Foundation

Job readiness, employment among subjects addressed in new surveys of J-school grads

Marina Hendricks — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 19:33:00 GMT

A new survey of journalism and mass communications graduates shows that the level of employment rose slightly in 2010. The survey, one of four conducted regularly by the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia and funded in part by the NAA Foundation, reveals that 2010 bachelor's degree recipients reported a full-time employment level of 58.2 percent, up from 55.5 percent a year earlier.

Most of those surveyed said they had the skills upon graduation to write, edit and use still photography for the Web, as well as to adapt to the digital environment generally and use social media professionally. However, they also indicated they lacked some skill they needed for the job market, with Web skills of various types dominating the list of needed accomplishments.

Read more here about findings from the surveys.

NewsU offers free online training, 24-7-365

Marina Hendricks — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 17:14:00 GMT

If you need training but lack funds, The Poynter Institute's News University may be your one-stop destination. More than 150 free and low-cost courses are offered and accessible from your desktop or laptop. Anyone grappling with product development or change management, facing the challenge of nurturing emerging journalists, trying to reach new audiences or wanting to learn more about media literacy should check out these NAA Foundation-sponsored courses:

Managing Change: Creating Strategies, Setting Priorities

Understanding Media: Process and Principles

Targeting New Audiences: Finding Your Niche

Coaching Tomorrow's Journalists

- Sandy Woodcock

Guide offers strategies for dealing with censorship

Marina Hendricks — Wed, 25 May 2011 20:06:00 GMT

"School-enforced restrictions on coverage, demands from administrators for prior approval of stories and outright censorship of student work are everyday occurrences at many schools across the country." That statement from page 3 of "Press Freedom in Practice: A Manual for Student Media Advisers on Responding to Censorship" is as true today as it was when the guide was written for and published by the NAA Foundation.

Authored by John Bowen and Mark Goodman, the 34-page manual is filled with "advice, guidance and thoughtful discussion to those media advisers striving to find the right path." The guide features "experiences shared by many who have spent years on the front lines and ‘lived to tell the tales.' " If you are in search of "some tested techniques for overcoming censorship," download this free resource here.

- Sandy Woodcock

'New Commerce Department site serves as a hub for teaching web skills'

Sandy Woodcock — Fri, 20 May 2011 15:17:00 GMT

If you are looking for a destination website to all things digital, check out www.DigitalLiteracy.gov. From the link to the Copyright Poster Guide by the Copyright Alliance Education to the link to StopBullying.Gov For Kids, the site is a repository for digital topics. According to the Department of Commerce's May 13 press release, "In partnership with nine federal agencies, the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), created www.DigitalLiteracy.gov to provide librarians, teachers, workforce trainers, and others a central location to share digital literacy content and best practices." Check it out, there is something here to assist educators and citizens everywhere. The more you know...

'High Five' grants available for middle-school newspapers

Marina Hendricks — Fri, 13 May 2011 19:54:00 GMT

"... In this day and age it is important to maintain a school newspaper, for it is the ultimate form of global communication and without communication our students are sadly 'left behind.' " - Laura Dwyer, gifted and talented teacher, Belmont (N.H.) Middle School

In 2009, the NAA Foundation awarded Dwyer's school a $2,000 "High Five" grant. The grant enabled her to purchase technology which enhances her students' ability to "... edit, share and collaborate in an open forum similar to professional newspaper formats."

Middle-school educators wishing to offer their students the opportunity to acquire 21^st century skills while improving their writing and informing their peers should apply for the grant. Applications for the 2011 grant program can be found here.

Deadline to apply is May 20.

- Sandy Woodcock

Check out this Civil War website

Marina Hendricks — Mon, 09 May 2011 17:51:00 GMT

You might want to share this website with educators in your markets: The Civil War: 150 Years/National Park Service Sesquicentennial Commemoration. Beginning with Nov. 6, 1860, there are "Then" and "Now" posts tracking the history of the war. The site is filled with additional information on events and Civil War parks, along with a soldier search, but perhaps the coolest feature is the Twitter coverage from a "reporter."

- Sandy Woodcock

Big news, big numbers for newspapers

Marina Hendricks — Thu, 05 May 2011 16:22:00 GMT

While the nation - and the world - buzzed with news of Osama bin Laden's death, U.S. newspaper websites experienced surges in traffic. On the print side, production teams added extra editions and saw substantial bumps in single-copy sales. A new NAA report documents individual member newspapers' experiences and strategies for handling increased demand on both the print and digital sides of the business.

Meanwhile, the Newseum's daily compilation of newspaper front pages was difficult to access the day after bin Laden's death was announced. The archives now feature a collection of pages from the first three days after the announcement, as well as pages from other big news days. Teachers who use newspapers in the classroom might find this archive a valuable resource.

Serial Story Expiration Dates

Marina Hendricks — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 17:35:00 GMT

Through an agreement with HarperCollins Children's Books, the NAA Foundation has been able to provide several serial stories at no cost to NIE programs. These serials all expire on June 30, 2011. By that date, all installments must be concluded and all materials must be removed from websites.

The expiration date applies to the following serials:

"Into the Wild"

"Harlem Hellfighters: When Pride Met Courage"

"Ida B. Wells: Let the Truth Be Told"

The Poetry of Shel Silverstein

All of our serials can be accessed here.

Please note that "The Brass Bell" does not expire until Nov. 30, 2011. With chapters in both English and Spanish, it is especially appropriate for Hispanic Heritage Month.

Also available is "Robyn Reports," which has no expiration date.

