Tuesday, November 30, 2010

What's Happening: 11.30.10

12 Days, 58 pages: who will survive?

photo by KimNowacki, used under Creative Commons license.
 Should teachers be able to take your cell phone and scroll through your text messages? What if they think you are bullying someone? The Virginia Attorney General says that teachers have the right to take cell phones and do just that. Read the article and post your thoughts below (as a comment on THIS post). This assignment is due by 9 pm tonight.



Worknight is December 10 immediately after school until the cows come home. Well, actually, it will be after that time since cows come home at dark. So, really, it's until 9 or so.

Since we're close to a major deadline, you are expected to be in the room at lunch whenever it is open. Roll will be taken. It will be open today. 

Monday, November 29, 2010

What's Happening: 11.29.10

13 Days, 58 pages: who will survive?

Hope everyone had a restful Thanksgiving weekend. Though we had three very cold mornings, the weather was pretty good.

We will be having a staff meeting 20 minutes into the period. At that time, you are to come to the meeting area with a list of what you are responsible for on this deadline. You must be specific. It will not be enough to say "I'm doing the Underwater Basket-weaving spread." You will need to list EXACTLY what still needs to be done. If you're missing photos, you will also need captions. You need a credit line for the story. You need headlines and sub-heads. Please list every thing that YOU need to do on a piece of paper. You will turn that paper in.

Since we're close to a major deadline, you are expected to be in the room at lunch whenever it is open. Roll will be taken. It will be open today. 

There are two major international news stories brewing. Both of them had major developments yesterday. What are the two counties at the center of these stories? Get a Post-it note, put your name on the Post-it along with the names of the two countries and put it on the door behind Wojo's desk. This is an assignment.


Worknight is December 10 immediately after school until the cows come home. Well, actually, it will be after that time since cows come home at dark. So, really, it's until 9 or so.

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

What's Happening: 11.24.10

Get some work done on your pages, then get thee to the game table. Have a great holiday weekend.

Don't forget WORKNIGHT is December 10th beginning at 3:30.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

What's Happening: 11.23.10

16 Days, 58 pages. Who Will Survive?

Today: Work on your spreads, please plan on being in class at lunch working as well.


Wednesday: Get your game face on!


No School Thursday and Friday.

Monday, November 22, 2010

What's Happening: 11.22.10

17 Days, 58 pages. Who Will Survive?


Today: Work on stories, work on WASC Focus group. There were no volunteers for the WASC group, so I will be randomly selecting people.

Tuesday: Work on spreads.

Wednesday: Get your game face on!

Friday, November 19, 2010

What's Happening: 11.19.10

18 Days, 58 pages. Who Will Survive?

Welcome Mr. Alvarez to class! Wojo is at a TAH Project meeting today.

Friday: Be sure to check your email for a message from Cathie and Joyce. Reply back to them with updates on your spreads. Work on your spreads. Get those finished. If you need to get photos, get them. If you need to get your article finished, do that. Spreads should be DONE by now.

Next week is a three-day week!

Monday: Work on stories, work on WASC Focus group (volunteers to serve on this group will receive credit for professional development for the quarter. You will spend 2-4 class periods on this task. If you volunteer, you get professional development credit. If you don't and are picked anyway, it will just count as a regular assignment. Up to 8 staff members each period may volunteer.).

Thursday, November 18, 2010

What's Happening: 11.18.10

Today is the last day to vote for Rachel's film! Don't miss out on the chance to show your support. Vote Team SF at http://www.fresh-films.com. Vote often.


In class writing assignment: This is the one from yesterday that was postponed until today. Get the notes and instruction sheet. Follow the instructions.


Assignment: Due today by 9 pm. This is actually a really important story, so read it carefully. Thomas Friedman write an opinion piece for the NY Times called "Too Good to Check." In his piece he discussed the President Obama's trip to India and how much it cost. He also describes Anderson Cooper's examination of the alleged cost. Many of us heard this story and even talked about it in class (along with the coconuts being harvested so they wouldn't fall on Obama's head). Read this story carefully, then post the lesson learned from it as a comment on THIS POST. Here's the catch though, your comment cannot be more than 140 characters (it's a Tweet). Think carefully about what lesson student journalists need to take from this entire incident.



