My name is Brian Heyman and I just completed my second year of teaching at Pattonville High School. In addition to teaching English 10 and Journalism I, I am the adviser of the Pirate Press, the student-run newspaper. Beginning next year, I will also advise the yearbook at Pattonville, a high school with about 1,800 students in a St. Louis suburb.
I graduated from Missouri State University with a bachelor’s degree in print journalism in 2006. After working at the Springfield News-Leader as a sports reporter for almost 2 years, I returned to school for a master’s in education. I started teaching at Pattonville in 2009 and took over a struggling newspaper program.
In just my second year, we doubled the number of students on staff and transitioned from a newsmagazine to a tabloid newspaper while also launching a website.
I am very energetic about journalism and am looking forward to the Institute this summer and bringing back many ideas to my school from teachers all over the country.
Brian Heyman
Pattonville High School
Maryland Heights, Mo.
I really like your newspaper's website. I like how you've tied the yearbook into it, great cross-promotion. How often do you update the online publication? Do you have any idea how many readers visit the site?
ReplyDeleteThank you! We add new material every other Friday through a Journalism I assignment. We also post every printed article online. I added the yearbook to try and entice more visitors to the website. Right now, we get very little traffic. In the April issue of the Pirate Press we tried to increase views by having a contest but only one person entered (she won!). I would like to learn how to get students more active with the website.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone use Twitter or Facebook with their school newspaper?
Thanks for your post, Brian. I bet Diana Mitsu Klos or Aaron Manfull will have at least anecdotal information on social media and H.S. papers. Could be an interesting story.
ReplyDeleteSteve Elliott
Arizona State University
Phoenix