story from word at home

The journalism room open’s their doors in a new hallway this year. The room that once held yearbook, photojournalism, and newspaper was moved to the AHA hallway and merged in to two classrooms. Mr. Doerr, the yearbook teacher, and Mr. Reeves, the newspaper teacher’s reasoning behind the move was for various reasons.

                “First, we felt it was important to be in the AHA hall way since both Mr. Doerr and I are AHA teachers. It puts us nearer the students we have in class, and is especially helpful for our advisory classes. Second, we needed to be near each other to communicate about equipment, coverage of school events and since we work so closely together, so students could access both of us if necessary.” Reeves said.

                With the new room and changes came financial support from the Career and Technology Education department. The Perkins Grant is a federal grant that has been around for years, it is designed for the federal government to help support career and technology education in the United States which is accessible to CTE teachers. From this grant and their certifications, both Mr. Doerr and Mr. Reeves can receive enough funding for new equipment for the students to use, some of the special equipment the newspaper room has gotten this year are touch screen  computers, both teachers were able to get new cameras, other camera equipment, and a photo printer. “Soon we will be able to offer articulated classes, which means our students can earn credit for ACC class when they take ours. We also hope to begin offering certifications through Adobe in all three major programs, Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator. That will really open some doors for any students who want to jump straight into graphic design jobs out in the real world after high school.” Mr. Reeves said.

                Since the move of the rooms, changes have been made to the curricular. In the previous years the photojournalism class has worked with pinhole cameras and a dark room, which is something the students this year will unfortunately not have the chance to use. The new name for the class that was once photojournalism is now called Graphic Design and Illustration for Photojournalism. Journalism is now called Graphic Design and Illustration for Journalism. “We are completely digital now and that will benefit our students in the long run as they should leave our program more prepared to be on staff of a college newspaper, yearbook, news-magazine or enter the work world in graphic design and illustration.”

                Senior, Dara, has been a student of Mr. Reeves in most of the years she’s been at Akins, she is a part of the newspaper staff at school. “It's a lot cooler, it's bigger, it’s very spacious we can move around easily. These computers are amazing, I can easily manage and locate items better and the visual is much more clear and more high def.” Dara said.

                The new yearbook and newspaper rooms have brought many benefits to both the students and teachers and will bring much success despite some of the sacrifices that had to be made.