Commissions

CERTIFICATION

Mark Newton, MJE
Grand Junction High School, Grand Junction, Colo.
marknewt@bresnan.net

Mark Newton, MJE , is a journalism teacher and student publications adviser at Grand Junction High School. He has been a teacher for 22 years and an adviser for 21. He is the former Southwest Director and the former JEA Colorado state director, and the adviser of The Orange & Black. He is a speaker at local, state, and national conventions, and summer workshops. Newton and his students’ publications also are members of the Colorado High School Press Association, Quill and Scroll, National Scholastic Press Association, and Columbia Scholastic Press Association.

Statement of Goals:
If I am elected to continue serve the members of JEA as the Curriculum Commission chairperson, I promise to be a positive advocate of the program and its benefits. Because I have been a member of the commission for several years and the chairperson for the last two, I believe I bring a comprehensive understanding of the commission and the challenges it faces.

As Certification chairperson, I believe the commission must focus on the following: (1) increasing the prestige of becoming certified; (2) increasing the number of members who become certified; (3) improving MJE and CJE assessments; (4) improving the MJE project and its assessment; (5) making MJE projects more available to all members; and   (6) working with other commissions to aide and support each other. If elected, each of these will be a priority for me and the rest of the commission members.

Finally, I promise to listen, work together to solve problems, and encourage active participation in all JEA activities. Thank you for considering me as a candidate for chair of the JEA Certification Commission. I am happy to serve the JEA membership in any way I can, particularly as the chairperson of the incredibly important Certification Commission.

DEVELOPMENT AND CURRICULUM

Lori Oglesbee, CJE
McKinney High School, McKinney, Texas
loglesbee@mckinneyisd.net

Lori Oglesbee, CJE , yearbook adviser at McKinney (Texas) High School, has advised high school publications in three states for 24 years. JEA named her a Distinguished Adviser in the 2004 National Yearbook Adviser of the Year competition. ILPC named her the 2005 Max R. Haddick Journalism Teacher of the Year for Texas and awarded her their Edith Fox King Award for contributions to scholastic journalism in Texas. She wrote the yearbook curriculum for the Texas Association of Journalism Educators.

She is the current Curriculum and Development Commission Chair and is the past chair of the Southern Interscholastic Press Association. In 1998 she received SIPA’s Distinguished Service Award.

Her yearbook and newspaper staffs have won Gold Crowns, Pacemakers, Best of Show, All Southern, Gold Star and numerous other state, regional and national awards. Her students have also won five UIL state championships in journalism events. During the summer she teaches workshops from coast to coast specializing in theme development, content-driven design and feature writing. Lori set out to be a journalism teacher because of her rich experiences in scholastic journalism in high school.

Statement of Goals:
One new source of curricula for JEA members has been the creation of my own personal website where teachers may download materials. The address is http//www.homepage.mac.com/lao4. So far the site has had 1,358 hits. The downloads facilitate the storage of materials as well as better delivery. For example, one PowerPoint is more than 60 MB, so it’s too large to e-mail. This way, teachers have access without overloading school e-mail. Daily lesson plans for Journalism I and spelling words are also available on the page. I continue to monitor the Listserv almost daily sending out curriculum to any “lost souls.”

Areas of concern for me include the lack of an updated yearbook, newspaper and broadcasting curricula. I am still searching for someone to complete these. Lots of people express interest in writing them, but then life hits them squarely on deadline, and the project is once again placed on a back burner. With the additional money in the budget for travel to develop these, I hope that we can have them by next fall for the beginning of the school year.

I also want to see more meaningful connection between the elements of instruction we make available. Instead of ideas being taught in isolation that we would rather strive to use best teaching practices to design instruction so as to build on and further develop skills.

As we teach journalism and its associative skills, we must make sure that we are an integral part of cross-curricula approach because of the state testing standards, NCLB, the reduction in the number of electives, and budget cutbacks. I consciously strive to make materials available that meet this criteria.