Friday: Work on your spreads. Get those finished. If you need to get photos, get them. If you need to get your article finished, do that. Spreads should be DONE by now.

Next week is a three-day week!

Monday: Work on stories, work on WASC Focus group (volunteers to serve on this group will receive credit for professional development for the quarter. You will spend 2-4 class periods on this task. If you volunteer, you get professional development credit. If you don't and are picked anyway, it will just count as a regular assignment. Up to 8 staff members each period may volunteer.).

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

What's Happening: 11.17.10

Your in-class writing assignment is being postponed until Thursday. Ceil is here today and will be working with you on staff personality types! She has a fun activity in store.

Rumor has it that there is a hallway check today for tardies AND lanyards, so get to class on time unless you want an automatic 2 hour detention. THAT MEANS YOU TERILYN CHEN, WENDY CHEN, ERINN KUEHNE, EDISON LEI AND KIMMY NY.

Please notice on the wall over by Brother 1 there is a wipe-off ladder. Check here to see which pages are completed. When the pages are finished the editors will add DONE and who completed the spread. DO NOT mark on the ladder unless you have been told to by the editors. Get pens from Wojo.

Thursday: You will have an in class writing assignment for a grade. You will be given all of the notes you need to write the story. Review the inverted pyramid. You will write the story in GoogleDocs and will print it out (double-spaced) before you leave class.

Don't let Chicago win!

There's only 3 days left. You guys cant vote tomorrow because of the in-class writing assignment. We're still down by a lot.

Translation: Start voting. Now.

ONLY 3 DAYS LEFT. PULL IT TOGETHER AND GIVE IT YOUR ALL. 3 DAYS. THEN ITS OVER. DONE. 

You guys vote like crazy during class, but that isn't enough. Do you know that it pretty much goes back down if you dont vote at home?


Voting ends on Thursday, but at 1pm. Lets turn the tables and win this thing!


Please. Really. Please. I've personally spent almost every day staying up until 2 in the morning voting. I'm asking for help with this one thing. Please, please, please help me.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

What's Happening: 9.16.10

Please notice on the wall over by Brother 1 there is a wipe-off ladder. Check here to see which pages are completed. When the pages are finished the editors will add DONE and who completed the spread. DO NOT mark on the ladder unless you have been told to by the editors. Get pens from Wojo.

It's back to working on your spreads! Ceil will be here next week so make sure you have something to show her! Class section assignments will be coming out soon!

Wednesday: You will have an in class writing assignment for a grade. You will be given all of the notes you need to write the story. Review the inverted pyramid. You will write the story in GoogleDocs and will print it out (double-spaced) before you leave class.

Don't let Chicago win!

There's only 3 days left. You guys cant vote tomorrow because of the in-class writing assignment. We're still down by a lot.

Translation: Start voting. Now.

ONLY 3 DAYS LEFT. PULL IT TOGETHER AND GIVE IT YOUR ALL. 3 DAYS. THEN ITS OVER. DONE. 

You guys vote like crazy during class, but that isn't enough. Do you know that it pretty much goes back down if you dont vote at home?


Voting ends on Thursday, but at 1pm. Lets turn the tables and win this thing!




Please. Really. Please. I've personally spent almost every day staying up until 2 in the morning voting. I'm asking for help with this one thing. Please, please, please help me.

Monday, November 15, 2010

What's Happening: 11.15.10

 It's back to working on your spreads! Ceil will be here next week so make sure you have something to show her! Class section assignments will be coming out soon!

Wednesday: You will have an in class writing assignment for a grade. You will be given all of the notes you need to write the story. Review the inverted pyramid. You will write the story in GoogleDocs and will print it out (double-spaced) before you leave class.