States with the Smartest Kids

Sandy Woodcock — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 14:28:00 GMT

Those of us in the education business or those of us who work with folks in education well realize the enormous weight placed on standardized testing. You might find this article from The Daily Beast of interest. It offers some background on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, notes it is given every other year to students in grades 4 and 8 and then provides some insight into the test, some discussion of what factors might play into a state's performance and a ranking of states by performance. Of note is that "With 52 different school systems, NAEP testing is the only comprehensive, if imperfect, gauge for comparing how America’s children are educated." You can find the article and the state rankings at http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-01-23/states-with-smartest-kids-from-massachusetts-to-mississippi/?cid=gallerieslanding:mostpopular1

New Foundation-NewsU online training course focuses on managing change

Marina Hendricks — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 20:55:00 GMT

The NAA Foundation and NewsU at The Poynter Institute have worked together to develop several free online training courses. The latest in this series is Managing Change: Creating Strategies, Setting Priorities.

In this course, you'll learn how to think about change, analyze your own attitude toward change, set priorities and identify what should change. You'll also develop strategies for leading and coaching others. When you're done, you'll have created a roadmap for leading change in your organization. And you'll have the confidence to put your plan into action.

Like all of the Foundation-NewsU courses, "Managing Change" is a self-paced course that can be accessed at any time.

Click here for information on the Foundation's other online training opportunities.

New curriculum guide explores science with NIE activities

Marina Hendricks — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 21:44:00 GMT

"Cereal Bowl Science and Other Investigations With the Newspaper," a new NIE curriculum for upper elementary and middle-school students, is now available from the NAA Foundation.

Whether students realize it or not, they loosely apply the scientific method throughout a typical school day. From the simple act of transferring force from their hands to close a door (Newton's third law) to empowering fluid dynamics to send water through pipes to wet a toothbrush or rinse soapy hands, students benefit from scientific exploration.

Download this free guide here:

http://www.naafoundation.org/Curriculum/NIE.aspx (third item from the top)

Created by Anne Coburn-Griffis of The Lima (Ohio) News, "Cereal Bowl Science" invites teachers and parents to help students look more closely at the science behind everyday activities.

The material is divided into five modules that open with commonplace activities experienced during a school day. Each activity includes an activity that employs the scientific method steps of investigation: observe, predict, experiment, find a solution and communicate results.

The five modules are: Cereal Story (everyday physical science); Fog Delay (everyday earth science); Eye Spy (everyday life science); Tech Trek (everyday science and technology); and Get Reading, Get Recycling ... GROW! (environmental science and personal social perspective enhancement).

Each module primarily meets one branch of science taught in U.S. primary and secondary schools. Branches covered are physical science, including chemistry; earth science; science and technology; life science; and personal and social perspectives. Links to national education standards preface each module.

Three NIE lessons follow each experiment. They can be accomplished with either a print or a digital (electronic edition, website) newspaper. Each module includes a glossary of terms.

We hope your NIE teachers, parents and students will enjoy these newspaper-based science activities.

Arguments For and Against Longer School Years

Sandy Woodcock — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 16:00:00 GMT

School year length in the U.S. is the shortest of many countries, 43 days shorter than students in Japan. President Obama is a strong proponent of a longer school year believing it would increase student achievement. Poynter blogger Al Tompkins has a terrific post on the topic, sharing views both for and against adding additional days to the school calendar. Read the full post here: http://www.poynter.org/q/?id=A191495

Where's the reform in school reform?

Sandy Woodcock — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 15:40:00 GMT

Today, Sept. 7, marks the final ‘opening day' for school year 2010.

On Monday, Sept. 6, Washington Post columnist Robert J. Samuelson examined school reform efforts over the last 40 plus years and their generally disappointing results.

Samuelson notes that reforms which began in the 1960's have resulted in a one point gain in reading scores and a two point gain in math scores according to the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP). The tests began to measure reading in 1971 and math in 1973.

According to Samuelson standard theories lack an explanation for the almost non-existent progress. He does, however, call out student motivation and the lack thereof as a key culprit.

Click here to read the entire op-ed.

In the meantime remember that students identify working with newspaper content as highly engaging and there is great opportunity to capture and enhance student performance at the high school level.

We deliver tomorrow's readers and engaged citizens.

Training: Free Online Courses From the Foundation and NewsU

Marina Hendricks — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 17:45:00 GMT

The NAA Foundation and NewsU at The Poynter Institute have collaborated on three training courses that are available 24-7, free of charge. All you need is a computer with Internet access.

The most recent of these, "Understanding Media: Process and Principles," is based on a unit from the Foundation's "High Five" curriculum. It's designed to help high school students, college students and the general public to become critical media consumers, and as a result, good citizens.

"Coaching Tomorrow's Journalists" outlines a variety of ways to capture the attention of rookie reporters and shape their training. You'll learn what to say (and what not to say) when offering feedback, and you'll have access to colleagues who share your joys as well as your challenges in working with eager young journalists.

"Targeting New Audiences: Finding Your Niche" puts newspaper professionals on the product development path. You want to create a new publication for a specific audience. But how do you know if a website or a print product would be more successful? This free course helps you get to know your audience.

Access these and other Foundation courses here.

Check out our new original serial story

Marina Hendricks — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 17:49:00 GMT

“The Brass Bell,” an original free serial commissioned by the NAA Foundation, is now available in both English and Spanish.

This six-chapter story focuses on three friends and their “expedition” to find treasure. Written by Cathy Sewell of The Curriculum Closet, the serial comes with matching illustrations and a teacher’s guide.

It is designed to launch in conjunction with International Literacy Day (Sept. 8) and Hispanic Heritage Month (Sept. 15-Oct. 15), but can be used anytime between now and Nov. 30, 2011.