Recent Comments

New coaching standards tweaked

New coaching standards tweaked

As part of today’s Mentor Forum at the JEA Fall Convention in Chicago, a session focused on coaching as part of teacher support. The JEA Mentor Program training is based on material from the world-renowned New Teacher Center training. So it was appropriate for the Chicago Mentor Forum to review...
Procedures for Mentor, Mentee enrollment updated

Procedures for Mentor, Mentee enrollment updated

The procedures that JEA Mentors and Mentees need to follow to enroll and renew in the program have been updated. This includes the procedures for getting free JEA memberships for mentees. The process is outlined and explained in detail on the Becoming a JEA Mentor or Mentee page on Mentoring...
Mentor reports due June 30

Mentor reports due June 30

Mentors will be using two forms for submitting their spring semester and end of the year reports.  The reports are due  June 30, and must be completed before semester stipends can be processed. The first report, the Spring Mentor Report Form has been slightly revised from the one that mentors...
Just Published: Spring 2018 Mentoring Matters

Just Published: Spring 2018 Mentoring Matters

One of the hottest trends in scholastic journalism is the focus of the cover story in the Spring 2018 issue of Mentoring Matters newsletter. Sports journalism is a small but growing addition to the traditional offerings of scholastic journalism, a trend visible in new course titles and in the promotions...
Starting From Scratch: Mentees help students launch new publication

Starting From Scratch: Mentees help students launch new publication

By Elizabeth Miller Today is March 5. Issue 5 of The Prowl goes to print this Thursday. It’s truly incredible that alongside 18 students, we’ve designed something that didn’t exist six months ago. Now we’re busy promoting our crosslisted newspaper production class (English and business and marketing departments) ahead of Belleville High School’s scheduling day in mid-March, and...
Mentors at Work:  Focus on Hume-Fogg Academic Magnet School in Nashville

Mentors at Work: Focus on Hume-Fogg Academic Magnet School in Nashville

by Joy McCaleb, Tennessee mentor Courtney Schultz is a JEA mentee at Hume-Fogg Academic Magnet School in Nashville, Tenn. She is in her second year of teaching journalism and sponsoring the high school newspaper and her second year in the mentor program. Like many new teachers, she found herself with a new...
Mentee’s broadcast staff discovers asking good questions is only the first step

Mentee’s broadcast staff discovers asking good questions is only the first step

by Sheila Jones, JEA Mentor, Colorado Student reporters learn several important lessons when they enter a journalism classroom. One of the first is how to ask good questions. This definitely proved true for my JEA mentee Hannah Shapiro’s eight-person crew of broadcast journalists at Eagle Valley High School during Election...
Tennessee's only school journalism mentor eager to start

Tennessee’s only school journalism mentor eager to start

BY AMY DAVIS It’ll be something students can hold in their hands. An actual newspaper. With paper and ink. No scrolling involved. “It’s going to be so exciting to hand them out and be like, ‘We did this,’” Upperman High School’s Stephanie Maxwell said. The senior student-journalist isn’t alone in...
Latest entries

Former mentor named Journalism Educator of Year

Youth Journalism International of West Hartford, Connecticut has named Mentor Konnie Krislock, of Newport Coast, California, as Educator of the Year. Konnie wrote about this honor, “I have always been an admirer of the Pete Carroll theory on competing; ‘Finish Strong,’ he challenges.” In her final year teaching journalism, she is proud to have done...
KEMPA publications win $2,000 grants from Evjue Foundation

KEMPA publications win $2,000 grants from Evjue Foundation

  The Norse Star, Stoughton High School’s student newspaper, and The Prowl, Belleville High School’s student newspaper, each received a grant in the amount of $2,000 from The Evjue Foundation, Inc., the charitable arm of The Capital Times, on May 12, 2017. The Norse Star staff will use these funds for registration fees for 18...

