Commissions

CERTIFICATION

Mark Newton, MJE
Mountain Vista High School, Highlands Ranch, Colo.
mark.newton@dcsdk12.org

Mark Newton, MJE, is a journalism and public speaking teacher and newspaper and yearbook adviser at Mountain Vista High School in south Denver. He is the former journalism teacher/adviser at Grand Junction (Colo.) High School (18 years). He has been a teacher for 24 years and an adviser for 23. He is the former Southwest Region director and the former JEA Colorado state director. He is a member of the Student Press Law Center Advisory Committee and the Ball State University School of Journalism Advisory Committee, and a co-leader of the National Journalism Professional Learning Community. 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. He is married (Pam) and has two children (Chris, Jamie) in college.

Statement of Goals:
If I am elected to continue serve the members of JEA as the Certification Commission chairperson, I promise to be a positive advocate of the program and its benefits. Since I have been a member of the commission for several years and the chairperson for the last six, I believe I bring a comprehensive understanding of the commission and the challenges it faces. As Certification Commission chairperson, I believe the commission must continue to focus on the following:

1. increasing the prestige of certification;
2. increasing the number of members who become certified;
3. improving MJE and CJE assessments and evaluation;
4. improving the MJE project and its assessment and evaluation;
5. making MJE projects easily 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, to work together to solve problems, and to 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 and broadcasts for 25 years. JEA named her a distinguished adviser in the 2004 National Yearbook Adviser of the Year competition and she was named the Texas Journalism Teacher of the Year in 2005. ILPC awarded her their Edith Fox King Award for contributions to scholastic journalism in Texas. The Texas Association of Journalism Educators awarded her the Texas Trailblazer Award this past year. She is the curriculum and development chair for JEA 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 Shows and Gold Stars. Her students have also won five UIL state championships in journalism events.

Lori became a journalism teacher because of her rich experiences in scholastic journalism in high school.

Statement of Goals:
Students learn best when they make meaningful connections between instruction and real-life application. As curriculum and development chair since 2002, I’ve assisted teachers with materials to begin those types of connections in their own classrooms without the stress of creating new materials. I have maintained a website with downloadable materials including units, PowerPoints and handouts for classroom use. I have responded to Listserv requests for materials and posted links and lesson plans on the LISTSERV.

We have survived NCLB, but the focus on core courses still threatens our place in course offerings. We must develop creative ways to offer required credits and embed similar courses to compress the number of periods allotted to electives. The addition of more required core courses and budget limitations to offer fewer periods per day will squeeze out even the strongest journalism programs without a conscious effort to validate the value and diversity of offerings of journalism classes.

I seek your input in developing new areas of curriculum and updating those already written. Static curriculum does not inspire the teacher or the student. I’ve not met many static journalism teachers so the products suit the consumers.
Thank you for this opportunity to continue to serve you.

Becky Tate
Shawnee Mission North High School
notate@smsd.org

While advising both the newspaper and yearbook at Shawnee Mission North High School for the past 19 years, Becky Lucas Tate, CJE, has been named a Special Recognition Adviser in newspaper by the Dow Jones Newspaper Fund and in yearbook by the Journalism Education Association. She has also received the Engel Award for the Outstanding Kansas Journalism Teacher of the Year and JEA’s Medal of Merit. She has a Master’s Degree in journalism from the University of Kansas and undergraduate journalism and education degrees from Kansas State University. While an undergrad, she was assistant editor of the Royal Purple and Editor of the Collegian. Her staffs consistently earn Crown and Pacemaker awards. Her students have placed in JEA’s High School Journalist of the Year Competition and the newspaper has earned JEA’s Student Impact Award. Three of her former students are now journalism teachers. Tate teaches at high school journalism workshops in the summer.

Statement of Goals:
As a longtime member of JEA I would love to have a chance to return to the organization much of what it has given to me. I would like to do this by serving the JEA membership as the Development/Curriculum Commission chair. In today’s schools it seems as if little time is given to journalism curriculum. Advisers find themselves rushing to meet multiple deadlines all while learning the newest software needed to create the final product. If that wasn’t enough, many of us teach other classes in addition to journalism, leaving us with little time to spare on additional research. I would like to take this job and survey teachers on what curricular area they would like help with. In addition, by listening to what the Journlaism PLCs are studying and learning we can meet some of that need with curriculum that can be shared with the JEA membership.

Many of us must also meet goals in Career and Technical Education. This is an area that needs more articulation and understanding from JEA. We could to create a page in the Curriculum area of the JEA website that could offer links to state information and samples from teachers across the country. If given the chance I would gladly serve the JEA membership.