Certification Committee seeks applicants

The Certification Committee is opening applications for one new committee member. The committee is specifically seeking an MJE who advises high school or middle school for this opening. In addition, it would appreciate having an adviser with expertise in photojournalism.

A brief bit about the Certification Committee:

The committee consists of eight members, plus the appointed chair. All must be MJEs. Committee members are appointed initially for a four-year term and may serve a second consecutive four-year term. The exception to this is when an appointee fills out a term of a member who resigns before his/her term is over. The new appointee first serves the remainder of the original term and then may serve an additional four years.

Responsibilities include attending the Certification Committee meeting at each national convention (Saturday, 7:30 – 8:45 a.m.), presenting at least one session specifically relevant to certification, attending the Thursday night Advisers Reception as a committee representative and attending the JEA General Membership meeting Friday morning. Throughout the year, members participate in test updates/changes and evaluating, may potentially serve as a test proctor at off-convention test sites and may be asked to participate in conference calls or retreats as required for the projects in which we are involved.

Certification Committee Goals

• To promote professionalism in scholastic journalism.
• To offer national certification to scholastic journalism teachers and advisers.
• To designate as master teachers educators whose experience and expertise make them outstanding professionals.
• To recognize educators who possess the education or experience to teach scholastic journalism and advise student publications.
• To encourage those who are teaching scholastic journalism or advising student publications without an adequate background to increase their knowledge of journalism and to provide a model for their continuing education.
• To increase the availability of courses and workshops appropriate for the scholastic journalism teacher and adviser.
• To provide model certification requirements for scholastic journalism teachers in states that do not offer licensing in this field.
• To improve public and school district perceptions of certified scholastic journalism teachers as professionals.

For more information about the Certification Committee, go to http://jea.org/wp/certification/. You may also contact committee chair Kim Green at

Kim Green, MJE
Student media adviser
Log yearbook, The Triangle newsmagazine
JEA Certification Committee Chair
Columbus North High School
1400 25th Street
Columbus, IN 47201
812-376-4260
kgreenmje@gmail.com

If you are interested, please email a letter of interest and resume to Kim Green, and she will send you the application. The committee hopes to have this position filled by Dec. 1.