Last year was my first year at ADM. I had just moved from Harlan, and I did not know what I was doing. It was the day where we got to pick our schedules and I saw News Journalism. I picked it because it sounded like it was going to be a small class where we learned how to write better. I came into class my junior year of high school with high hopes. Then I figured out that the News class I signed up for was a DMACC class. I also learned that this school had a news website and a paper that gets hung up in the bathroom every week. It was at this moment I knew that this was not what I signed up for, but it was too late to cancel and the teacher who told us about how DMACC records college credits said that it would show up on the record. I decided that the best course of action was to just roll with it, so I did.
Through this class I have learned that news sites for high schools are a lot more common than you might think. I also learned that you can earn rewards for these activities, and the ceremony is one of the scariest experiences I have ever had. You have to walk to three different classes and all you know about said classes is the name and location. I usually don’t have a plan for anything, so having to pick three random classes out of a hat and find my way to them was difficult was difficult. Luckily I had some kind people to help me out when I was there. I also learned that I should make a plan because the class work in this is hard. I am awful when it comes to talking to people most of the time, so being in a class where you are graded on how well you can talk to others was probably not the best idea.
This class has taught me that most of my friends don’t even know that we have a news site. I looked at the numbers of our news site and we are lucky if we even get in the triple digits of people who read the news. Getting people to read the news sounds easy but it takes a lot of effort to convince people in this school to read the news. Some people don’t even know that the paper we hang in the bathroom exists even though they are hung in every stall and above every hand dryer in every bathroom. I find this sad because I know people work hard on their work, and to see that work not get seen really bothers me. The goal of the news team is to get information that is relevant out so that people can see it, but when getting told about a news site is news to someone I feel we have a problem.
The people in the news room are a community of passionate people. I figured this out day one when the teacher was going over the rules. The main thing I liked about News was the people. Everyone helps everyone in here which helped me a lot. Every time I had a question it got answered. Every time I needed help I got it, so while I might have had a hard time in News there was always someone there to help me.