Oregon mentee named Rookie Media Adviser of Year

Heather Treanor, mentee and media adviser at Estacada High School, in Estacada, Oregon, has received the 2017 Oregon Rookie Media Adviser of the Year. She has reestablished the print and on-line paper, expanded the yearbook and doubled the number of students in the program. She has defended her students’ press rights several times. According to...
Stump the Mentor at Seattle's Mentor Forum

Stump the Mentor at Seattle’s Mentor Forum

Mentors share experiences in “Stump the Mentor” In a part of their morning session at the Mentor Forum in Seattle, mentors were asked to share situations that were particularly challenging. Here are some of those, and notes of the discussion that followed: How and when do we give First Amendment Advice? Make sure you have...
Fall Mentoring Matters newsletter

Fall Mentoring Matters newsletter

The fall 2016 edition of Mentoring Matters includes: Challenges and strategies of long-distance mentoring Mentors go back to class — at the mentor forums at each convention Funders are catalysts for change through Mentor Program Mentees explain what they value about their mentors Meet the newest cadre of mentors Click on this link to download the...
Veteran advisers learn mentoring skills

Veteran advisers learn mentoring skills

Certainly adept in teaching journalism and advising student media, three new mentors joined the JEA Mentor Program after finishing three days of intensive training, held at the JEA Advisers Institute in July. They are the 10th group of mentors to be trained for the Mentor Program. Joy McCaleb is the first JEA mentor from Tennessee and...
Mentoring Matters Spring 2016 -- Read the latest information about the Mentor Program

Mentoring Matters Spring 2016 — Read the latest information about the Mentor Program

The Spring 2016 edition of Mentoring Matters includes: Report from mentors identifying main challenges to new advisers Mentees explain how their mentors have been important to them Map of all the current mentees and their mentors Mentees at high-poverty, urban and rural schools explain the difficulties they face. Mentor share advice for dealing with this difficult...
High School mentors help to create winners

High School mentors help to create winners

Last year’s mentee Tasha Beaudoin (right) and the Thousand Oaks High School Lancer staff members celebrate their Gold Crown at the Columbia Scholastic Press Association 2016 awards ceremony on March 18 in New York City. This is a great article about California mentors and mentees by Konnie Krislock on the California Newspaper Publishers Association website: http://www.cnpa.com/california_publisher/features/high-school-mentors-help-to-create-winners/article_5674147c-f83d-11e5-9eef-87a7bdbd3c1c.html...
Mentor Program remembers Nick Ferentinos

Mentor Program remembers Nick Ferentinos

Nick Ferentinos, one of the founders of the JEA Mentor Program, passed away on Sunday, Jan. 24, after a courageous battle with lung cancer. As a former journalism teacher and mentor trainer for the New Teacher Center, Nick emphasized to us the effectiveness of a formal mentoring program. He acted as JEA’s liaison with the...
Mentors enjoy camaraderie at dinner following Mentor Forum

Mentors enjoy camaraderie at dinner following Mentor Forum

After the day-long Mentor Forum, the JEA mentors go to dinner as a group. This gives them the opportunity to swap mentoring stories and advice, get to know new mentors in the program, and to explore the area of the convention. The mentors went to dinner at Disney Springs following their Thursday workshop. Here’s one...
JEA mentors help judge WriteOff entries at Orlando convention

JEA mentors help judge WriteOff entries at Orlando convention

  One of the roles that JEA mentors play at conventions is judging the WriteOff competitions. Here’s a group of the mentors at the WriteOff judging session at the JEA/NSPA convention in Orlando. From left to right: Linda Ballew, Stan Zoeller, Carmen Wendt, Carol Strauss, Linda Barrington and Carol Smith. The WriteOff competitions drew 2,003 entries...
Mentor Program helps new advisers develop leadership skills

Mentor Program helps new advisers develop leadership skills

A rewarding part of the JEA Mentoring Program is seeing the mentees and their students excel. New advisers stay in the Mentoring Program for typically two to three years. In that time, their mentors work with them to develop their advising and teaching abilities and encourage them to get involved in professional development. Jessica Young is one...