Two things for people to do - New Voices at the Capitol AND UIL journalism

New Voices Day at the Capitol

David Doerr, our Legislative and Policy chair and New Voices Texas adviser, needs our help:

It’s time to let your voices be heard at the Texas Capitol in Austin to demand that lawmakers support a New Voices law in Texas! 

We are working on scheduling appointments with lawmakers on Monday, March 13 to allow supporters to speak directly to lawmakers and their staffers, especially those on the Texas Public Education Committee. We have assurances that a lawmaker will announce a New Voices bill this week ahead of the March 10 bill filing deadline. Once the bill is filed, it’s our job to put pressure on lawmakers to pass it.

In particular, lawmakers need to hear from students so they understand that there is demand for this type of legislation in Texas. They don’t often get young people to visit their offices so your talking with them in person will make a lasting impression. 

We realize that timing may be difficult for you to attend with this late notice, but we are hoping that many of you are on Spring Break and will be able to travel to Austin for this important effort. 

Our plan is to meet outside the Capitol at 9 a.m. to train attendees and help everyone learn how to navigate the Capitol complex and where lawmakers’ offices are located. After meeting appointments with various lawmakers, we plan to finish our meetings by 2 p.m. and finish up with a debriefing by 3 p.m.

For now, we need students, teachers, parents and other supporters to sign up on our Google Form so we know how many to expect and to help us set up appointments with the lawmakers that represent you in the Legislature in addition to members of the House Public Education Committee.

We will send out more details later this weekend, but for now you should know that there is a low-cost parking garage for Capitol visitors and that we will meet up at the African American monument near the southern edge of the Capitol complex. See this map to find the meet-up spot.

If you can come, we recommend that you buy a New Voices Texas t-shirt from Bonfire so you can make a visual statement while walking the halls of the Capitol. We will have some expenses to pay for our lobby efforts so please consider making a financial contribution to help us pay our bills. 

Thank you all for your continued support of New Voices Texas. See you at the Capitol!

UIL

District tournament is Friday, March 24 at Johnson High School in Buda

Entries are due this Friday, March 10. We need 

Schedule for Friday, March 24

CONTESTS ARE IN THE FOLLOWING AREAS - you can compete in multiple and we will need 3 people per contest. I will provide some training to you before the end of the week so you are prepared. I need to fill each team. You will be cleared from school from my class on. You can drive yourself, and I will be there throughout the day. I can also provide transportation for those without a car, but you may have to go down early and stay for a bit. I will do my best to get people back and forth so you can be in some classes if you need to be.

Copy Editing - 1:30 pm (30 minute contest)
News Writing - 2:00 pm (1 hour contest)
Feature Writing - 3:00 pm (90 minute contest)
Editorial Writing - 4:30 pm (1 hour contest)
Headline Writing -5:30 pm (30 minute contest)

Natalie 2nd Runner-up for Texas Journalist of the Year - Let's Celebrate!!

Yesterday the Texas Association of Journalism Educators released that Bowie senior Natalie Cullen has been named 2^nd Runner-up Texas High School Journalist of the Year.

This was the first time the Dispatch had a student enter this highly competitive contest and for Natalie to finish 3^rd is awesome. It is an extremely brutal contest that requires a high standard of work across 12 distinct categories from design, photography, writing and multimedia, to law, ethics, news literacy, marketing and diversity. If she had won the competition, she would have represented the state at the Journalism Education Association National Journalist of the Year Competition.

To enter, Natalie had to create a website. It can be seen here: https://nataliecullenjoy.myportfolio.com/

Natalie has been an amazing Online Editor-in-Chief the past two years, and we will certainly miss her when she graduates this year. She is off to New York University where she will go into the Radio, Film and Television and Business school where she hopes to eventually double major. Please join me in congratulating her. 

This is the first of a number of major contests we have entered this year, so expect to hear more from me about Natalie and the rest of the Dispatch staff in the coming weeks and months.

Thank you,

Michael Reeves, MJE
James Bowie High School - Austin, Texas
Dispatch Media Adviser

Gmetrix is READY!!

 Setting up LearnKey Access for Certification Exam Prep for Photoshop

One important way to show you are ready to get a job in the creative industry is to pass a certification exam that shows your mastery level of industry-standard software. Currently, the state of Texas has approved the Adobe Certified Professional as a recognized exam that demonstrates your understanding of Adobe software.

You can choose which test you would like to take, InDesign, Photoshop or Illustrator.

To prepare you for these certification exams, we have purchased a curriculum called LearnKey that is designed to prepare you for these exams. This curriculum offers the following features:

• 5 different sections to study
• Pre-assessments for different sections
• Lessons on relevant issues working in the graphic design industry and terminology
• Video Lessons
• Guided Workbooks
• Follow-Along Files
• In-App Exercise Labs
• Post Assessments

We will be offering the certification exams in early May so we will set deadlines for you to complete these test prep modules throughout the spring semester.

Your first deadline to complete all parts of the Working in the Design Industry lessons will be Nov. 2.

Begin with the Domain 1 Pre-Assessment

I will announce deadlines for the rest of the modules later.

• Project Set-Up and Interface
• Organizing Documents
• Creating and Modifying Visual Elements
• Publishing Digital Media

How to Register for LearnKey Test Prep Access

To access the curriculum, go to GMetrix login page for students and register to create an account:

https://www.gmetrix.net/Public/Register.aspx

After you create your account:
Login and use the following Access Code to access the curriculum

Access Code: LKEY-93729-90934-Reeves

LKEY-74442-08104-Reevesa

Choose the option for Photoshop when you redeem the code

Open the course that you are interested in and start by taking the Pre-Assessment test.

