EDITING, LEADERSHIP &
TEAM BUILDING
As editor of the staff, my biggest job is lifting up other staff members. I absolutely adore our newspaper, and I want the staff to love it just as much as I do. The younger staff members are the future of Eagle Nation Online, and I want to prepare them as much as possible for when they are older and in editor positions.
MY LEADERSHIP APPROACH
I hope for staff members to view me as both a leader and a friend. In the past, I've had amazing editor-in-chiefs guiding me, but they always seemed a bit too perfect and almost unapproachable to me. I didn't want to be that for the staff. I want them to feel like they know me and can come to me for everything, not just journalism questions. I want to be a genuine friend, not just someone leading them.
To do this, I throw my personality into everything I do. When I gave an introductory presentation at the start of the year, I added facts about me that seemed integral to my personality (such as my obsession with Taylor Swift and Marvel or my habit of drinking two-day-old iced coffees). This was the perfect way to set the tone of the staff for new members. Instead of a traditional "welcome to staff! here's some introductory rules," type of presentation, my presentation was much more entertaining and engaging to convey the manner of our staff – fun yet incredibly productive.
I also work to find ways to make class fun. Whether it's buying us a class stuffed animal, encouraging staff members to share their Halloween plans, or joking around, I always make sure our journalism period isn't just another class to dread every day. I don't ever want a staff member to feel unhappy on staff or in class.
Despite this, I still make sure I can inspire and teach staff members. I still fulfill my leadership responsibilities and make sure the staff and I hold mutual respect. I still lead them and give them constructive criticism – such as the "compliment sandwich" I love to use.
I've found this approach to work perfectly for me. I'm a naturally shy person so I was worried about connecting with people I wasn't close to. But by putting in the effort to be more outgoing and show my personality, I've been able to make personal connections with every staff member. This has made it even easier to guide and teach them, and it's fostered a more close-knit relationship in the group as a whole. As Editor-in-Chief, I know I can set the tone for the staff, so I work to use my position to make class as great for everyone as possible.
"On the first day of school, I felt like a bit of an outcast in my newspaper class. I was the only freshman in a class of seniors. All of the seniors were talking, and I was just doing work. However, Amanda noticed that I was alone, introduced me to the seniors, and invited me to their table."
- FRESHMAN STAFF MEMBER JAKE RADCLIFFE
"She is a role model for all the underclassmen on our staff, and even as a junior I look up to Amanda. Her dedication and love of writing is infectious. I hope that one day I can be as inspirational as she is."
- JUNIOR AND ENTERTAINMENT PHOTO EDITOR CATE EMMA WARRNE
GOOGLE CHAT
Our staff has found Google Chat to be an amazing and incredibly effective way to communicate. We have our big team group chat, and we can easily talk to each other individually and create smaller chats (such as a group with the Editorial Board and a staff member to discuss a specific publication).
As editor, I use Google Chat to lead the staff in three ways:
CELEBRATE
STAFF MEMBERS
1.
When I was a younger staff member, any compliments I got from the editor meant the world to me. Since I know what it means to new staff members, I try to compliment staff members and celebrate their accomplishments as much as I can.
SHARE INFORMATION
2.
We have a few staff members who didn't make it into a class period, so I send out information that I talk about in class to get the information out to everyone – not to mention that staff members can easily go back into our chat and find it.
EDIT
3.
While we edit in class, when an article is finished after school or on a day we don't have class, we text in the chat asking for edits. From there, the Editorial Board and I will jump in and give edits and suggestions.
"She is always willing to help out and work with members of the team as well as drop whatever she is doing to assist others."
- JUNIOR AND ENTERTAINMENT PHOTO EDITOR CATE EMMA WARREN
"She encourages others without judgement to do their best while she does the same. Few people exhibit ongoing positivity and talent, but Amanda does."
- ADVISER LISA ROSKENS
"Amanda is a joy to work with because of her amazingly positive attitude and friendliness. Her outgoingness and helpfulness are also necessary and valued not just by myself, but by her peers, who often rely on her to get the job done."
- FRESHMAN STAFF MEMBER JAKE RADCLIFFE
PITCH MEETING
To keep track of what everyone is working on in class, I hold a pitch meeting every week. A pitch meeting includes me sending out a Google Form to the staff where they can tell me what they're working on (to make it more interesting, I also add a fun question at the end). Then, I hold the actual pitch meeting where I go over what's publishing for that week. I check on each publication and see if anyone needs help as well as making sure every staff member has a publication to work on.
