Raising the bar for minority students

While listening to Alan Weintraut's session on Staff Organization and Management I started sinking lower and lower into my chair as I wondered how I could build the online publication at our school, just barely five months old, into something that could serve as a model for inner city schools.

It is no wonder Alan was named the 2006 Dow Jones National High School Teacher of the Year.

He has resources and plenty of them. He has truly created a family unit among his students and newspaper staff as evident in the videos his students shot for us.

Now I need to take the wisdom Alan bestowed upon us and turn it into something workable for my students.

His Content Delivery model has me thinking about how we can unify our resources as a journalism and media school ( we are going into our second year) to make the most of our resources.

Also, I have wanted to work on getting parental involvement (now non-existent) to a level that will help our students become more successful. His idea of using open house to make contact is a great idea, especially because that is the one event our parents do attend.

And in order to take our students to the next level, I need to get tough with expectations for the online newspaper that I advise. Alan modeled many ways to organize a staff newspaper which I can modify to use in my classrooms.

Lastly, some of his students held up signs stating "I am not just a student. I am a journalist."

It is these motivational cues that will help our school raise the bar for our own students in preparing them for their professional lives.

Kellie Wagner

Hartford Journalism & Media Academy

Hartford, Conn.