High school j-teachers to converge on Reno

Earlier today I tweeted I was heading to Kansas City. Some of you might have wondered why. Well, that’s because by 8 a.m. Sunday I will be on a plane heading to Reno, Nevada.

I am heading to the desert for a journalism teaching seminar put on by the American Society of News Editors with funding from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation as part of the ASNE High School Journalism Initiative (that Reynolds Foundation funding allows the seminar to be all-expenses-paid, so thanks to those wonderful folks).

It is called the Reynolds Institute, and according to its website, here’s what it’s all about:

“The Reynolds Institute is an intensive two-week journalism training program for high school teachers and staffers. Instruction is based on the core tenets of journalism and the skills needed to produce a top-notch scholastic publication on paper or online. Complete information about the 2010 Institute is here.

. . . Topics include: reporting, writing, editing, photojournalism, layout and design, opinion pages, journalistic credibility ethics and responsibilities, the future of daily newspapers and business-side skills.

First Amendment matters, privacy and the state of scholastic press freedoms are also key topics

The Institute enables and energizes a corps of teachers to:

— Help students start a campus media outlet

— Dramatically improving the quality of an existing media outlet.

— Enhance their teaching in areas that include journalism, English, social studies and civics.“

I’m pretty pumped about it. I will be there from Sunday until July 23. I will arrive back in Kansas City around 11:30 p.m.

Of course, this isn’t only taking place in Reno. Similar institutes are taking place across the country all summer.Here is a list of all the institutes and their locations:

• Arizona State University, Phoenix June 13-25
• Kent (Ohio) State University, July 11-23
• University of Missouri, Columbia, July 18-30
• University of Nevada, Reno, July 11-23
• University of Texas at Austin, June 20-July 2

In fact, here is a video of 2010-11 ASNE President Milton Coleman speaking at the Arizona State University Reynolds Institute:

It will be a long, yet educational, couple of weeks where I plan on meeting a bunch of great people. I hope to learn some cool teaching methods I can use this fall when I get my first crack at teaching journalism at Western Plains High School. Also, it’s pretty cool that I get to earn graduate-level college credits from the University of Nevada-Reno for attending and completing the course work.

Though I am armed with an itinerary of what is going to go on, I still am not sure what to expect. I’m excited to get started.

I will post about what is going on often. I will be using this blog; my Posterous site, which feeds into this one; and I will be posting on Twitter using the #reynoldsreno hashtag (I don’t know if this is the official one or if there even is one yet, but that’s the one I’ll be using and will add another if needed).

Also, there is another social networking site set up for the event. It can be found at reynoldsreno.ning.com.

Stay tuned for more about us journalism teachers in Reno. It’s going to be a great time!

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