The majority of my staff this year played a sport so getting them to be interested in writing about sports wasn't really a problem. Getting them to go out to games, though...
Because of my students "availability" issues, we made the focus for most of our sports articles be game previews, season updates and features/human interest stories. Since we launched our website just this year, we felt like there wasn't as much pressure to feature as many "gamers", although we covered all the big sporting events this year (rivalry games, playoff games, etc.).
As our program and out staff develops, however, we will strive to have more regular beat coverage and live game coverage of various sports. I'm already planning to farm out more social media responsibilities for my students re: sports coverage. I'll be taking a lot of the ideas and lessons we talked about today in Alan's session.
Dave Anderson
Christian Brothers High School
Sacramento, Calif.
Dave, I have some of the same issues. My students just arenot avaialbe to attend sporting events on any kind of schedule unless they are playing or cheering. Let me know of the ideas you come up with.
ReplyDeleteDave I hear you. I face the same availability issue of students. Especially since everyone that volunteers to cover sports is generally in a sport. I am hoping that Twitter will help with our regular sports coverage. Even if I can get some of my other non-staff students tweeting at the paper feed, it would be an improvement in coverage.
ReplyDeleteWith the layout guru this morning, Tracy Collins, I hope we can add better layout to our sports section. Since we publish once a month, it gets pretty dated "news" that seem to be mundane.
Brandon Michaud
Winnacunnet High School
Hampton, N.H.
Me, too. Getting the reporters to attend events is difficult. I don't know if they have legitimate reasons or just don't want to go... Something I am going to have to think about. Good reporting doesn't happen sitting in the classroom.
ReplyDeleteCindy Reves
McKinley High School
Honolulu