Assignments for Week of Nov. 9-13

Work on assignments for Week 13 (no assignments due this week since I did not get them up).
Make sure yearbook 300 word stories are completely done by Tuesday when you leave class. I will not be here Wednesday through Friday and must have grades in. These stories were due LAST week, so I'm giving you extra time on them and cannot give you any more. Stories not turned in will be a major grade of ZERO.

When sub is on duty, I expect each of you to be on your best behavior and not trying to take advantage of the situation. I expect you to use the equipment wisely and to stay on task.

If there are problems, see Ms. Bush.

Assignments for Week of Nov. 2-6

Stories due 3 p.m. Monday for Week 11, Yearbook 300 word stories due also.

Get all stories edited.

Yearbook page assignments this week...I promise, barring any more doctors' visits or funerals. When you get your assignments, we'll talk about pictures, sidebars, etc.

Make sure you can get on to Studio Works. Let me know if you have trouble.

100 Educational Twitter Feeds for Journalism Students

100 Educational Twitter Feeds for Journalism Students

Assignments for Week of Oct. 26-Oct. 30

Monday: Week 10 assignments due in Newsroom Director (submit to editor) by 3 p.m.
Tuesday-Friday: Work on Week 11 assignment and your 300-word story for the yearbook. You can submit each up to 10 times for editing and comment.

Follow the deadline schedule in Newsroom Director for each assignment.

Assignments for Week of Oct.19-23

Monday: Week 9 assignments due by 3 p.m.
Tuesday: First Yearbook deadline assignments will be given and you may begin uploading your pictures and working on layouts at this time. First deadline is first week of November.
Also work on Week 10 web assignments.
Wednesday: Work on yearbook or web (week 10) assignments
Thursday: Work on yearbook or web (week 10) assignments
Friday: Work on yearbook or web (week 10) assignments.

Be sure to save everything on H drive, your folder in the Stripes 2010 folder, the For Web folder and on Newsroom Director. Submit your stuff to me as it is ready. I'll have access to a computer and will edit as I can.

Assignments for Week of Oct. 12-16

Monday: Week 8 assignments due at 3 p.m.
Monday-Tuesday: Introduction to the Studio Works Web site, the online publishing program from Taylor Publishing Co. How to upload pictures and other content. How to install/change templates. How to place copy and headlines. The concept is similar to InDesign which we used last year, but Studio Works offers a content management/workflow organizer as well. Newsroom Director Pro establishes a process for story creation and editing; Studio Works does the same thing for yearbook pages with design and photo management. This is another program you can access from anywhere, so if you don't finish pages at school, you can complete them from home.
Wednesday: Work on assignments for Week 9. Due next Monday at 3 p.m.
Thursday: More training on Studio Works.
Friday: Work on assignments for Week 9.

Something New!

There is something new for you and I think it will help us keep organized and help you meet all deadlines!!! (Yes, I can use exclamation points for this.)

We have joined a new online service called Newsroom Director, and I think it is fabulous. I'll tell you all about it when I get back on Tuesday, but in the meantime, you can check it out.

Go to http://travismediateam.newsroomdirector.com.

Sign in with your first initial last name (dsmith, for instance)
Use the "usual password" as the password. Once you get in, go to your profile and edit it and change your password. I can always change it back to the "usual password" if you forget the one you chose.

It's up to you if you want to post your email address or cell phone number or keep it private. No one but the rest of the TMT will be able to access the site. Do not sign up to receive text messages on your cell phone unless you have unlimited texting.

Beginning this week, you will post your stories to this site, in addition to saving them on your H drive and the Journalism drive. DO NOT POST to the online edition or blog until you get the go-ahead on the newsroom director site. We can edit stories there, discuss them, and a whole lot more.

You'll be able to communicate with other TMT members through a private messaging system, and you can post notices for the whole group if there is a reason to do that.

This site was designed by some former high school journalists who recognized the need for such a system, and it is now used by high school, college and professional journalists. I only found out about it Saturday or we would have been using it all along.

Go visit, poke around, see what you think. I'll tell you all about it on Tuesday.

Assignments for Week of Oct. 5-9

Monday: All Week 7 assignments are due by 3 p.m. Save one copy in your H drive. Save one in your folder in the Travis Media Team staff folder (located inside the Stripes 2010 folder) with your name on it. Save one copy in the Web Assignments folder which is inside the Travis Media Team 2009-2010 folder.

We were hacked again, so do not upload anything to the online edition today. We'll get things up tomorrow. Just get your stuff saved.

If you finish getting everything up during class, begin working on Week 8 assignments.

Maryssa needs to make sure all her pictures are uploaded and renamed and located in the photos by subject area.

Tuesday-Friday: Work on Week 8 assignments.

Assignments for Week of Sept. 29-Oct. 3

Monday:
Re-register for an account on both the online edition and the blog. When the techies at Siteground.com got rid of the malicious code left by the hacker Friday, all registrations had to be wiped out. Do this TODAY. Take your blogs that you have saved on the Journalism drive (You did save them, right?...you were told to), and copy/paste them onto your blogs. SAVE DRAFT. I will need some proof that you did the blog for last week.

Tuesday-Friday:

Because of the problems with the online edition and the blog, do not worry about assignments for this week except for those major news stories that a few were working on and photo assignments (dress rehearsals for Cyrano, for example). Any pictures you've taken should be uploaded to Journalism folder, batch renamed, resized, color corrected and cropped.

Begin working on the new weekly assignments rotations. Your first deadline is 3 p.m. Monday. Do the assignments for Week 7.

Instructions for Changing Resolution of Pictures from 72 to 300. Do this for all photos that have less than 300 ppi resolution.

