My name is Jane Bannester and I’m a teacher at Ritenour High School in St. Louis, Missouri. On Aug. 9, 2014, Michael Brown Jr., an 18-year-old black man, was fatally shot by 28-year-old white police officer Darren Wilson in the city of Ferguson, a suburb of St. Louis. It happened on a Saturday. Our school began its first day of a new school year that Monday. Ritenour High School was in the circle of protests that ran several weeks. It is only 13 miles from Ferguson, separated by an airport. At...
Presidential election years present ample opportunities for lessons in media literacy; depending on your outlook and your class dynamics, this is either exhilarating or terrifying. Either way, it’s necessary for us to play a role in helping students navigate the overwhelming messages that surround them. As I have written about in the past, I’ve found rooting my media literacy lessons in classic rhetorical analysis has been the most successful in eliciting meaningful class discussions....
To thrive and not just simply survive in a digital society, media literacy is a must. People of all ages need to be able to digest and analyze vast amounts of information from various sources. It is critical educators help students effectively create, access, analyze, and evaluate messages in a variety of forms. This resource list can help teachers help their students navigate this process. The National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE)--which boasts free membership--has resources,...
This spring, school doors closed and students stayed home due to COVID-19. Teachers and administrators were incredibly creative in finding ways to reach students and continue their education. In my district, we were lucky. We already had 1:1 Mac laptops for high school students and iPads for K-8 students. Tech-savvy students and teachers are the norm. Many courses are already offered online. Often, I counted my blessings when hearing about the challenges faced across the world to continue education. But eLearning was another beast. I know there’s a lot of terms thrown about these days: online learning, eLearning, and distance learning. Some schools even resorted to packets of...
Choosing winners for the fourth annual SchoolJournalism.org First Amendment Matters PSA contest was not an easy task. Even with the challenges presented by school closures due to COVID-19, we received more entries than ever before. Entries needed to follow the contest specifications that included, but were not limited to: following copyright laws, meeting the time requirement, video on a Vimeo or YouTube platform, and fully addressing the First Amendment. Entries went through three rounds of judging and now the results are in. Our sponsors are excited to honor the winners. Prize sponsors include: the East Central College, Union, Mo., Journalism Program, the Academy of Scholastic Broadcasting,...
As many schools and districts move to an e-learning format, this leaves production-based classes without their studios, equipment, and software. This doesn’t mean learning stops. The key is to give students options. Continue telling stories Of course, we want students to report the events around them. They can do this on their devices and post to their social media accounts. They can edit on their phones or online using software like WeVideo. A student can tag the teacher in all of his or her posts for their grade. In an ideal world, our students will want to continue producing. However, not all students have the same drive or family support. This is where flexibility and other...
Multiple surveys and studies have shown that Americans remain unaware of the five freedoms the First Amendment guarantees. When more Americans can name characters from an...
MIPA is a state organization working in association with the Missouri School of Journalism; Journalism Educators Association, JEA; and the National Scholastic Press Association,...
January 14, 2017