The Bay has the World Champions in baseball. 
Why not the World Champions in film too, Rachel asks?

Ist off, I want to thank 1st period, and all other journ and yearbookies, for their awesome support Wednesday. ;)
Makes me really happy . Seriously. Really.
Special thanks to Myron for his vote calculations and stuff on the white board. :D


You guys are voting and supporting me more than my friends are. That means A LOT to me.


I'm really proud and happy of how a lot of you guys (half of which probably dont know who I am) are supporting so much and voting. Of course, there's a "but" to this heartfelt message. D:

Despite our best efforts, we're still losing. By a lot. What does this mean? We cant win alone. Just us journ and yearbook staff members. We need to get the word out more, get more people to vote that are outside of our J-Team. The other high school kids, the middle schoolers... We need to spread the word!

And come on. We're journalism junkies! How hard can that be? We're supposed to LIVE for spreading the news.

There's only 4 more days for us to dominate Chicago. We still need about 10% to go, and thats only if Chicago wasnt voting.

This is a group effort, and thats why I'm depending on you guys. The San Fran team only has 5 people. Chicago and LA have 10 and 7. If it was a competition just between the team members, we'd lose! But its not, and we need to work harder for the "lack" of people.

Text. Post. Email. Whatever! Us voting alone wont be enough to get the numbers up. We need to get people involved!

I know I've been annoying everyone when I text and email and post stuff on Facebook and stuff. But thats because I'm one person. Think of the impact when a whole group of kids are doing this? One annoying little girl becomes a group of people looking for support.

We've all worked hard to get our votes up! And it worked! I dont want to do all this, and end up losing in the end. I dont want all of those hours voting to just go to waste.

Voting ends on the 18. Thats THIS THURSDAY! A few more days then its over! Voting and me spamming the announcements, pestering you guys to vote.

Make it easier for yourself, tell YOUR FRIENDS TO VOTE. Lets not have our efforts go to waste, guys.

So lets pull it together for just a few more days and show Chicago and LA what San Fran is made of!

:)

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

What's Happening: 11.10.10 In Which Rachel Needs Your Voting Help

Work night is tonight. Check with Cathie and Joyce to see if you need to be here. We'll start at the end of lunch and proceed until the cows come home.

Rachel Says: HELP!! SOS!! ANYONE!!

Fresh-Films.com

Okay, so voting has been going on for a while. It ends on the 18th...and guess what? SAN FRAN IS LOSING!

Everyone seemed so excited when I first posted the announcement about the competition...Where did all of that excitement run off to?

I have people coming up to me and telling me that they voted...Probably one vote. As heartfelt as that it, I have to be completely honest, is, its not enough.

 Just one. Anyone read the "UNLIMITED" part? It takes about 10 votes to go up .01%. That means it takes 100 just to go up 1%!


vote at Fresh Films!

This is war here! When you're out on the battlefield, you're not going to use one bullet to beat out your hundred-man enemy army. Are you? Hopefully not. I really hope not.

There's only one week left! Checklist ready?

- Text every single person you know. Time it so that they'll probably be on the computer when you text them.
- Email every single person you know.
- Post this (not this but something of the sort) on your Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter...any random site/page.
- Tell your friends to tell theirs. And theirs. And theirs. At and after school.


This may not be that important to you, because well, you may think you have nothing to do with it. But its super important to me. I spent a week going to and from San Fransisco on BART and the bus, and worked my butt off to make that film. I cant, we (The San Fran Team) can't win alone. We need people to support us. It'd be really cool if you guys were those "people."


When I wrote this, Team San Fran were behind by more than 10%. Think we can change it over the four-day weekend? :/

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

What's Happening: 11.9.10

Part II...TODAY: Writing workshop for all. It's time to review the inverted pyramid and get some practice with it. Those of you participating in the writing workshop will be turning in your assignment before you leave class today.

Wednesday: Photo workshop with Cathie



Worknight tomorrow beginning immediately after school until we get done or get kicked out so the custodians can go home OR until the computers go into maintenance mode, whichever comes first.