With picture open in Photoshop follow these steps.
Go to Image>Picture Size.
Unclick "Resample image" at the bottom.
Change the width in inches from whatever it is to 4" (vertical photo) or 5" (horizontal) photo. The resolution will go from 72 to 500+.
Reclick "Resample image".
Change the resolution to 300. Save the photo.

Assignments for Week of Sept. 21-25

Plan out your week by using the 3-week planner/check sheet. Make any appointments you need for interviews. Get stories done and uploaded by Thursday. Blogs due Friday.

Photographers, check with Ms. Bush for sports photo assignments.

If any of you have any photos not uploaded, get those done. Batch rename them, color correct, resize, crop, etc.

Assignments for Week of Sept. 14-18

Monday: Organize beat teams.
Pass out 3-week organizers/checkoff sheets
Introduction to AP Style

Introduction To Ap Style

View more presentations from Morgan State University.

We'll also go over some things from the AP Style Book, which we have copies of in the room.

Style quiz each day this week until you get used to doing this.

Weekly assignments (from planner/checkoff list) due Friday.

Assignments for Week of Sept. 7-11

• Monday: Holiday
  
  Tuesday: Finish up on all news stories that you have been assigned. All interviews should be wrapped up. All pictures should be taken.
  
  Wednesday: Have all stories typed in Microsoft Word. As they are checked and approved, go ahead and post them to the online edition. Let me know when they are up and I'll check them and make them live for you.
  
  Thursday: Ok...we've got to do this this week. Beat Assignments! Yay!
  
  Friday: Weekly blogs due. This is the end of the 3-weeks grading period. Make sure you have all assignments done
  
  Assignment checklist:
  
  Login done for Travis Tiger News (D)
• Login done for Tiger's Roar (D)
• Twitter account created (D)
• Following @travismediateam (D)
• Following @travpub (D)
• Fan of Travis Media Team page on Facebook (D)
• Member of Travis Media Team group on Facebook (D)
• Assigned news story, photo, or other (M)
• 2 blog entries (M)

This week, begin thinking about yearbook coverage. Read this excellent piece from the Yearbook Connection and be prepared to present ideas to the team:

http://ybconnection.com/making-yearbook-cool-again

Assignments for Week of Aug. 31-Sept. 4

Since we got sidetracked last week trying to get things set up, we'll try some of those assignments again.

Monday: Check to make sure everyone's login is working on the online edition and the blog.
Students will submit topics for blogs. Quick review of blog writing. Blogs due Friday and are due each Friday from here on out.

Tuesday: Review of First Amendment, ethics, etc. Pretest on First Amendment.

Wednesday: Explanation of beat system. Sign up for beats. Assign first stories through beat system. Students are to upload breaking news daily from here forward, should have photos with captions, Q&As, features, etc., each Friday.

Thursday: Work on stories

Friday: upload blogs. Upload stories if ready.

Assignments for Week of Aug. 24-28

Monday: Fill out a bunch of forms and hear an overview of what you will be doing.
Tuesday: Ethics: plagiarism, fabrication of facts/quotes/stories, invasion of privacy, etc.
Wednesday: Introduction to beat system, explanation of how it will work
Thursday: Websites and online resources
Friday: Style, sign up for beats

Stuff you need to know

We aren’t just a yearbook staff or a newspaper staff. We are a working media team, and each member will be responsible for learning and putting into practice all kinds of skills: researching, reporting, writing, editing, photography, video, blogging, tweeting and social networking. The world of communication is changing, and you are a part of history.

Each grading period, after the initial training period, you will receive a planner/project sheet on which you will record the assignments you perform during that time. You will have the opportunity to choose some of your assignments and some will be mandatory for all students to complete.

Each of you will be assigned to a beat along with other members of the media team. You may be assigned to cover certain sports, certain organizations, certain departments, or the counselors and administration. Most of your assignments will revolve around your beats, but if you have a special assignment you would like to do outside that area, you are encouraged to do so.

What follows is a brief description of some of the assignments you will be doing this year:

1. 300 word stories. These are stories about people and what they do. They should have a definite beginning, middle and end. They require interviews to get information. Direct quotes are good, but are not a major part of the story as you use your own story telling skills to communicate with the reader. For some examples of great 300 word stories, go here:

http://www.sptimes.com/2005/01/28/Tampabay/After_the_sky_fell.shtml

“After the Sky Fell” by Brady Dennis is on this page, and there are links to more of his 300-word stories on the page.

2. News stories in inverted pyramid form. These are stories written with the basic facts — who, what, when, where, why and how– told in the order of importance. Direct quotes from sources are needed to give the story credibility.

3. Feature stories written in a variety of forms. These are similar to the 300-word stories, but do use more quotes, and you are not restricted to a specific length. Feature stories are about people, although you can use events, holidays, disasters, etc. as a backdrop. An example would be focusing on how a family coped during a hurricane and its aftermath.

4. Sports stories, which are a combination of the other types.

5. Photography assignments. Have camera, will shoot. We encourage you to have a camera on you at all times so you can get the unexpected pictures that make publications pop.

6. Blogging. We have a blogging section on the online edition. This is for you to post your viewpoints on a variety of subjects that your readers might find interesting.

7. Video blogging. You can be a reporter or an anchor and create a webcast to tell your story. You can shoot video of a game, a fashion show, a performance, etc., and upload it to the online edition to go with a story. The possibilities are endless.

8. Podcasting. You can create your own audio programs…use it for interviews; use it for sharing your expertise in some area; use it for sharing your opinion. Choose from our library of royalty free music to make your podcast come alive.

9. Page design and publishing. As part of the media team, you’ll be creating pages for the yearbook.

Specific instructions for each type of assignment will be presented during the training period so that you will be ready to run with them when the time comes.