Week 4: The final product

1,267 words, 15 interviews and 5 document sources later, my final in-depth article is complete. 

This was easily the hardest article I have ever written. 

My first and biggest problem was the amount of information I had compared to how much I could actually use. I had to narrow down 17 pages of notes to just over 1,200 words of article. That was tough. But, after staring at my outline for an hour, making a sandwich and a few cups of coffee it finally dawned on me: write what surprised me. 

And so I did. I narrowed down my original topics to two: reduction of teacher assistants and teacher pay (or lack there of). 

By narrowing down to what surprised me and what impacted me, I easily developed the information to what a reader needed to know. 

My second problem was the flow of the article. After arranging, rearranging and arranging again, I finally found the perfect fit. 

Despite the problems I had while writing this article, I learned so much in the process. This truly was an article showing just how much I’ve learned over the past few years. I’m proud of the work I put into this article and how it turned out. 

Week 4 In Depth: speed bumps

It’s finally happened. I’ve hit the speed bumps in this article.

The smallest of those speed bumps is talking to sources in larger counties. It seems the more students in the county, the harder it is to find the right person to interview. I have to go through the communication department to talk to people in the larger counties and explain, multiple times, exactly  what my article is about and exactly what questions I want to ask. Although this is annoying, it is something I can easily conquer if I try enough.

The next biggest speed bump is making since of all of the data and interviews I have collected in the past few weeks. At this point, my notes are 13 pages long on Microsoft Word, but I still have seven interviews to conduct. Again, this is something I can conquer because I’ve done it before.

The biggest speed bump, and something that could send my car/article crashing off the road, is finding someone to use as the intro to my story. I was hoping to find a teacher or teachers assistant in the High Country that would be willing to talk to me about their struggles, both in the classroom and personally/financially, because of the education budget reductions. The problem is finding a principal who is willing to recommend a teacher to me. So far, none of the principals will recommend anyone to me.

Tomorrow, I have two interviews scheduled with different principals in the High Country. I”m hopeful that they will know someone I can talk to.

If not, I have a source back home who I know has a story that will be compelling for my article. It’s not the ideal lead, since the county is not in the High Country, but it is a back-up plan. Almost like an airbag, if you will. While the idea is to stay on the path and find a source in the High Country, if I were to swerve off the path due to a speed bump, I at least have an air bag to keep me safe.

Week 3 In Depth: trends reported by sources

After speaking with three sources in different counties of the High Country, I have found that the trends I saw in the budgets have transferred into the local districts.

The biggest trend that causes the most impact on local schools is the elimination of tenure and that teachers have not had a raise in years. These two trends have caused N.C. to drop to 48 out of 50 in teacher pay.

According to sources, teachers have been discouraged because of the elimination of tenure and the lack of raises, and this is affecting teacher morale.

Another concern that the school systems have is the ability to hire good teachers even though the pay is not good, sources say.

The loss of money to fund the previous amount of teachers assistants is another trend that worries local school districts. Although no counties have had to let go of any positions, they have had to freeze positions that were vacated because of retirement. This leaves the remaining assistants going back and forth between classrooms.

Next week, I will see if these trends and more are also happening in other counties.

Week 3 In Depth: Interviews begin

This week I will begin my interviews on the recent education budgets in North Carolina and how they have affected schools.

I have interviews set up with representatives from Ashe, Avery and Watauga counties. This people will represent my sources from the High Country.

After meeting with my professor, I’ve also expanded my story to include how other mountain counties that are slightly bigger have been affected and how bigger counties such as Wake and Mecklenburg have been affected. I plan to try to get in contact with them this week as well.

The biggest struggle I expect for this week is actually being able to catch someone in their office. All of my sources have a two-day week because of Thanksgiving, so I know they will likely be busy. I expect I will have to schedule interviews with a lot of them for next week.

Being able to start my interviews with the High Country school districts will be helpful, though, because I can use the trends that they report to ask more detailed questions to the bigger school districts.

Week 2 In Depth continues… trends

After three long days of interpretation, I’ve finally made some since of the numbers I collected.

I’ve learned that there are three overall trends locally and in North Carolina when it comes to cutting back in the education budget: reducing teacher assistants, freezing teacher pay and reducing money for textbooks/supplies.

In the 2013 school year budget, the biggest cuts occurred in the form of reducing money for teacher assistants and eliminating tenure for future teachers. I believe these two topics will be some of the main subjects my sources will wish to address in their interviews. While cutting money towards TA’s has been a common practice over the past five years, the elimination of teacher tenure is new. In fact, some are even questioning the legality of this new cut.

Regardless, the trends I’ve found while searching through the education budgets for the last five years are clearly important and relevant to schools in the High Country and in the state.

I begun to set up interviews with different people in county offices across the High Country. They will be able to give me more personal information about how the education budgets have affected schools over the past five years.

 

Week 2 In Depth: numbers, numbers numbers

For my final article, I decided to begin my reporting in the facts and numbers of the budget.

I’m already lost in the numbers.

Thankfully, the DPI has made some very helpful tables that include the final budget for each year with line item spending. These tables also show the comparisons to the money that the house, senate and governor wanted to spend on education. This helps to easily find numbers and compare them.

