The second day of the American Society of News Editors Reynolds Institute was a good one.
Before I get into it, though, I must appologize. I don’t have my photos ready yet. I will get to them soon, however, because I bit the bullet and purchased wireless Internet here at the Silver Legacy Resort and Casino.
Anyway, today we spent a lot of time in the classroom. We heard from Dori J. Maynard, the president of the Maynard Institute, which helps “the nation’s news media reflect America’s diversity in staffing, content and business operations,” according to the website.
Dori is the daughter of Robert C. Maynard, who was a notable journalist whose focus was community involvement and helping expand “opportunities for minority journalists at the nation’s newspapers,” according to the website.
Dori talked to us about perspectives. She told us how to look at different situations from different perspectives people have based on race, class, gender, generation and geography.
These are called “fault lines.” If you want to know more about them, check out this link: http://www.mije.org/faultlines.
It was very interesting and something I hadn’t really ever considered.
Then we heard from Karl Grubaugh. He is the adviser of the Granite Bay High School Gazette in Granite Bay, Calif.
His paper is huge. It comes out almost monthly and has several sections. It is so thick, it looks like a community newspaper, not a student newspaper.
Grubaugh talked to us about how to run a student newspaper, including among other things how to have a staff manual and deal with advertising, sensitive story subjects and grading.
He gave me great ideas I hope to incorporate in my own classroom.
The best part of the day, though, was after class was over. See, between our two stellar speakers, we broke up into groups to decide what kinds of content we will produce for the online publication all of us Reynolds Institute participants are going to produce over the course of these two weeks.
I joined the Sports Department, and we came up with a bunch of ideas, one of which was betting on sporting events.
So when we got back to the casino, we went down to the Sports Book, where people can place bets on sporting events.
I found a guy sitting there, and I pulled up a chair and started talking to him.
I came away with a great story about this guy, centering on his betting on tonight’s Major League Baseball All-Star Game.
I’d share more about him, but I want to publish the story on our online publication first. Once we do, though, I will post it here too.
It is a great story. I’m so stoked to see it published.
Now I can’t wait for tomorrow. It is going to be a great day!
