May May 2017
www.MoonValleyTattler.com
Extra! Extra! Moon Valley Tattler partners with local Journalism students at MsjH Meet the Press of Mountain Sky Journalism B Y H A N N A H C O L L I E R & TAY L O R J O N E S Mountain Sky has added a new elective opportunity for students. Journalism is offered to both 7th and 8th graders and teaches students to create, design and produce Mountain Sky’s yearbook and student newspaper, The Talon. This year’s inaugural group was composed of 26 students that worked with Mrs. Davis over the duration of the entire school year. The Talon Newspaper’s primary function is to provide students with the opportunity to create and publish various articles ranging in content from athletics, the arts, movie/ book reviews and creative writing. However, all Mountain Sky students are encouraged to participate as freelance journalists. Anyone is able to submit writing and/or pictures to be utilized in each edition. It is the responsibility of Journalism students to not only write the articles, but also to build the various pages of the newspaper for print. The Talon Newspaper has become a highlight of each academic quarter, as students eagerly anticipate its creation and distribution. There is an air of excitement for students to not only have their items published, but also to share them with peers. The yearbook is another product of Journalism. Students spend the school year ensuring that they captured digital still and video memories of as many Mountain Sky events, sports, clubs, and activities as possible to include in the yearbook. After the students collect the pictures and videos needed, they are instructed on how to build yearbook pages. Students are taught the art of design and how to embed the theme of the yearbook into their pages. Students are given freedom to be as creative as possible, while meeting all expectations set forth by the class. Journalism students select and design every aspect of the yearbook including the theme, colors, fonts, page structures, designs, pictures, and videos. This year over 30 videos were included throughout the book. Journalism is also starting and plans to continue a co-op with the Moon Valley Tattler, providing students with the opportunity to not only publish their work in additional sources, but to work with the Editor and Designer of The Tattler. Additionally, Journalism students will also have the chance to work with the Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism. This partnership will bring opportunities for students to learn more about online and media portions of Journalism. Mrs. Davis hopes to expand on an idea generated and being created by this year’s Journalism class, The Wingspan. This will be an online news source dedicated to providing all the news from Mountain Sky from wing tip to wing tip. Journalism students are also exposed to grant writing. This year’s class was successful in securing funding for a chromebook project that they posted through DonorsChoose.org. The project was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and inspired students to develop and post additional ideas. Projects can be found at https://www.donorschoose.org/ annadavis. With the first year coming to a close, Mrs. Davis looks forward to continuing the development of the program and furthering the working relationships with The Tattler and ASU to benefit the students of Mountain Sky. Next year, Mrs. Davis hopes to expand Journalism to be a semester class, allowing more students the chance to join and contribute to the school Journalism students having a staff meeting to discuss the yearbook Journalism students having a staff meeting to discuss the yearbook newspaper and yearbook. Please feel free to contact Mrs. Davis at anna.davis@wesdschools.org if you have any ideas, suggestions or if you would like to volunteer to help Mountain Sky’s Journalism class.
VOL 37 No. 5
The 2016 SAP Social Innovation Series…the Search for the Next Teen Innovator is On! BY MICHELLE CLINE This fall, SAP and GENYOUth invited students from across the country to develop and pitch their BIG ideas to improve health and wellness in their schools. At each event, judges selected ten winning projects to win $1,000 grants to help turn their ideas into reality! 12 finalists were selected (two winning students from each event) and competed for votes in the Teen Innovator contest! Nathan Cline and Brandon Schwartz, 8th graders at Mountain Sky Jr High, were one of twelve finalists selected during the nationwide competition and won a $1,000 grant to help implement their idea, ‘Cookin’ With Class’. They proposed a culinary class that teaches students and their families about healthy choices they can make and how to form healthy cooking and eating habits. The $1,000 grant they won will help them get the program up and running in early 2017. How Were the Finalists Selected? AdVenture Capital invited all the winning students from each Social Innovation Series event to submit a new pitch for their idea, explaining how an additional $10,000 would help them SUPER SIZE their project ideas! Members of GENYOUth and the AdVenture Capital team carefully reviewed each application and selected two finalists from each event for the Teen Innovator contest. Between December 1 and December 16, individuals cast their vote for their favorite project, and the student who had the project with the most votes was named the SAP Teen Innovator. That winning student (or team of students) earned an additional $10,000 to help bring their project to life, and won a trip to Super Bowl LI in Houston in February 2017. While Nathan and Brandon were not named the SAP Teen Innovator, there were over 8,000 votes cast during the competition and we are very proud that they represented Mountain Sky and their community in a BIG way! Even though they did not ....Continued on page 3