The problem is the quantity of data available is copious and all of it seems relevant right now. So far I’ve coped multiple pages into Microsoft Word purely of numbers like spending on text books the past five years, how much the state allotted for teacher assistants and what the state allowed for spending on classroom supplies.

It’s very easy to get lost in all of this data. For this week, my plan is to find all of the relevant data I could possibly need and make since of it.

I’m quite certain that making since of all of this data is going to be the hard part. But, once I see all of the numbers clearly on one page laid out in front of me, I’ll be able to see the trends over the past five years and begin the interviewing process.

Let the reporting begin

For my last assignment in specialized reporting and my last article I will write as a journalism student I will be writing an in depth story.

This story must focus on a trend in North Carolina in the education beat.

I’ve chosen to write about the trend of North Carolina reducing public education budgets and how that trend has affected schools. I want to find out what, if anything, schools have had to cut because of these reduced budgets.

I plan to begin my article by focusing on local schools in the High Country. I would also like to talk to some schools around the state to see if the cuts have been similar across districts.

This subject has many challenges that come with it. The first, and what I predict to be the biggest, will be interpreting data. I think it will be easy to find education budgets from the last five years. But, getting all of the numbers, making since of them myself AND interpreting them for the reader will be a difficult challenge.

Another challenge I predict will be to take out the political nature of this topic. Both sides of the spectrum have their opinions on what the budget should be, where the money should be spent and what could be cut. For the recent budget, Republicans claim there is more money in the budget while Democrats typically say their is less, despite the numbers. Finding the truth in all of these opinions will be a struggle.

Last, I think it will be hard to find a ‘normal’ source. By normal, I mean a teacher, teachers assistant or principal who can give a realistic view of these budget reductions. People in central offices obviously are important to talk to because they know the numbers and facts. But, I also want to find someone who has been affected by this trend.

Overall, this story will be a lot to undertake, but it is a subject that everyone needs to read about.

In Depth Article

This week I will begin my final article for Specialized Reporting which will also be my final article as a journalism student.

Writing that is scary and intimidating, but also refreshing.

In depth reporting is the hardest for me because it combines everything I’ve learned over the past few years. I have to use my hard news writing skills to cover the news of my topic, my feature writing skills to bring some personality and readability to the article, the interview skills to find good sources, the organizational skills to make my article flow correctly and the research skills I’ve learned to find the relevant information.

This task can easily be daunting.

But, when I feel overwhelmed, I think back to the past three years and realize that my professors have taught me all these skills I need and more to make this one of the best articles I have ever written, if not the best.

All the hours of reporting, homeworking and revision have allowed me to hone my skills as a journalist.

Now, I will tackle an in depth story about a trend. It almost feels like trying to climb Everest. Thankfully, my professors have given me what I need to make it to the top with no problem. I just have to believe in myself and do the legwork.

Letters of Recommendation

The time has finally come: I am going to graduate in May. I am going to be job hunting. I am going to need letters of recommendation to get said job.

I’m sure, just as this time of year is terrifying for us senior undergraduate students, it probably gives a similar emotion to professors. They know that on top of the work they already have with teaching classes and having lives outside of class, they will also be called upon to write letters of recommendation for us.

I know that this is a privilege for us, not something that professors have to do. I remember how overwhelmed some of my teachers were in high school when the majority of our senior class needed letters from them for college, scholarships and jobs. The stakes are even higher now, since these letters could be what help launch our careers.

Given those circumstances, I know it’s important to take into consideration all that you are asking your professors to do.

I was thankful for Julie Dodd’s blog post about letters of recommendation from a professors point of view and for her tips about what we can do to make it easier for the professors.

For me, I think the most important tip was the first: giving plenty of time before the deadline date.

Over the next few months, I’m sure I will need a letter of recommendation from one of my professors. When that time comes, I will reference back to Julie Dodd’s blog post so I can make the request as easy for my professors as possible.

Here is a link to Julie Dodd’s post: http://thoughtsonteaching.wordpress.com/2013/10/31/tips-for-asking-for-letters-of-recommendation/

In-depth story: education budget cuts

For my in-depth story this semester I will explore how state budget cuts have effected local school systems.

This year, Governor McCrory signed a bill that changed the education budget in multiple ways. Although democrats and republicans are still arguing about wheter this bill cut the budget or simply moved money to different places, it’s easy to see that the bill made big changes to how local public education systems function.

I want to see how this bill has changed our local school system. Were any teachers laid off? Were teachers aid’s laid off? Did some teachers not recieve the compensation they expected? More importantly, did this bill harm how children in our local systems are educated?

I expect that one of the main struggles with this article will be getting past the politics of this new bill. As I’ve already said, both sides are still arguing as to what this bill has done to local education. I want to get past the politics and find truly what has changed because of the bill.

Another struggle will be finding specific people that have been effected by this bill. I want to get past the upper tear of sources and find teachers and possibly student families that have been effected by this bill.

For this article, I will be using the actual bill that was signed into action. Here is a link to that bill: http://ncleg.net/sessions/2013/budget/2013/SB402_Committee_Report_2013-07-21.pdf

I will also be reading other articles on the  budget cuts so I can be well educated on the topic. Here is one of the articles I will consult often: http://pulse.ncpolicywatch.org/2013/08/01/mccrory-claims-nc-education-budget-largest-in-history/