CLASSROOM RULES:

Five basic behavior expectations:

  1. Use respectful behavior when interacting with everyone
  2. Be on time!
  3. Work cooperatively
  4. Respect the classroom
  5. Comply with all expectations and procedures in the online manual.

CLASSROOM EXPECTATIONS:

  • Be on time and in assigned seat when the bell rings
  • Be here every day and then some
  • Refrain from eating and drinking near any electronic equipment
  • Be honest
  • Refrain from side conversations when others are speaking
  • Raise hand with comments or questions
  • Work hard and meet deadlines
  • Act maturely when on assignment and wear a pass
  • Ask before leaving the room
  • Seek help when needed
  • Bring all needed materials to class daily
  • Never remove equipment from the classroom without teacher permission
  • Bring a positive attitude to class
  • Represent the school in an appropriate manner
  • Communicate and Collaborate

CLASSROOM PROCEDURES:

Daily Updates:

  • Every day we will have a staff meeting for the first five minutes of class with the following agenda.
  1. Announcements
  2. Problems and Concerns
  3. Open Floor (allow any staffer or editor to ask questions or make suggesting to the entire group)
  • After the staff meeting each mini-staff team will meet with together with the following agenda
  1. Announcements
  2. Progress Check
  3. Problems & Concerns
  4. Open Floor (allow any staffer or editor to ask questions or make suggesting to the entire group)

Phone Etiquette:

  • The newspaper phone is for business calls only.  Do not make personal phone calls.          
  • Do not use your cell phones in class.    
  • Answer the phone with proper etiquette.  “Newspaper Room, this is _____ speaking, How can I help you?” 
  • WRITE DOWN ALL MESSAGES in the message book.

Signing Out:

  • Students will receive a newspaper approved press pass during the first week of school that will not be replaced if lost or stolen.
  • Do not leave the room unless you are wearing your press pass.
  • Ask Mrs. Falkowski’s permission to leave the room.
  • Move your magnet to the proper position and sign out in the sign out book. 
  • No more than 6 students will be allowed to leave the room at a time. 
  • You must return before the last 10 minutes of class
  • When you return, move your magnet to the IN position and sign in in the sign out book.
  • You may not sign out during the first 5 minutes or the last 10 minutes of class.
  • Conduct yourself appropriately and with dignity when you leave the room. You are a representative of newspaper and your behavior reflects on me. You will lose all pass privileges if you act inappropriately (i.e. - misbehave in the hallway, cut class, take students out of class unnecessarily, use your press pass to get into events you are not covering, etc.)

Other Passes:

  • Newspaper is not the time for your personal errands.  I will not allow you to go to any class for any other reason besides newspaper. 
  • I will NOT write late passes for any students.  NO MATTER WHAT.
  • Newspaper is not an excuse to get out of other classes.  You cannot miss another class for newspaper without prior consent and approval from that teacher.  Permission must be granted at least one class period in advance.  Students may not interrupt class to ask the teacher’s permission.
  • If you need to cover an in school event that requires you to miss class, you must fill out the proper In-School Assignment Absence Form

Desktop Computers:

  • The following procedures apply to the computers
  • Each editor and staffer will be assigned to a computer, which they will be 100% responsible for. 
  • Students that are not on newspaper are not allowed on the computers.
  • There is NO eating or drinking at the computers. 
  • Only documents that are related to publishing the school newspaper are allowed to be printed on the classroom printer. Students ARE NOT allowed to print work for another class on the classroom printer. 
  • The computers are to be used for newspaper related assignments only.  The school adopted usage contract is to be followed.  No surfing or playing games.
  • SEE BCPS Technology Usage

Checking Out Equipment:

  • Newspaper equipment may not be removed from the classroom without being checked out.
  • All camera parts - body, lenses, flash, memory card, bag, etc. must be scanned out and scanned back in. Do not remove memory cards from cameras EVER.
  • Students are responsible for the care of equipment that is checked out to them and responsible for any repairs that need to be made if the equipment is damaged in any way. 

Dismissal:

  • Store work in progress and tools in appropriate area.  Do not leave materials out when you finish working.  If any materials are left out at the end of class, will be thrown away. 
  • Do not leave your books, folders, or binders for other classes in my room.  I AM NOT YOUR LOCKER and I will not hold onto these items.
  • Students who fail to return newspaper equipment to the designated area at the end of class will not be allowed to use the equipment.  
  • Do not remove newspaper materials from the room. Place them in their designated places. 
  • I dismiss you, not the bell.

Editor Meetings:

  • Editors will meet daily before school

After School Hours

  • Students are required to stay a minimum of one hour per week after school. When on a print deadline, students are expected to attend after school work sessions, as needed until their work has been final approved. 

“3 STRIKES YOU’RE OUT!” POLICY:

Being on the newspaper staff is a privilege. If the above rules and procedures are violated, you will receive one strike, accompanied by a parent phone call.  Depending on the severity of the offense, a detention or referral may also be issued.  If you earn 3 strikes in the first semester you will automatically be dropped from the class.  NO EXCUSES OR EXCEPTIONS! 

