It’s a big week in scholastic journalism! It’s award season!
🎉 BIG CONGRATS 🎉
to all the publication staffs, editors, and advisers named as finalists!
Click below to view the finalists.
Awards are super exciting and a wonderful validation for all the hard work that student journalists do, BUT…
When talking about awards, I think it’s always important to include a disclaimer:
What we do is NOT about the awards.
It can be super intimidating to look at these award-winning books and wonder how they do it, how kids are creating these publications, and doubt that you’ll ever get to “that level.”
Please know, and make sure your kids know, that awards are a nice perk on top of producing a high-quality, journalistically-sound student publication. They serve as great example, encourage creativity, and celebrate staffs who are creating excellent publications.
Winning or not winning does not mean that the work happening in your classroom is any more or less important, valuable, or needed.
If you are new to the journalism advising world or just haven’t dabbled into submitting for awards yet, I encourage you to first look at getting your publication critiqued.
I know, I know – submitting for a critique can be super scary, and you may feel like you’re not “ready.” Getting negative feedback can be crushing – but only if you let it. It gives you a goalpost. It gives you external perspective. It allows you to see the publication’s strengths and areas of growth. Using the critique and showing your staff exemplar publications can help you create a roadmap for improvement. Critiques provide specific standards for your publication and working towards them produces a better product for your community.
I know, I know – submitting for a critique can be super scary, and you may feel like you’re not “ready.” Getting negative feedback can be crushing – but only if you let it. It gives you a goalpost. It gives you external perspective. It allows you to see the publication’s strengths and areas of growth. Using the critique and showing your staff exemplar publications can help you create a roadmap for improvement. Critiques provide specific standards for your publication and working towards them produces a better product for your community.
You can find the NSPA publication guidebooks in their online store.
The CSPA fundamentals are available on their website here.
