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Leadership
Bonding
When I applied to be Editor-in-Chief, one of my major points that I wanted to change was an emphasis on staff bonding. In previous years, we had had trouble communicating as a collective and I knew that was due to intimidation. Younger staffers intimidated by older staffers, non-editors intimidated by editors, and it was a clear issue. My solution was to focus on coming together as friends before staffers so that communication would be fluid and there would be little to no hesitancy to reach out.
To the left is a picture of a bonding program my co-editor and I designed for the incoming sophomores to become acquainted with us and each other -- you can join staff starting sophomore year, meaning that they are the youngest staffers. In this activity, we were asking trivia questions and throwing water balloons for them to hit with a tennis racquet when they got the question wrong.
I know that the emphasis on establishing friendships first has been extremely beneficial to the significant rise in communication this year.
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However, my vision of staff bonding was slightly inhibited by COVID-19. Publication nights were moved virtually, and when my school went hybrid it was rare to gather the staff together as one. But we still put an emphasis on coming together safely. To the right is a staff picture at our end of the semester holiday party, where we socially distanced while eating snacks, and handed out paper plate awards.
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I think especially during COVID-19, when times can seem so bleak, it is important to establish newspaper as a place of refuge socially and work-wise.
Editing Feedback
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All edits are completed through Google Docs suggestions and comments. To the left is an example of the comments that I usually leave on staffers' work. ​
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This year, my school switched its main platform to Microsoft Teams, which has been a huge help in regard to staff communication. Each cycle, I will set up different group chats with writers, photographers, page designers, and anybody else included on an assignment to help streamline communication. An example of this is in the screenshot below:
Throughout the year, I would develop various presentations to show in class to teach staffers about different aspects of journalism. Many of our staffers came from a digital photography prerequisite class, with little to no experience in journalistic writing. Initially, many edits revolved around helping staffers achieve proper formatting, and as mentioned, in-class activities to support them as well. Below are two examples of presentations I have made to help staffers become more comfortable as journalists, with activities included within them.
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I also send out lesson request forms each cycle to see what staffers still need clarification on, as well as carving out times for section editors to create their own presentations in regard to their specific section to address prominent issues.
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