Customer Reviews

School Newspaper Adviser's Survival Guide

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Having been a high school newspaper adviser (notice, "adviser" and not "advisor"?) for 8 years, I am like the other reviewer who wishes this book would have been available much earlier. As it is, my first year of teaching in 1993 included four preps: English 10 Honors, English 9, newspaper, and yearbook. (Anybody want to say "Year of Insanity"?) While I did survive, I struggled that year because the resources for publication advisers are very few. Starting almost from scratch and given very little in support, I ended up putting together my own bound journalism resource book, which is similar in many ways to Osborn's work. But the "Survival Guide" I bought last year is still worthwhile for me to have on hand because it has a number of "cool" sheets that can be photocopied. (Kudos for the wire spine that make turning pages and laying them on the photocopier simple!) Only those who have advised high school publications can fully appreciate the words of wisdom Osborn has because she has obviously been there, done that. Every principal should order a copy for the school's journalism teacher. I certainly plan on utilizing mine in the years to come.

Both the new and the seasoned newspaper adviser will benefit from this book. It is full of tips and advice to help journalism teachers to both monitor and challenge their students. The workshop units are well designed to teach beginning journalism students new concepts and allow advanced students to sharpen their skills. The format lends itself to easy incorporation into lesson plans and reviews. A sample style book is included which can be adopted and personalized for any high school. I only wish I had ordered this book earlier.

It might be because I am teaching middle school journalism but I found the worksheets in this book to be pretty high end. Although I do recomend the book for survival I would recomend Judith Ann Isaacs books on Secondary School Journalism if you want to excell. The only problem is this other book is really hard to find.

I teach English and supervise my high school's publications in addition to teaching journalism, so I'm very busy with lesson plans. The school-issued journalism text is terrible, and despite my 15 years as a working journalist it was getting tiresome composing my own tests, quizzes and lessons. This book does it all for you, and does it well. You can literally photocopy pages and use tham as lesson plans and quizzes. It's made my life much easier, and it really provides the students with a good overview of how journalism works.

Last year I started our high school journalism program and was terrified! It had been so long since I had been on a staff myself. This book refreshed me and gave me tons of ideas for my class. It also helped me figure out how to structure teaching them what I knew! A very big help!!

I find this book useful, however it is missing one important item, all of the forms need to be put on a CD that accompanies the book. There is lots of good information throughout the book.

As project manager for a new magazine by the school of business, I find the book especially useful to set-up item completion time-lines and structure multiple tasks for better coordination with our editor in chief.
[Graduate Teaching Assistant]