Support Rachel's Film:

Hey. Hey you. Vote. Now. Yeah. Now. Go. Vote. VOTE.

Hello. :) This is Rachel. So, voting started today for Fresh Films. The majority of you probably wont know what I'm talking about so here's the background details:

- This is part of a non-profit organization called Dreaming Tree Films.
- Fresh Films is a project where teens are chosen to make a short film in 6 days.
- Three teams where chosen. One in San Fran (Woot!), Chicago, and LA.
- At the end of the 6 days, the films made are put up for an online voting competition (this is where you people come in :D ).
- The team with the most votes at the end of NOV 18 will...uh...win? I think. >.<
- For more info on the teams and program, check out http://fresh-films.com/

So yeah, I spent 6 days making a short film (while skipping school xD) and worked my butt off, so forget LA and forget Chicago. Please support and vote for SAN FRANCISCO~ Let San Fran have more glory in addition to winning the World Series! :)

Yeah...Vote! I know I wrote that word like a million times here...Please? One a day would be really meaningful to me. D':



P.S. Did I mention you can vote as many times as you want? :P


link---------> http://fresh-films.com/ <---------link

Monday, November 8, 2010

What's Happening: 11.8.10

Read this article about including students in the yearbook.


Here's another good article from the NY Times on cheese politics. Why should you read an article on cheese politics? It's a good example of feature writing. There are other good reasons to read this piece as well. The underlying message to you, the consumer, is that we must be media critics and really examine what we're being told by organizations that claim to have our health as their top priority. Do the claims in this article surprise you?


TODAY: Writing workshop for all. It's time to review the inverted pyramid and get some practice with it. Those of you participating in the writing workshop will be turning in your assignment before you leave class today.




Support Rachel's Film:

Hey. Hey you. Vote. Now. Yeah. Now. Go. Vote. VOTE.

Hello. :) This is Rachel. So, voting started today for Fresh Films. The majority of you probably wont know what I'm talking about so here's the background details:

- This is part of a non-profit organization called Dreaming Tree Films.
- Fresh Films is a project where teens are chosen to make a short film in 6 days.
- Three teams where chosen. One in San Fran (Woot!), Chicago, and LA.
- At the end of the 6 days, the films made are put up for an online voting competition (this is where you people come in :D ).
- The team with the most votes at the end of NOV 18 will...uh...win? I think. >.<
- For more info on the teams and program, check out http://fresh-films.com/

So yeah, I spent 6 days making a short film (while skipping school xD) and worked my butt off, so forget LA and forget Chicago. Please support and vote for SAN FRANCISCO~ Let San Fran have more glory in addition to winning the World Series! :)

Yeah...Vote! I know I wrote that word like a million times here...Please? One a day would be really meaningful to me. D':



P.S. Did I mention you can vote as many times as you want? :P


link---------> http://fresh-films.com/ <---------link

Friday, November 5, 2010

What's Happening: 11.5.10

Don't forget worknight is Wednesday, November 10.

From Joyce:

For A period:
Cathie should be coming in before the period ends. She'll have the new deadline sign up sheet. There are two assignments you can pick from: spreads (you can have up to two partners) or profiles (only one person).
If you pick a spread:

  1. E-mail me what spread you chose so I can tell you all the details and what to cover, etc.
  2. Spreads are due 11.24.10 (Wednesday). Don't slack. These are really easy topics.
If you pick a profile:
  1.      Email ME (Joyce) 10 interview questions by the end of the day. No, not the next day. The same day, please! joycemargarita@gmail.com
  2.      I should send them back to you by the next day if not sooner. Start your interview as soon as I approve.
  3.  Your interviews are due Tuesday 11.9.10. They don't have to be in story form, just Q&A form. They are due TUESDAY TUESDAY TUESDAY! There is no reason for it to be given to me any day later.

By the way, staff pictures were soooo cute. Keep up the good work and remember you can always e-mail me if you need something, or leave me a post-it note on my computer. Don't forget your deadines!

