The job of a college media adviser is sticky. Without any control over content or editorial decisions, a media adviser walks a fine line, trying to guide students to practice solid journalism without “taking over” or dominating decisions. I bite my nails on a regular basis, I hold my tongue as much as I can, and I try to keep my facial expressions at bay while pointing out the pros and cons of the decisions and proposals my students make. In the end, though, I trust them to go with their instincts and gut feelings. It is after all, their paper, not mine. Read the rest at http://www.shannonphilpott.com
Category: Blog
Do You Hear the Words That are Coming Out of My Mouth?
The other morning I was jolted out of bed by the sound of my daughter singing in her room. The sound of her voice was not disconcerting at all – in fact, it was beautiful. It was the lyrics that jolted me after hearing an 11-year old sing about getting “crunk and drunk.” I pulled myself out of bed after I heard: “Before I leave, I’ll brush my teeth with a bottle of Jack.” A few seconds later … “Erbody getting crunk (crunk), Boys try to touch my junk (junk), Gonna sock ‘em if he gettin too drunk (drunk).” Thank you, Ke$ha. Read the rest at http://www.shannonphilpott.com
GLEE-fully Reminiscing
High school was a turbulent time for me. Freshman year, I transferred to a high school where I knew only one person in a sea of 2,000 students. I had to leave my grade school friends and struggle to find my way, and more importantly, myself. As most high schoolers find, it is a time where you have no idea how to act, how to fit in and how to invent yourself. I wasn’t sure where I belonged – I wasn’t an athlete, I wasn’t in a clique, I wasn’t an honor student, I wasn’t a stoner and I wasn’t a cheerleader. I was just an ordinary student wandering around the halls, lost, until I entered the choir room. Read the rest at http://www.shannonphilpott.com
Meaty Story or Milky Mess?
I’ve never been one to rush out the night before a “predicted” snow storm and buy up all the milk and bread on the shelves. In fact, I often refuse to go anywhere near the stores when a storm is brewing, especially since I don’t even like milk very much. But, nevertheless, the rush of a “predicted” storm sends people into panic mode. They break out the survival skills and fill the fridge with necessities as if they will be snowed in for days. Snow day panic mode is very similar to a journalist’s or writer’s looming deadline. We know it’s coming sometimes days or weeks before and we know what needs to be done, yet we don’t break out our survival skills until 10 minutes before closing time. Read the rest at http://www.shannonphilpott.com
A Mother’s Intuition: My Kids Know Me the Best
I’ve always heard about and truly do believe in a mother’s intuition. My mother could always tell when something was wrong based on my tone of voice or my facial expressions, no matter how hard I tried to mask the pain or anguish I was feeling. She just knew something wasn’t right. She wasn’t a magician or a superhero – she was a mother. Now that I have two children of my own, I have the same gut feeling in my stomach when my daughter’s voice is low or my son turns his head so I won’t see his expressions. As a mother, you feel what your kids feel. You hurt when your kids hurt. Ironically, though, I think that we underestimate how much intuition our kids have. Children have a keen sense when it comes to someone they care about. Just as I can detect when my son or daughter has had a bad day at school, my children can sense the same from me. Read the rest at http://www.shannonphilpott.com
20,000 Pennies
We all have told a white lie, a fib or even exaggerated events or stories at some points in our lives. We fluff up the drama of a story, we embellish our job descriptions and paint a picture perfect image of ourselves. We call ourselves optical illuminator enhancers instead of window cleaners, underwater ceramics technicians instead of dishwashers, refuse and recyclable material collectors instead of garbage men and freelance writers instead of out-of-work journalists. It’s natural. We all exaggerate in order to prime our egos and feel bigger than who we really are – more accomplished and more successful. Read the rest at http://www.shannonphilpott.com
Proud to Sweat the Small Stuff
If you know me well, you know how I fret over the little things. It irritates me when wet towels are left on the floor, when dishes are in the sink and my counters are cluttered. It irritates me when my newspaper students don’t even the text off at the end of each story or leave half-empty soda cans next to brand new Macs in the newsroom. It irritates me when periods are outside of quotation marks, when story leads don’t have a hook and when text is bold or italics within an article. I sound neurotic already, but in my mind, the little things really do matter, no matter how much I get irritated. Read the rest at http://www.shannonphilpott.com
Pinewood Derby: A Teaching Moment
I’m not a crafty mom. I’m not even a very creative mom. I don’t follow directions well and I always put things together at the last minute. So when I first heard about the Pinewood Derby project for my son’s cub scout pack a few years ago, I panicked. How in the world was I going to help my son build a car, much less figure out how to come up with a concept for his car? What I quickly learned was that this project would be a teaching moment for all of us. As a teacher, I love teaching moments. I spend hours, even days, devising plans for classroom lectures, projects and assignments and then I do my best to make the plans a reality. But, I don’t do it alone. I give my students the information and then they add their own creative touch to the assignments and class materials. The Pinewood Derby is very similar. Read the rest at http://www.shannonphilpott.com
Redesigning Our Lives
For the past few months, my newspaper students have been planning a re-design of their website. They poured over possible layouts, templates, video components and social media plugins. Our online editor Jenn has worked tirelessly to make sure that the best laid plans became a reality. Jenn worked hard. The staff worked hard. And, in the end, the site was launched this week. The hard work and hours of planning resulted in a major change in how their news site functions. After witnessing their efforts firsthand, I began to wonder about other “things” we could re-design. Our staff manual. Our policies and procedures. Our copy editing processes. Our lives. Read the rest at http://www.shannonphilpott.com
I Hear Voices
I love to read, but I have the shortest attention span. If a story does not hook me from the beginning, my mind starts to wander and I start thinking about my next meal, the laundry that is piling up and my never-ending to-do list. A hook is crucial and for me, a good hook involves an interesting human subject in a good piece of writing (What is Good Writing?). I want to relate right away to a person’s life story, sense of tragedy or triumph and descriptive nature. Without a heartfelt, nail-biting hook, forget it. I’ll head off to do laundry. My favorite hooks typically exist in feature stories because the subject’s voice is established from the beginning. Read the rest of the story at http://www.shannonphilpott.com.
Shannon Philpott-Sanders 