AE@TL Helps to Get the Story!
AE@TL not only brings funding to Journalism and a variety of other academic programs at TL, but also fosters a long view perspective to shape enrichment for all students.
Late Spring, an Academic Excellence (AE) leadership team met with Teagan Leonhart, TL's new Journalism teacher and her student editors to discuss to the future vision for their new program. "I am looking forward to taking the wheel as leadership for this program hasn't had a consistent teacher for the past 4 years." said Ms. Leonhart. Leonhart was an editor of her high school newspaper at Drake, and she recently invited her retired teacher to inspire her students about truth in journalism and her experience with student journalists. AE was so impressed with the enthusiasm and commitment of Ms. Leonhart that we funded an opportunity for her to attend the Journalism Education Association Institute which brings journalism teachers from across the country together for a week of adviser-specific networking and networking and training in the following:
- differentiated instruction strategies
- technology in the classroom
- subject-specific professional learning community participation
- curriculum alignment to state and national standards
- essential learner outcomes in a 21st-century classroom
- media literacy, ethical journalism
- best practices in creating formative and summation assessment tools preparation and testing for Certified Journalism Educator and Master Journalism Educator status
AE@TL also provides a powerful professional network that connects our teachers and students and teachers with experiences beyond our campus to make teaching and learning more dynamic and relevant to college and career readiness.
Student editors were also excited to share with the AE team their hopes for a more developed and expansive approach to news focusing on stories that are relevant to their experience as young high school students. The Voice: Get the Story was published by in June 2018 as a new medium to dive deeper in their research and stories that relate to their perspectives and experiences. TL Journalism is currently an elective class and produces an online news site called The Voice of Troy. In addition to funding the first edition of The Voice: Get the Story 2018, Academic Excellence offered to support the program with our powerful network already leading to the planning of a future class field trip this Fall to Mother Jones, a leading progressive American magazine that focuses on news, commentary, and investigative reporting on topics including politics, the environment, human rights, and culture.
Ms. Leonhart hopes that her Journalism will develop into a more substantive curriculum program that not only fosters for our students the power of the written word, but also develops real world skills like digital art, design, and marketing that our student can take with them beyond our campus. Academic Excellence is excited to support such eager young journalists and Ms. Lionhart's new program that strives to deliver relevant objective news stories to our TL Community. AE not only brings funding to Journalism and other academic programs at TL, but also a long view perspective to enrichment and a powerful network to make learning more dynamic to better prepare our students for college and career readiness. We look forward to reading whats in the news this Fall at TL!