Spicewood Elementary School heads for the presses

SPICEWOOD — The next Wall Street Journal reporter or “60 Minutes” correspondent might just be a Spicewood Elementary School graduate.

The campus is in the process of launching a student-operated, teacher-supervised newspaper. The new club held its first operational meeting Thursday with students brainstorming story ideas, developing comics and finding ways to fund the print project.

“I really like to interview people to get their point of view,” fifth-grader Makaa Copeland said. 

The after-school club crammed into the campus’ Challenge Lab class with 21 students. Sponsor Jamie Horn said there were several students who couldn’t attend the first meeting.

“When we sent out the note asking if there were any students interested in working on the newspaper, we weren’t sure what to expect,” she said. “But the turnout has been amazing.”

The newspaper was the brainchild of Sonya Smith. The third-grade teacher’s previous school had a student paper and she thought it would be a good idea to start one at the Spicewood campus.

Challenge Lab teacher Lee Ann Harkins said a benefit of the newspaper project is that students tie what they learn in class to a real-world application. Instead of just hearing a teacher explain why something is done a certain way, such as grammar or spelling, the students apply the rules or lessons to a real product so they understand the reasoning, she said.

“This also allows them to express themselves in ways they might not get to in class,” Harkins said.

That’s one of the reasons fifth-grader Chloe Castro joined the newspaper staff.

“It gives me a place where I can share my stories with other people,” she said.

The topics tackled by the students are as varied as the children themselves. That’s another positive aspect of the project, Horn said. 

“They have more opportunities to write about or cover things they are interested in,” she said.

Fifth-grader Kayley Neal found the newspaper a great opportunity to explore her enjoyment of travel and art.

“Right now I’m working on a review about an art festival I went to,” she said. “I joined the paper because I like to travel and write about what I saw and how I felt. Plus, I like to take pictures.”

As students sat around tables — broken into the newspaper sections such as entertainment, lifestyle and news — they discuss story ideas and how to cover them. The news department members talk about who they will interview for a particular piece. Over at the lifestyle table, Summer Riley and Halee Hodge discuss recipes they want to include in their section of the paper. 

Horn talks to the students about where to get their information and how to go about locating sources.

“You want to find a primary source,” she said. “So, who did you get the original recipe from?”

Along with the stories, students will also tackle the layout and design.

The newspaper doesn’t have an school-supported budget because it is part of a club, so the sponsors are working on ways cover costs. One way is through an advertising. Horn said the staff is developing a “shoutout” portion where students, staff and parents can purchase space to make an announcement such as birthday wishes.

As for the publication of the first edition, Horn said it would likely be in late January. The sponsors said they weren’t sure how many times the newspaper would come out, but eventually would like to see it at least monthly.

“Right now we’re stilling figuring things out,” Horn said. 

daniel@thepicayune.com

Photo by Daniel Clifton