Strikes may also be earned by:

  • Missing deadlines
  • Missing a training session
  • Missing a scheduled meeting
  • Inappropriate behavior and language
  • Failure to comply with classroom rules or expectations
  • Failure to comply with school rules or expectations
  • Inappropriate photos or text in pages (this can earn you all three strikes at once!)
  • Missing 3 homework assignments or earning an “F” at interim

 ATTENDANCE/MISSING DEADLINES:

  • There are no excuses for missing a deadline – no matter how small a deadline may seem.  
  • Please be aware that our deadlines are based on agreements with our advertisers and our publisher and have nothing to do with the school calendar.  Your work may be due in the middle of midterms or on the same day that you have tests in three other classes. 
  • Completing deadlines will require after school hours. 
  • If you are not going to be in school, it is your responsibility to communicate with an editor or Mrs. Falkowski on the status of any outstanding assignments.  

BONUS POINTS:

Bonus points will be given to those students who work above and beyond the call of duty, who stay after school to help others even when their work is done, who volunteer for extra assignments, or who take extra pictures just because. 

REQUIRED ACCOUNTS

Every student in newspaper must have certain accounts in order to complete his or her assignments. You will need a Google and a Trello Account in order to turn in your assignments. You will need to create an account on MSDVirtual.com/classroom to access the staff manual. You will also need an account on our online news website, EagleEye.news. The EagleEye.news accounts have already been created for you and the usernames and passwords will be provided for you. You will also need to sign up for the newspaper Remind Account. You will utilize gmail, Google Docs, Trello, MSDVirtual.com, and EagleEye.news for your newspaper assignments. 

Remind – Remind will be used to text you important newspaper reminders. 

Google Docs - We do not print copy in newspaper.  All copy is turned in via Google Docs or EagleEye.news.  You will create documents online using Google and share them with your editors and myself to receive grades in this class.

Trello – Trello is online project management software that should be connected to your Google Account. It is how we will track every page and project that we will complete for the newspaper. For our print edition, it is how you will turn in your stories. 

MSD Virtual - MSD Virtual house our staff manual, as well as training materials. If you don't know how to do something or you want to try out a practice assignment, this is where you should go. 

EagleEye.news - This is our online news site, where we publish online stories. In order to submit online stories for publishing, you will have to turn them in here. 

HONORS CRITERIA:

Every student has the opportunity to earn an honors credit for this course.  However, it is not a guarantee.  Additional expectations come along with the Honors Credit.  The following list of requirements must be met in order to earn the honors credit:

  • Students who are assigned as Editors earn the Honors credit for their additional responsibilities if they complete ALL of their assigned responsibilities and attend the required workshops
  • Students who are not assigned as Editors or Managers must meet the following criteria:
  • Attend a journalism workshops - local FSPA Districts – October 19
  • Meet ad Quota - $120 in business advertisements per issue 
  • Attend class
  • Meet ALL Deadlines
  • Work Consistently

MONEY:

  • The business aspect of this class will require you to work with money. 
  •  Each staffer is responsible for learning how to fill out a receipt book and receipt envelope correctly (taught in class).  On a sale day, there will be a pre-determined number of stations.  
  • Each station will have an assigned money box or envelope and an assigned receipt book.  For every shift that a staffer works, he or she must be able to balance out the money collected and compare that to the record.  For example, if the receipt book shows that you should have $300 dollars, then there should be $300 in the collection.  
  • If the money collected does not agree with the record, the students working the station must make up the difference.  
  • Balancing your record at every change of shift is imperative.  The earlier a mistake is found, the faster we can fix it. 

Economic Goals:

It costs $3,800 per issue to print the Eagle Eye Newsmagazine. It costs about $400 per year to maintain our online news website. 

#1 Sell enough ads to support printing 5 issues - one per quarter and a special senior issue  

#2 Sell 900 agendas at the beginning of the school year to help cover costs for new equipment

#3 Have at least one candy sale to help cover costs for new equipment and journalism convention expenses.

#4 To conduct other fundraising as necessary.

We want to be able to attend out of area conventions this year and we want to buy new equipment for newspaer, like digital cameras.  Without money we can’t do these things.  

THE FUTURE OF JOURNALISM

In this class you will become what the journalism industry is calling a one-man-band. Future journalists are expected to know how to do it all from writing a story to creating multimedia content, like video. You will learn how to write, take pictures, design, and create multimedia for the newspaper and our news website.  

Myth of the Guaranteed A

Newspaper is not a guaranteed A. Students are expected to produce quality work on time, which will be evaluated based on a set rubric. Many students earn B’s in this class and some earn C’s and D’s. If you want an A, you will have to earn it.

JOURNALISM ETHICS/RESPONSIBILITIES

Students are expected to maintain journalistic integrity and follow journalism ethics. Please see the 

Failure to follow journalistic ethics could lead to the following

  • A zero for an assignment
  • Temporary probationary status on staff
  • Removal from staff

Abusing Staff/Editor Position:

  • When students leave the classroom, they represent the staff as a whole. Students are not to abuse their position as a staffer or an editor. 
  • The following behaviors are unacceptable and are grounds for disciplinary actions and potential removal from the staff: skipping class to be in newspaper, skipping newspaper class, taking students out of class without a reason and using your press pass to get into events for free when not on an official assignment.

Last modified: Saturday, April 29, 2017, 1:13 PM