PRESENTATIONS
At the bootcamp before school started my junior year, I did a presentation on multimedia and how we can make our stories more interesting.
Before school started, we held a boot camp to introduce everyone to one another and set some expectations. At this bootcamp, I gave a presentation with our Chief Operating Officer about expectations for the year and just introducing myself.
In the middle of my junior year as assistant editor, I noticed some people needed help with headlines so I did a presentation to help them.
At the beginning of the school year, I noticed some common AP style mistakes as I edited, and gave a short presentation in class about these mistakes.
THE WHITEBOARD
We put our publication schedule on our whiteboard every week. At the end of the week, another Editorial Board member and I write out the schedule for the following week, making notes of any concerns we have (typically if there's a day that we don't have anything prepared to publish).
If it's a busy time, I'll go ahead and write the upcoming dates in order to stay even more organized (this is especially helpful around breaks and days off of school).
As we began to record more podcasts, we decided to put a recording schedule on the board as well to ensure there's time for everyone to record.
WORKING WITH ENN
In the past, our staff hasn't had as great of a relationship with our school's broadcast team as we would like. So, this year, my adviser and I made the goal of strengthening our relationship with them. To do this, I organized a system where students from our staff would go by the broadcast room to see their pitch meeting and see if we could work together on anything. We would see their ideas and see if any staff members wanted to work with them or bring our own ideas.
As the year went by, we stopped having these regular meetings simply because our schedule got too hectic – we've had UIL virtual competitions during class, publishing responsibilities, school off on Mondays, and many more conflicts.
Despite this, these meetings fostered a positive relationship with the broadcast team, and we've had some great collaborations come from it.
Below are photos of two collaborations we've done this year:
TEAM BUILDING
Team building is essential to bringing our staff closer, so I focus on making class fun and building connections between everyone. Small ways that I've done this include buying our class a mascot (which I showed a photo of earlier in this section) and putting fun questions in the pitch meeting form that foster fun discussions in class.
We also have parties. Our adviser is awesome and gets donuts for us during these parties and does all of the work of bringing food. We have them multiple times a year, and I've helped her decorate the classroom as well as ensure everyone shows up to these parties by telling everyone about them and sending out reminders.
We also hold a Secret Santa every year, and exchange gifts at our holiday party. It's always so much fun and has made connections between staff members who may not know each other well. For Valentine's Day, we all brought in Valentine's and exchanged them.
We also celebrate everyone's birthday. We have a birthday wall in our classroom with a silly photo of everyone along with their birthday (which was set up by our wonderful opinion editor). We wish everyone a happy birthday in our team Google Chat, and we also sign a card for everyone.
GOOGLE CHAT
PITCH MEETING FORM FUN QUESTIONS
SNO BADGES
By far, my biggest achievement as Editor-in-Chief was when our staff submitted for all of our SNO Badges on the first day they opened, and then became the first newspaper in the nation to earn them all.
Our newspaper adviser told me I would be Editor-in-Chief in May of my junior year, and the first thing I did after being told that, was set the goal of getting all of our badges on the first day. In my junior year, we earned all the badges in the spring semester, so this would be a big improvement (submissions open Oct. 1). It would be a tough goal, but I knew our staff was capable.
At our boot camp, before the year started, I told everyone the goal and how we would get there. We broke down every badge requirement and made plans to complete all of them, even assigning them to certain people to check over and ensure are complete. We pushed ourselves, and when Oct. 1 arrived, we were ready, and submitted them all the moment it opened (it was literally the moment they opened, I pressed submit at midnight Oct. 1).
We couldn't celebrate just yet though. SNO began to deny our submissions due to tiny details (as they did for all schools) and we worked quickly and tirelessly to fix them and resubmit them within the hour they were denied. This happened multiple times until finally, about a week later, we had every badge accepted and the prestigious "SNO Distinguished Sites" title.
Now, we could celebrate. I'm incredibly proud of the whole staff for working tirelessly on this, but also myself for pushing our staff to a higher level than ever before. It's fulfilling for all of us to be able to see ourselves as the top school in the nation on SNO.
Below, you can see our school at the top of the list, along with the other schools with the title (most of which even earned the title much after we earned ours).
