helpful.

But my real apprehension came with the Q& A session. How do I: a) focus for an hour long "lecture", b) take good notes, and write correct quotes, c) take at least one good photo and d) ask a good question? Well, d never happened, but a through c did, so I am pleased. I am proud of applying the knowledge delivered to me today. I think I did a good job cropping my one and only good picture taken of Len. Downie Jr. and I completed a focused story by deadline that included a couple of direct quotes that I successfully wrote down.

An even better accomplishment was focusing my story idea for our publication, and our wonderful teamwork (small group and large group) in creating topics and stories that do not overlap in under 1 hour after dinner! I cannot express how grateful I am for that accomplishment :)

As I complete the first of my 6 assigned posts to this blog, I realize I should include a photo. Of what, well of what I think is decent quality enough to post... and one of my fellow peers seeming as stressed as I am about our first "major assignment." One that leaves me in peace to know we are a team, and that with effort and focus, like the focus displayed in this photo- we will achieve great things over the course of these next two weeks .
Kelly Camak
Gateway to College ECHS, RCC
Riverside

1 comment:

  1. Isn't it amazing how far we've come in just 2 days, Kelly? Although I am at an advantage at knowing a little more about photography and editing on PhotoShop, it is still overwhelming when we had to put everything together today. The appreciation you express about what you were able to do despite everything else is great.

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