LEADERSHIP
Clint Smith,
Photography Adviser
Peyton's work ethic far exceeds her peers and that of most students involved in student media endeavors. She believes that when our journalism students interact with each other they can produce a better product than if she was the only person dictating the direction of each story.
COMMUNICATION
One of the most important parts of leading a 40 member staff is undeniably communication. Instead of creating an environment that's solely deadline and work oriented, it's important to have a balance of team activities. Having a connection with your staff members allows for you to be able to decipher their strengths and weaknesses.
PUBLICATION'S PAINT WAR
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One of publication's most cherished traditions is the annual paint war that happens at the summer bootcamp. After a week of learning about what the program has in store for the new staff writers, they get to celebrate by attacking one another with colorful paint. From the laughs and temporarily dyed hair, this activity acts as an exciting intro that's full of team bonding. While in-person bootcamp had to be put on hold during the summer of 2020, Our hopes are held high that the tradition can be revived in the upcoming July.
staff writer awards
With each one of our print issues and online stories that's published, our staff members work tirelessly to ensure the final product is better than our last. In order to continue and encourage their hard work, at our final work night of the six weeks, me and my co-editor-in-chief Cate hand out certificates of appreciation to five of our stand-out students. We award these students not to make other staff members feel left out, but to remind them that we see when a person puts in the effort that goes the extra mile.
photo wall
It doesn't take long for Room 50B to feel like a second home. The inviting atmosphere makes it hard to turn away once you've been exposed. This year as editor-in-chief, I knew I wanted each of the staff members to feel like a big family. I decided to implement a photo wall that displays memories from newspaper breakfasts before school, late night editing sessions after football games, funny times in class, and many more. When someone enters the room, they always find joy in taking a look at our wall that only continues to grow.
work nights
Each six weeks, we have two publications work nights. This allows for the entire staff to come together after hours and discuss new ideas in person, or even simply have extra time to catch up on their stories. One of the two work nights is a "food work night" where at 6 p.m., we eat dinner together. This year we've had to stick with catering due to the pandemic, but in the past, we've hosted randomized potlucks, Thanksgiving meals, burger cookouts, etc. to spice things up.
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photo by Abby Elliott
THE PROCESS OF PUBLISHING
It's easy for one of our readers to view an article on Tiger Times Online without considering the lengthy process behind getting it published. From our five section editors, one copy editor, and two managing editors, it takes numerous creative minds to get to the finished product.
step 1:
MAKE YOUR TRELLO CARD
In order to received a six weeks grade for story ideas, each staff writer must follow the following guidelines. Create a card on "Trello" and add:
-summary
-ANGLE
-IMPACT/PURPOSE
-PHOTO IDEA
-DUE DATE
-MULTIMEDIA (OPTIONAL)
step 2:
GET YOUR STORY EDITED
If your story idea ends up getting assigned, it's time for you to write the story. Gather interviews if necessary, stick to you deadlines, and then tag the section editor for the story you wrote. The same day the editor is tagged, they are to suggest edits to the rough draft of the staff writer's work.
step 3:
COPY EDITS
Once the story has already been edited by a section editor, it still isn't completed quite yet. Our amazing copy editor, Phoebe Neff, is responsible for going through and revising anything that may have been missed before the story gets published. In our written pieces, every writer is required to follow the AP style format, which can be referenced in our grammatical slideshow. Our copy editor is vital when it comes to controversial stories that will need an extra set of eyes to read over the content.
step 4:
TIME FOR PUBLISHING!
After a lengthy process, it's finally time to get the story published. For Tiger Times Online, we publish through the program WordPress. After Cate or I draft the story, add in pull quotes, writers bylines, hashtags, etc., all it takes for the story to become public is for the "publish" button to be clicked.
helpful resources
For our online summer bootcamp, it was the editor in chief's responsibility to create a slideshow that not only introduced the upcoming editors so the new staff writers could see their face, but also teach them some of the basics behind writing their very first story for Tiger Times.
calendars
trello organization
This Trello board is how we organize all of our photo assignments among our 16 staff photographers. Our hardworking assignments editor, Caden Rainwater, is responsible for deciding who gets what assignment in their stack.
This board is our opinion section. The section editor, Aislyn Echols, moves stories from story ideas where they gradually make their way from being written, needs edit, copy edits, and to needs to be published.
Our print board allows for us as a staff to keep our deadlines organized and get out stories edited before they meet the indesign page. After our print paper is distributed, we publish the stories online.
This Trello board is how we organize all of our photo assignments among our 16 staff photographers. Our hardworking assignments editor, Caden Rainwater, is responsible for deciding who gets what assignment in their stack.
RESPONSIBILITIES
MORNING MEETINGS
Every Wednesday of the week, the newspaper editors meet in the publications room to discuss deadlines, our online coverage, our staff relationships, along with other relative points worth bringing up.
communication app
REMIND
One form of communication that has proven to be effective for our staff is the app Remind. While it's common for teachers from all types of courses to use this platform, it has greatly helped with planning and organizing events in newspaper, especially when you can't have everyone in the same classroom at once.
REACHING OUT
This year, I implemented a mandatory system where the editors have to reach out to at least three different staff writers before the end of the six weeks in order to receive a grade. The reasoning behind this is for the staff writer to feel a sense of worth and a boost of motivation. I never want a staff writer to find themselves stuck on something they're too afraid to speak up about. Reasons like this are why I wanted to break the boundaries of shyness or intimidating at the beginning of the year.
DIVERSITY
One of the most important values our staff members are told to follow is none other than diversity. We want to publish coverage of people from each social group, class, and culture within not only our school, but also our community. When it come's to gathering interviews, staff members are suppose to stray away from interviewing solely their friends so they step outside of their comfort zone and represent someone new within their story. In our print paper, we have a "Sound On" page where 10 random students are all asked the same question in the hallway. This helps diversify our content and break our new staff writers out of their shell. In October, we even did our in-depth over the Black Lives Matter movements. This called for interviews with the Black communities' personal experiences that discussed their battles with discrimination. True journalism should provide coverage of everyone that acts as an eye opener for society.
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Junior BobbiChrystena Hatchett peaceful holds her handmade poster at a protest on Stateline Avenue in Texarkana, Ark on May 31, 2020. Over the summer, many Texas High School students made their voices heard amidst this movement, and I'm lucky enough to have captured photos of this monumenous event.
fundraisers
In order to keep our newspaper continuously running, it's important that we use fundraisers to our advantage. Our traditional fundraiser that we do every year is our chocolate sale. Each staff member is required to sell an entire 50 piece box of chocolate by our given deadline, and the raised money goes to the production of our print paper. While 50 bars may sound like a lot considering the amount of people on staff, people can't help spending their stray one dollar bills in the halls. We've also raised large amount of money through bake sales. We make dessert menus, post them on social media, and then people call in their orders. All of the orders are delivered to the customers which is connivence for them, and for our program. We've also placed tables outside of restaurants like Texas Roadhouse to catch the attention of large dinner crowds.