4B comes to the Chronicle

A class of 26 fourth graders from St. Mary on the Hill School visited the newspaper Wednesday morning. Most of them have taken the official newspaper tour in the past. The Chronicle is a popular field trip destination for schools, Scouts, etc. The students in 4B visited because they are learning how to produce their own newspaper - everything from news and sports articles to advertisements and puzzles. The project is being led by their teacher Jacques Halupniczak - more commonly known as “Mr. H”.

 Two reporters and a photographer spoke to the group and answered questions.

Sarah Day Owen, who writes for Xtreme – the Chronicle’s teen page, told the students to ask a lot of questions when they’re reporting.

“You want to get way more information than you think you’ll ever need,” she said.

Photographer Kendrick Brinson showed samples of her work, including an underwater pool picture she took by putting her camera in an aquarium. Kendrick said getting to do something different every day is one of the things she loves about being a photojournalist.

“One day you’re behind the scenes at the circus, the next day you’re at a ballet camp,” she said.

Sports Reporter Chris Gay talked about covering sports events including the Masters Tournament, UGA football, and ASU basketball. “If you are writing about a game, talk to both sides,” he said.

He showed the students the contents of his briefcase – the tools he uses to do his job. These include a laptop, a digital voice recorder, notebooks of various sizes, a file of background information, today’s newspaper, headphones, binoculars and a bottle of Tylenol. He gave all the students a chance to pick up the bag – which weighs 25 pounds. Chris also gave the class some of his press credentials from Georgia football games and other events.

At the end of the session we reviewed the lessons of the day and practiced our reporting skills.

Lauren Dukes took notes (with help from Christopher Gates) and interviewed her fellow students for an article she is writing about the field trip.

Student Tony Do liked the sports segment best. “Because I’m a really big sports fan,” he said. Nikole Schneider said she liked seeing all the different photographs.

Mr. H said it was useful to hear the journalists talk about how they use the same things the students are learning in class as part of their day-to-day jobs.

The students hope to publish their first edition later this month. I’ll let you know how it turns out.

Here are some tips the journalists shared:

1. Research your subjects. Talk to the people you are writing about. Read as much as you can.

2. Observe what’s going on and take notes.

3. Prepare a list of questions in advance.

4. Include the five Ws: who, what, where, when, why, and how.

5. Make sure you spell everyone’s name right!