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How to login to LeanKey if you Already Have an Account

If you have already registered for an account, use the link below to access the student login page.

https://www.gmetrix.net/Login.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2F

Sprint Directive and Certification program sign-up

 Here are the descriptions (not complete) for the individual spreads and sections for the Spring Directive.

https://forms.gle/cgNLoQWUL7XSXpPf7

Take a look and think about which ones you might be interested in. These are flexible and I think there can be continuing discussions with the leadership team about what each spread looks like.

Once you have 2-3 in mind, go fill out this form:

https://forms.gle/JrB5HK9ivVyV7Bm18

On Friday, we will assign the spreads. Those assignments will appear here:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1FzVE_j0Ci9ubrWDPiVfyAXvSqkRaRM1AsMVPOwI3xps/edit?usp=sharing

Next week you will start planning. This will mean coming up with a PAPER design for your spread, and starting to gather content for your spread. We will have a bunch of magazines for you to look through and you will meet as a group regularly for the first week to talk about sections and spreads. You need to get start ASAP. There is a short 3-week window here to get 90% of your pages done. We need to send this by May 1 and it needs to be in the hands of the leadership team by March 24.

You need to get started NOW!!

People who are going to be certifying in Adobe, please do the following today to get things set up for next week when I should have the key/login information for you to get started.

How to Register for LearnKey Test Prep Access

To access the curriculum, go to GMetrix login page for students and register to create an account:

https://www.gmetrix.net/Public/Register.aspx

Typography help

Thinking about doing something fun on your page with text - check out this website:

https://edu.gcfglobal.org/en/beginning-graphic-design/typography/1/

Juniors - conference possibility

 

Applications are now being accepted for the 2023 Al Neuharth Free Spirit and Journalism Conference. High school juniors (class of 2024) who are interested in journalism are encouraged to apply.

Students from across the United States will be selected to participate in an all-expenses-paid conference in Washington, D.C. on June 24-29, 2023, and receive a $1,000 scholarship to the college of their choice. The in-person conference features sessions with journalists focused on news, storytelling and the First Amendment.

Applications are due March 1, 2023. APPLY NOW Thank you for helping us spread the word to free spirits and future professional journalists! Established in 1999 by the Freedom Forum in honor of the late Al Neuharth, founder of USA TODAY and the Newseum, the Free Spirit program encourages and inspires high school students to pursue careers in the news media. Students make connections for life and become part of an alumni network that encourages them to dream, dare and do.

Vox publish opportunity

Vox is seeking contributions for student journalists

Vox.com is seeking contributions from high school journalists for an upcoming story package. Our goal is to help readers of all ages understand what it’s like to be in high school today, and we're looking to those who know it best: the student journalists who cover it.

 

We’re looking for 150- to 250-word blurbs from student journalists on The biggest story at your high school this year. Tell us about something happening in the hallways, the classrooms, on the field or in DMs. What’s the most controversial story or opinion you’ve published? What’s the best story you’ve published? What’s the important story you wish you could figure out how to cover? You can write in traditional journalistic style or first person — or you can get creative with format (a cartoon? a video?). We want to hear from you in your words.

 

Published submissions will be considered freelance contributions to Vox: once we have selected your submission, we’ll send you a contract and pay a freelance rate of $0.33 per word. (This rate is based on the final word count at publication.)  If you are under 18, your parents will need to sign the contract as well. We will not be able to publish every submission we receive.

 

How to participate:

Send your blurb to libby@vox.com by Wednesday, January 18, with the subject line Vox high school submission. You can submit either a Word document or a link to a Google Doc (grant full editing privileges before sending, please). 

You must include: Your full name, your date of birth, the name of your school, and the city and state where you are located.

The deadline is 11:59 PM Eastern Time on Jan. 18.

 

How we’ll choose:

Vox may not be able to use every submission, and will select to ensure a well-rounded package. You’ll hear by the end of the day Friday, January 20, to let you know if we’ll be using your submission. 

After that, your submission will be edited. You’ll need to be able to receive edits by email and respond to them within 48 hours.

 

Publication: This package will be published in the February issue of The Highlight, Vox.com’s home for ambitious stories that explain our world. 

 

About Vox.com: Vox’s staff of over 100 journalists and subject-matter experts report and produce articles, videos, and podcasts to clarify the issues that matter, explore the ideas that are shaping our country and the world, and answer questions you might not even have known to ask. You might know us from our website, but also from YouTube, Netflix (Explained), the Today Explained podcast, and more.

 

We apply our unique editorial approach to in-depth explanations on a range of topics — policy, the Supreme Court, voting rights, political extremism, what culture says about society, the biodiversity crisis, climate technology, green energy solutions, and more. And although we’re there when you need context for the events of the day, we also prioritize covering not just what is new but what’s important. Our Future Perfect section, for example, explores issues like the impact that industrial meat production has on the world, and alternatives to how we eat.

 

You can find us wherever you like to listen to, read, and watch things — YouTube, Apple News, email, Instagram, Netflix, your favorite podcast app and more. Our daily news explainer podcast Today, Explained Vox is also available on public radio stations across the country.

 

About the Highlight: The Highlight is Vox.com’s home for ambitious stories that explain our world. Once per month, in partnership with AppleNews+, we publish a package of stories examining a broad topic from different angles. The edition publishes first to Apple, where it lives behind a paywall for a week, and publish on Vox.com a week later.