Summer and fall yearbooks can be sent to Jane Blystone as soon as you receive them for judging. Note, yearbooks must be received by September 15 in order to be judged in the 2009-2010 All State competition. After that the book will be critiqued, but will be submitted to the 2010-2011 All State [...]

JEA will be providing Pennsylvania advisers opportunity to take the national CJE or MJE exams at the state convention. If you have questions visit www.jea.org/certification or contact Jane Blystone at You must register with JEA for the exam plus we must have five people registered with Journalism Education Association headquarters by the [...]

PSPA treasurer, Carissa Pokorny-Golden passed her dissertation defense today. Bravo, Dr. Pokorny-Golden

Hey, Everyone,

Don’t forget that Saturday is the postmark deadline for PSPA summer critique entries. I am so excited the piles of yearbooks and literary magazines are coming to my house every day.

Can’t wait to see your great work for the year.

jb

It’s that time of year again. Start preparing your publications and individual entries from critiques. Look under entry forms in RED at the right to get forms and submission instructions. We are using a NEW PROCESS this year, so read every item carefully. Do not use last year’s forms, only the [...]

You can read and hear Henry Rome’s speech presented at the JEA/NSPA Portland convention at this URL:

http://friendsofthespoke–latestnews.blogspot.com/2010/04/rome-censorship-threat-to-democracy.html

Seth Zweifler, PA School Press Association Student Journalist of the Year, earned one of the four runner-up scholarships today at the JEA national convention. Zweifler, of The Spoke, Conestoga High School , Berwyn, Pa. received a $2000 scholarship. Thirty-six states submitted an entry to the national scholarship opportunity.

More events at the JEA convention [...]

Two Pennsylvania have received JEA certification during this school year. Wanda Pletcher, from Altoona, received Certified Journalism Educator (CJE) certification at the Washington convention and Susan Houseman, Berwyn, received Master Jouranlism Educator (MJE) certification at the Portland convention. If you are interested in taking the CJE or MJE exam at the PA School [...]

Advisers,

Don’t forget to submit your convention session proposals at this website: http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?hl=en&formkey=dFJoRnA0YkxvUDlmX0lQVzhWMnN4T3c6MA

We have added several days to this and we will confirm all sessions by the end of April.

We look forward to giving you the opportunity to share your great work to other advisers and staffs across the state.

Jane Blystone
PSPA Convention Co-chair

Congratulations to Penn Points at Penn Manor High School in Millersville, Pa. for being nominated as an NSPA online finalist. Check out their current edition at: http://www.pennmanor.net/pennpoints/
Robert Henry, editor
Susan Baldrige, adviser

PSPA is inviting advisers and staffers who have a great idea for a session to submit a proposal to present at our November 2010 convention in Harrisburg. We are looking for sessions for broadcast, literary magazine, newspaper websites, yearbook, advisers, junior high/middle school. This year, we are accepting proposals online only.

Go to this [...]

Great job, Image Explosion staff. You come up with the most exciting ideas every year! Bravo!

JB

From Carol Knopes of RTNDF:

Paul Kandell is this year’s Dow Jones Newspaper Fund National High School Journalism Teacher of the Year. His students at Palo Alto High School have been doing cutting-edge multimedia for years. If you heard his terrific multimedia acceptance speech at the JEA Convention in Washington, D.C., you know what a passionate [...]

RTNDF has announced the Five Freedoms Essay Contest. High school and middle school students who produce video are eligible to enter.

Entries must be received by the February 19, 2010deadline. To be eligible for the early bird prize of $100, students must submit their entries by February 2, 2010.  

For more information, visit the [...]

Check out this great podcast at NPR:   “Sounds from Inside the Teenage Mind”

http://www.npr.org/templates/rundowns/rundown.php?prgId=10&prgDate=12-27-2009

Very thought provoking from the minds of teen authors.  Our country has HOPE – these writers are our HOPE for America.

Rene Harris, 17,  a 12th grader at Oxford Area High School in Oxford, Pa., has won the DOE video contest. She shares her story about overcoming personal setbacks at home.  Check out her video at this link.

Life Comes at You Fast: Driving the Conversation to Save the Big Three Automakers Organization: BBK Agency: Fleishman-Hillard and Strat@comm Bronze Anvil #3A
CONTEST BACKGROUND and rules

Texting while driving is a major distraction for teens behind the wheel. The Keep the Drive High School Journalism Awards require journalists to focus on this critical issue to [...]

PSPA president Bob Hankes made the HUGE mistake of posting his birth date on FACEBOOK, so now we canall wish him HAPPY BIRTHDAY, today!  Such a young person!

Wow, this has been a great convention in the nation’s capitol.  We are 6,300+ strong with around 150 folks from PA.  Henry Rome and Seth Zweifler received the Courage in Journalism Award.  Many PA award winners (both students and advisers), will post more later.

What a great day Bob Hankes and I had working with PPU journalism professor Helen Fallon and other journalism faculty from Point Park University at their fall High School Media Day.  Over 250 students and advisers converged on campus for workshops, critiques and great opportunity to rub shoulders with professional media like Lillian Thomas from [...]

Courage in Student Journalism Award winners from Pennsylvania

According to Logan Aimone, executive director of the National Scholastic Press Association, two high school journalists who successfully opposed a retaliatory censorship policy are the recipients of the annual Courage in Student Journalism Award.  The student winners are Seth Zweifler and Henry Rome, the current and immediate past [...]

You should see these yearbooks and literary magazines – they are AWESOME! I had the wonderful privilege of coordinating the judging and spent hours when they came back from judging to look over the great work inside each one!!!!!!!!

BRAVO!

According to the Erie TImes News (10/26/09) ”The Press Club of Western Pennsylvania is taking applications for a $5,000 scholarship that will be awarded to an aspiring journalist in May.”

Western PA students who are enrolled in a college or university for two years are eligible. Download application at westernpapressclub.org.

Great opportunity for former student journalists at [...]

WOW! What can I say! This cover and spread are so profound. We shoudl not be afraid of the world to come with compassionate young people as those profiled here.

Sam, this spread drives home the fact our state government’s slow budget process has hurt so many peple. I hope you send this to Quill and Scroll for an individual entry because it ROCKS!

This cover is graphically dynamic. Love the use of words like this to convey so many needed messages. How you carry that inside will be the challenge. I am so pleased to see you breaking out of the mold to try a 21st century approach to design. Doing covers the same [...]

Killer design. I love the headline and the graphic at the bottom that emulates sound from a digitized studio sound board. Great use of actual Emmy award with sidebar that explains how it was conceived. Cool that it is Bloomsburg female graduate who won the award. Such great local angle and [...]

Congratulations to Susan Houseman, adviser at Conestoga High School, who has been chosen as a Special Recognition Adviser by the Dow Jones Newspaper Fund. Bravo!

Congratulations to Susan Houseman, adviser at Conestoga High School, who has been chosen as a Special Recognition Adviser by the Dow Jones Newspaper Fund. Bravo!

Hi Everyone, I am so excited that we have upgrade our website to allow you to use some many great features offered by WordPress. Join in our network right here to help you produce the best publications ever.

Jane