Class info
The Skyline Sun is the voice of the Skyline High School community. It is a self-supporting student newspaper produced primarily by the Skyline newspaper class. Unless otherwise noted, the opinions expressed are those of the independent staff and do not represent the views of the administration or the student body of Skyline High School.
Friday, 5/16
We spent class today wrapping up the Web site and the CHSPA sweepstakes awards.
Wednesday, 5/14
Today we worked on finalizing the awards entries for next fall’s Sweepstakes Awards. We also worked on putting the rest of this year’s issues online and invoicing all of our advertisers.
Monday, 5/12
Today we de-briefed from our last issue of the year. We also started assembling nominations and materials for the CHSPA Sweepstakes Awards at next October’s Journalism Day at CSU. We will finish up the awards stuff and do some other end-of-year wrap-up on Wednesday.
Thursday, 5/8
Today we finished Issue 8, the last issue of the year. Distribution will happen Monday morning at the end of 5th period.
Tuesday, 5/6
Today was final draft day for Issue 8. If your draft was not completed, it will probably not run in the paper (and you will likely receive no credit for it). Production is Wednesday evening, and we will put the paper to bed on Thursday afternoon.
Friday, 5/2
Last day for reporting and writing before next Tuesday, which is final draft deadline. Students can also be selling ads!
Wednesday, 4/30
Work continues on Issue 8. God help us all.
Monday, 4/28
Today was the rough draft deadline for Issue 8. If your rough draft wasn’t in during class, it will not be published, which will have dire consequences for your grade.
Final draft deadline is next Tuesday, May 6. Production will be the following evening after school.
Thursday, 4/24
Interviews and writing should be going on through Monday, when rough drafts are due. No story will be published (or continue past Monday) if I do not see a rough draft and get to conference that draft with the reporter.
Tuesday, 4/22
Today I finished up my conferences with students about the last issue and the end of the year. Work continues on Issue 8. Rough draft deadline (which must be met) is next Monday.
Friday, 4/18
Today I had conversations with most of you regarding what needs to be done to end the semester successfully. Interview questions are due on Tuesday, and rough draft deadline is not too far away.
Wednesday, 4/16
As previously announced, I was absent today. Students should have finalized story assignments (and editors e-mailed those to me), begun interview questions, invoiced advertisers, begun section layouts for Issue 8, worked on putting Issues 6 and 7 online, and begun advertising calls for next year. We will continue all of this on Friday, and I will also conference your end-of-year checklist with you that day too — if you haven’t completed this yet, please do so by Friday’s class.
Monday, 4/14
Today we reviewed Issue 7 and started talking about Issue 8, the last of the year. I gave everyone a checklist, which you will have to review with me, this week if you want to pass the class. I also handed out the calendar for Issue 8:
Must have story assignment — Wednesday, April 16
Interview questions due — Friday, April 18
Rough draft deadline — Monday, April 28
Ad deadline — Friday, May 2
Final draft deadline — Tuesday, May 6
Publication night — Wednesday, May 7
Publication — Monday, May 12
Thursday, 4/10
Issue 7 was completed today. We will publish/distribute on Monday, 4/14, at the start of 6th period (9:22 a.m.). This is a change from our normal distribution to accommodate the prom assembly between 5th and 6th periods.
Tuesday, 4/8
Issue 7 production is this week (tomorrow night, in fact). Final draft deadline was supposed to be today, though many stories are still ongoing. Layout is supposedly mostly done, though, so we’ll see how it goes this time finishing up the stories by Thursday. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
Friday, 3/28
Trying to finish up Issue 7 stuff before break. Final draft deadline is the Tuesday we get back! Should be exciting.
Wednesday, 3/26
More reporting and writing for Issue 7. Remember, final draft deadline is the first class day after we return from spring break!
Monday, 3/24
Today was rough draft deadline. Before getting down to writing, we discussed headlines as a class — pointing out good and bad headlines in some local papers and discussing what made them good. In general, good headlines must be a complete sentence, containing a subject and a verb, and a strong active verb is best. They need to try and tell the whole story in just a few words. They need to fit a specific (and often incompatible) space requirement. And it helps if they’re punchy — rhyming, alliteration, puns can all work, but are tough to pull off well. I’d be happy if we could pull off the complete sentence/active verb part more consistently.
All rough drafts had to have headlines with them. We’ll continue working on headlines with the stories this issue to see if it helps the overall headlines situation in the paper. This means they are the responsibility of everyone — from reporter up to editors in chief.
Thursday, 3/20
Today we continued work on Issue 7 with interview questions and a few beginning interviews. Rough draft deadline is next week.
Wednesday, 3/19
Today we continued work on Issue 7, including planning and layout.
