by Julie Dodd
JEA Mentoring Committee
JEA mentor Bill Flechtner is featured in this story about the Banks (Oregon) High School media program.
The JEA Mentoring program received a shoutout both from The Oregon and from ASCD’s SmartBrief, with a story about the success of a high school media program thanks, in part, to a JEA mentor.
“Print journalism alive and well at Banks High School, where newspaper program is growing” is an Oregonian story about math teacher Kevin Cliff, who advises the school yearbook and takes on revising the student newspaper at Banks (Oregon) High School.
The article explains that Cliff, who has no journalism background, is getting on-the-job coaching from JEA mentor Bill Flechtner. Writer Laura Frazier discusses how Cliff and Flechtner work together, primarily through email, with Flechtner providing publication critique and advice.
Frazier also explains that Flechtner’s mentoring work in Oregon is funded by the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association, Oregon Journalism Education Association and Northwest Scholastic Press.
ASCD picked up the story and featured it in the ASCD SmartBrief as an example of curriculum innovation and collaboration between schools and organizations interested in improving education.
How great that Flechtner and the Mentoring Program were recognized by both The Oregonian and ASCD!
The JEA Mentoring Program, in its seventh year, is working to make adjustments in its national programming due to financial challenges caused in part by the economic tight times being experienced by the media and by scholastic journalism media associations, which have been major funders of the program. The Mentoring Program does not charge to provide journalism mentors to work with high school media advisers but uses private, typically state-level funding, to provide a stipend for each mentor.
Flechtner is a former Oregon high school journalism teacher himself and was one of ten who were trained in the first cohort of JEA mentors at the JEA/NSPA convention in Philadelphia in 2007. Flechtner also is a member of the JEA Mentor Committee.
The Journalism Education Association is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. If you are interested in more information about the program or are interested in helping support the mentoring program, contact the JEA Mentor Committee co-chair Linda Barrington – lbarring (at) wi (dot) rr (dot) com