Spread the (Written) Word

Summer’s the best time to avoid burnout. Right? Write!

Students who first enter your class probably have only a dim notion of what journalism is, but they do know somewhat more assuredly that they like to write. That’s what I find with most of the kids who fill the seats in my room. If they like writing, at registration time they look over the electives choices and see Creative Writing or Journalism and then go eeny-meeny.

That’s what happened to me as a teen. I’ve loved to write since before I could actually write. As a tot, I scribbled in imitation of the hand motions of people writing in cursive. Later on, my favorite toy was an old, clunky manual typewriter. This led me to journalism in high school. I still have this love of writing, and I know it’s important to share it with my students – not just the writing, but the LOVE of it.

Sometimes we get so bogged down in teaching or the daily slosh through life that we forget the little things that give us joy. Putting words on a page is one of those things for me. As teachers, we may assume that our students know how we feel: Well, of course I love writing! But they don’t know that. They don’t know that we want so much for them to succeed and to develop the same love we have for our subject. I believe this applies to every area of teaching. Math teachers should tell their students: I love math! Science teachers: Experiments and research make my toes tingle!

As busy adults who get long summer vacations, we teachers have the best opportunity to reconnect with the activities we love. Summer is my time to play writer again, to tappity-type on my computer keyboard and let the words that get clogged up during the school year come rolling out. It works for reading, too. Proofreading students’ stories eats up a lot of eyeball for me most of the year, but in the summer, give me a novel or three. And, I get to read my two local professional newspapers all the way through most days in the summer. What luxury!

It’s important to use the summers to keep from burning out. And then it’s equally important to make sure your students know that you’re not burned out. Tell them: I’m here because I like it, and I know you will, too.

The Fellowship of the Lead

The Reynolds Institute for high school newspaper advisers pulls together all that is journalism.

Last summer at this time I was getting ready to head to Arizona State University for the American Society of Newspaper Editors’ Reynolds Institute. Once there, I was able to bond, commiserate, learn and share with about 35 high school newspaper advisers from around the country. The generous fellowship brought us teachers together to help us not only do a better job of teaching journalism, but to help us become advocates for the incredibly important role a free press plays in our society.

We learned how to write good leads, but we also learned how to take the lead when faced with wary or unsupportive administrators – or a wary or unsupportive community. Why should we overburdened teachers fight so hard to keep a newspaper program going that only makes a bigger pile of often-thankless work for us? Because it’s right and because it’s incredibly valuable, that’s why. Because no one becomes a teacher to get rich or rule the world. People become teachers to do something altruistic – to help, to guide, to better. Oh, and having summers off is pretty good, too.

So why would a bunch of teachers give up two weeks of their much-needed summer to travel far, take classes, write papers? Maybe it goes back to the idea of being the good kind of stubborn that I mentioned in my first post. Or, maybe it relates back to the idea of fulfilling work being enjoyable. It’s probably both, along with the participants’ having that intangible quality of self-motivation.

This year I’m in the unusual position of going back to the institute as a speaker – an invitation that resulted from my MTV experience. I’ll answer questions about what it was like to be filmed for a national television program, and I’ll also talk about how I select editors each year from my perhaps-too-motivated bunch. (If you’ve seen the show, you know what I mean!)

From my end, I’m excited to meet and get to know more advisers just like me who are encountering the same struggles and joys. I’ll only be there two days this year, but that’s still enough time to make new friends and to indulge in that always-welcome feeling of fellowship.

Humor Me

You won’t want to bang your head against the wall quite so much if you remember that it’s all hysterically funny.

My preceding posts have hopefully been useful in a pragmatic, functional sort of way, but I think it’s time for a little mental health food. While we teachers have the undeniably important and mind-boggling job of cultivating young psyches in large groups, we must also keep our own psyches from fracturing to little bits. My suggestion: always remember to find the funny no matter what. The day you can’t find the funny anymore is the day you need a helmet for your head-banging date with that wall.

Teenagers will drive you insane. And I say that with the utmost affection. Some are organized; some are not. Some are loud and intimidating; some are quiet and intimidated. They will be incredibly trustworthy and reliable, except when they’re not. Or, they will always create a disaster, except when they pull it all together superbly. Yes, teenagers are people – in a moodier, bouncier version. And it is your job to produce a product – using their brainpower and muscle – for all the world to see! (Or, at least, for your little community, including the administrators who can fire you.)

I know, I know. This is sounding stressful. But really, it’s not. No one will die if your students make a mistake, and, face it, your administrator probably wouldn’t really fire you. Stop shaking your head and muttering and think about it.

So, relax a little and allow your students to know that you are human. Smile, laugh, tell them they messed something up, but it’s okay. Tell them you messed something up, but it’s okay. Don’t yell, and do keep reminding them how much fun it is to publish.

Order in pizza during deadline, play music and all sing along. Yes, gathering and reporting the news is serious business, but when one is doing fulfilling work, the experience is also rewarding and enjoyable. You have an opportunity to teach your students that the idea of work doesn’t have to create a feeling of heaviness. Accomplishing something meaningful can be fun – and life can be funny.

So, take off that crash helmet, toss your hair around in the wind a bit, release one of those long yoga-inspired exhales, raise an eyebrow and give a sideways glance at what’s going on around you. Remember why you became a teacher, and then let the funny follow you into the classroom.