“if the only thing that we ever do in school is come to this building the experiences that you have and the things that you know are limited to what we experience within these four walls. There’s so much more outside of these four walls.”

The News Journalism program at ADM is nothing short of special. It’s a different class structure than your normal English, Math, and Science classes. Many students, including myself, can attest that the way Mrs. Basinger runs her classes is different than most. But what makes it so special?

Basinger teaches a variety of classes including, AP language and composition, yearbook, and news journalism,  she is also an instructional coach. When asked how her teaching style differs from class to class she said “I mean one looks more like a college composition classroom and one looks more like a newsroom. The idea is that, well, because both of my journalism classes are student publications, student leaders guide the stories that we tell, and that leaning on each other is what guides our work there.”

Basinger described how she functions as an advisor who lets students run the class in the yearbook and journalism classes, and more as a teacher in her other classes.

Basinger received her Masters degree in Journalism Education at the University of Missouri, but her journey to teaching Journalism at ADM began much sooner.

“I was on my news staff and my yearbook staff and  I was the head editor of our school’s literary magazine and found myself and my vice in that place with those teachers who gave me a place where I felt like my voice and my idea mattered. I felt like what I had to say was important at a time when I really needed a place like that. I knew when I wanted to be a teacher that I wanted to be the teacher who could create those same spaces for my students also.”

” I knew I wanted to be a journalism advisor. what was available to me at the first school district I taught at just happened to be all of the journalism classes, also. I taught yearbook and news and my husband taught broadcast journalism. In every teaching position, I’ve had since then, that’s just been something that’s important to me, so that’s a thing I seek out.”

Often, Basinger takes her classes to places outside the classroom to get new views and ideas. The news and yearbook teams travel to the Iowa High School Press Association conference, on the University of Iowa campus, to attend sessions focused on progressing the news and yearbook programs. In February, the journalism team will be traveling to the University of Drake for the Winter Thaw conference to further their knowledge of using AI in journalism. The Ap lang class will be going to the Iowa State University library to experience and learn about the process of using a college library.

“if the only thing that we ever do in school is come to this building the experiences that you have and the things that you know are limited to what we experience within these four walls. There’s so much more outside of these four walls. The more you know, the more all those things cannot just influence the work you do as a journalist, but take those things beyond this setting and the leadership opportunities that we have. The ability to learn with other people from other school districts I think is vital.”

She also is planning on implementing a new procedure in her classroom this year. Basinger plans to bring in speakers each month to her classes to give the students and outside view from someone working in different fields.

” The guest speakers that we’re gonna have come in this year are not just gonna talk about their careers. So everyone who’s here can say, like, you know, I know that there’s this job that is I could be a Des Moines Register reporter, but I didn’t know that there are these other jobs within the umbrella of journalism or mass communications, and I’m really interested in that. I’m trying to help fill that gap by bringing in people who can give us a little bit more.”

“They’re also going to not just talk about their jobs or their careers and how they got there, but they’re also gonna teach something. So when we have family photographers, for example, come into yearbook, she’s not just gonna talk about, being a family photographer and being self-employed and how to market that business and all those other things, but she’s also gonna talk about how you take really good portraits.”

Basinger explains that it’s important to learn from people beyond the classroom to continue making our publications better.  “That transfers into the work that we do.  We’re gonna grow our skills in lots of different avenues of journalism by bringing in experts who are living all that work in the industry into our classroom.”