Love, Joyce

Support Rachel's Film:

Hey. Hey you. Vote. Now. Yeah. Now. Go. Vote. VOTE.

Hello. :) This is Rachel. So, voting started today for Fresh Films. The majority of you probably wont know what I'm talking about so here's the background details:

- This is part of a non-profit organization called Dreaming Tree Films.
- Fresh Films is a project where teens are chosen to make a short film in 6 days.
- Three teams where chosen. One in San Fran (Woot!), Chicago, and LA.
- At the end of the 6 days, the films made are put up for an online voting competition (this is where you people come in :D ).
- The team with the most votes at the end of NOV 18 will...uh...win? I think. >.<
- For more info on the teams and program, check out http://fresh-films.com/

So yeah, I spent 6 days making a short film (while skipping school xD) and worked my butt off, so forget LA and forget Chicago. Please support and vote for SAN FRANCISCO~ Let San Fran have more glory in addition to winning the World Series! :)

Yeah...Vote! I know I wrote that word like a million times here...Please? One a day would be really meaningful to me. D':



P.S. Did I mention you can vote as many times as you want? :P


link---------> http://fresh-films.com/ <---------link

Thursday, November 4, 2010

What's Happening: 11.4.10

TODAY: A and 1st period you will be looking at the art of commenting. Three comments due by Friday night.


If you were at the parade on Wednesday, please share your photos with Arkenews.net. It would be great to post some pics from those who were there.

The Academy of Art presentation has been rescheduled to December 8. It will be during 4th lunch. If you want to attend, please use this form to sign up.

Speaking of professional development...Tuesday, November 16 a photojournalist will be at PVHS to tell you about the field of photojournalism. If you have a camera, you should bring it to the workshop. This event will be after school at 4 pm. The room number will be announced next week.

The latest CC Spin is up online. Check out our stories.

Rumor has it that you'll have a current events quiz Friday. Additional rumor says that the quiz will focus on the three stories above and the election results. Wojo started the rumor, so it's probably pretty accurate.

Don't forget worknight is Wednesday, November 10 beginning immediately after school.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

What's Happening: 11.3.10

TODAY. Professional Development opportunity. 11 am which is during 4th lunch (if you're interested let Wojo know so you can get on the excuse list). Journ/Yearbook room. The Academy of Art will be doing a presentation on their programs which include art, design, computer animation, film and more. Check it out!

In other news...that is weird...The University of South Carolina will be offering a course on Lady Gaga and all the Harry Potter fans out there (especially those in India) are responsible for the decline in the Indian owl population. And finally, to show you that we do live in rare circumstances here in the US, watch this story about the invasion of the tuktuks.


Rumor has it that you'll have a current events quiz Friday. Additional rumor says that the quiz will focus on the three stories above and the election results. Wojo started the rumor, so it's probably pretty accurate.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

What's Happening: 11.2.10

In light of our tech blackout last Friday, this article is pretty interesting. Could you give up your electronic devices for "No-Tech Tuesdays"? Leave a comment on this post. Discuss how easy (or not) it would be for you to give up electronic gadgets one day a week. This is an assignment. It is due no later than 9 pm today.

Today, seniors have a class meeting second period. who will be taking candids from yearbook? Thursday is Club Fair. Who is taking pictures for that? Put your names up on the whiteboard.


Today we will be doing goal setting for the quarter. This is an assignment. You will be putting together a portfolio to show how you have advanced toward your goals.

Monday, November 1, 2010

What's Happening: 11.1.10

Ceil is here today to collect the cover and endsheets. She has brought cookies for all!

A period, please STAY in the room for a few minutes after class. I have sent an email out to all teachers letting them know you will be a few minutes late.

Worknight is November 10. Mark your calendars now!

If you have spreads that are incomplete, you are expected to work in the room at lunch whenever the room is open. If you are finished and can help others, your assistance at lunch would be much appreciated.

On Tuesday, November 2, we will be doing an assignment in class that will take most of the period. Please do not be late to class.