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Pre-convention Workshops

Leadership: Building a Successful Staff Culture  |  $40  |  NEW

8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Limit 75.

Your publication is up and running. Now it’s time to refine your leadership skills and put into practice the best methods for growing staffers, mediating conflict, and creating a culture of excellence. 

In this workshop led by Annie Gorenstein Falkenberg, CJE, adviser at Longmont (Colorado) High School  and Carrie Faust, MJE, adviser at Smoky Hill High School, Aurora, Colorado, participants will explore leadership styles and strategies, feedback protocols, motivating staffers, and managing workflow. You will leave this class with the tools you need to create communication pathways, an understanding of who you are as a leader and how that interacts with others’ styles, and strategies to grow your staff with positive and productive feedback.

Art Direction & Conceptual Thinking  |  $40 

8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Limit 60.

Love those amazing cover images for the New York Times Magazine, Wired, Rolling Stone and Time? This hands-on workshop will help you to become a strong art director. 

You’ll develop skills with visual metaphor, wordsmithing and conceptual thinking. You’ll learn tools for brainstorming, collaborating, innovating and creating a marriage of words, illustration and photography across platforms — everything you need to inspire award-winning storytelling. 

This workshop is led by Sara Quinn, a past president of the Society of News Design, now on the faculty at the University of Minnesota, and award-winning designer Amy DeVault, MJE, Wichita (Kansas) State University.

Video Storytelling Workshop
with “PBS NewsHour” Student Reporting Labs
NEW  |  $40

8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Limit 30.

Jump start your video storytelling skills with “PBS NewsHour” Student Reporting Labs. From essential camera and audio basics to lighting, interviewing and editing, join director Elis Estrada and producers Victor Fernandez, Briget Ganske, Marie Cusick and Rawan Elbaba from SRL’s national youth journalism program for a hands-on workshop to learn best practices for video that will get you well on your way to producing high-quality digital and broadcast news packages. 

Working in groups, you will be given practical tools to understand story structure that is driven by strong characters, emotion, compelling visuals and natural sound. You will walk away with original content that you can immediately take back to your school’s newsroom. 

SRL reaches thousands of teachers and students every year through its original youth journalism program, which connects young people to public media stations and mentors across the country. 

Team Storytelling  |  $40    

8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Limit 70.

Great storytelling combines good writing, good photos and good design. Behind it all is good planning. 

In this team-based reporting experience, taught by Emily Smith, CJE, of Pittsburg (Kansas) High School and J.D. Garber, CJE, of Salina (Kansas) Central High School, students will work in groups of three to create real story packages. 

The workshop begins with instruction on planning packages with readers in mind, and then the students will go off-site to gather stories. Students will return to the convention site to finish their packages. 

Schools should register students in teams of three, preferably a writer, designer and photographer, though certainly the students can each practice all these skills. At least one student needs InDesign skills, as the students will design their packages. 

Students will need to bring any equipment they might need (cameras, laptops and card readers). Students can create content for print, broadcast or web, and the workshop is recommended for experienced student journalists. 

An off-site permission form is required for each student attending this workshop.

Writers’ Workshop  |  $40

8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Limit 70.

If you’re looking for ways to sharpen and brighten your writing so others will clamor to read it, this interactive workshop is for you. 

This seminar, led by Shari Adwers, MJE, of Loudoun Valley High School, Purcellville, Virginia, will entertain and inspire as we analyze excellent writing and apply the pros’ techniques to your work. 

Whether you need to write a catchy headline or a 2,000-word feature, you’ll learn to improve every aspect of your writing as we discuss leads, voice, narrative style and literary devices to tighten and strengthen your writing. 

Broadcast and Video Boot Camp  |  $40

8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Limit 40.

In this hands-on workshop, beginning and intermediate students will learn the fundamentals of creating an effective news package from the ground up. 

This includes videography, sound recording, editing and story structure. Working in small teams, participants will spend the morning developing their videography skills and planning a story, and the afternoon shooting and editing that story. 

The instructor will be 2014 Broadcast Adviser of the Year Michael Hernandez, of Mira Costa High School, Manhattan Beach, California. 

Participants must bring their own video cameras, tripods, microphones and laptops with editing software. Please test and become familiar with your equipment before attending the session, as the presenters may not be familiar with your specific hardware/software. 

An off-site permission form is required for each student attending this workshop.

Online/Social Media Boot Camp  |  $40

8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Limit 40.

Are you overwhelmed with the thought of managing a website, a social media presence, multimedia posts, and even live coverage online? 

This workshop, led by Chris Waugaman, MJE, of Prince George (Virginia) High School, will cover online storytelling using Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram and the many third-party social media platforms in addition to incorporating video and audio content into your WordPress site. Your online team will leave with a plan to execute online storytelling with best practices in social media, multimedia posts, and live coverage. 

Participants may want to have login and password data available to use from their own site. All participants must bring either a laptop or tablet device.  

Digital Photography Workshop  |  $40 

8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Limit 70.

Designed for photographers who have at least one year’s experience shooting for their publications, this intensive workshop will cover composition, lighting, cropping and camera technique. 

Participants will receive instruction and go off- site on assignment with Jed Palmer, CJE, adviser of the Eagle Eye View yearbook and the Summit newspaper, Parker, Colorado, and Michael Simons, MJE, of Corning-Painted Post High School, Corning, New York. 

Following the photo shoot, the instructors will critique students’ work and offer editing tips and techniques. 

Participants must bring a digital camera, and they are encouraged to bring a laptop computer with the photo-editing program (Photoshop, Lightroom) they will use. 

An off-site permission form is required for each student attending this workshop.

Redesign Seminar  |  $40

8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Limit 40.

During this intensive, hands-on, one-day design seminar, newspaper, newsmagazine and yearbook students will actually redesign elements of their publications.

Led by Pete LeBlanc, CJE, Antelope (California) High School, students will study advanced packaging techniques, including modular design, typography, marriage of elements, negative space and photo packaging. 

Students need to bring some of their favorite magazines. Students also are required to bring the most current version of their publication and to have a laptop computer with a working version of InDesign.

Photoshop Workflow  |  $25     

8:30 a.m.-noon. Limit 40.

Taught by Mark Murray, Santa Fe, New Mexico, participants will learn to use Adobe Photoshop. This workshop will emphasize a basic workflow for preparing photographs for publication. 

Some laptops will be available; however, participants may bring their own laptops with Adobe Photoshop CS6 or later installed. Two students may share one laptop. 

This session is open to both students and advisers.

Advanced InDesign  |  $25     

1-5 p.m. Limit 40.

Take your design skills to the next level with this seminar that will show you how to use the power of InDesign to streamline your publication production. 

Bradley Wilson, MJE, Midwestern State University, Wichita Falls, Texas, will cover libraries, styles and other InDesign tricks. 

Some laptops will be available for participants; however, if you bring your own laptop please have Adobe InDesign CS6 or later installed. Two students may share one laptop. 

Beyond the Book: Creating a Legacy for All Students  |  NEW  |  FREE

1-4 p.m. Limit 55.

Come to this workshop to learn that being an effective leader is about more than developing media content, writing articles or producing yearbooks. It is about creating an experience that will live on in the hearts and minds of others. 

We will work to understand the importance of your leadership position and how to use student-centered strategies to improve campus culture. 

Sponsored by Lifetouch and with JC Pohl, Teen Truth’s co-founder and former Disney producer as host, this workshop promises to be a game-changing event as we work to take your message and your legacy … beyond the book.