Welcome back, advisers!

I’m Michelle Coro, your newly elected lead for Arizona Interscholastic Press Association, an organization that has encouraged students to pursue journalism since 1949. I hope that somewhere between checking updates on schedule from your administrators and the necessary recovery from reinventing school last year, you found time for things that brought you joy this summer. For me, it’s been a lot of time with my family. As our thoughts return to school, I welcome the year and the opportunities to share support from AIPA.

And that’s exactly what we hope you will do. We’ve all struggled with the ideas of what to do in our classrooms and how to make it all work. Are you the one and only journalism teacher on your campus? Are you looking for a mentor who gets it? If you’ve ever heard the call that America needs journalists, well guess what? America needs journalism teachers!

FREE Curriculum

We know that there’s a lot out there right now, and determining what is high quality can be a full-time job. If you still need help, The AIPA board recommends:

• Anywhere JEA, distance learning-focused lessons produced by journalism educators from across the nation for anyone to use. New journalism lessons are added regularly, and all fall outside the JEA paywall. Curriculum published by School Newspapers Online, free to any school journalism program. It focuses on journalism principles of writing, reporting and multimedia journalism.
• NSPA can assist you in taking your publication to the next level. Schedule a critique to work with a seasoned adviser!
• SPLC resources for teaching journalism include presentations, quizzes, webinars and the opportunity to schedule a Zoom session with a press law speaker.

AIPA Contests and Convention

We hope you submitted your students’ work for recognition in the AIPA general excellence contests. Each entry will be reviewed with the top entries receiving gold, silver and bronze honors during the AIPA Awards Ceremony at the High School Journalism Convention on Oct. 26, 2021, at the Arizona State University main campus. Visit our website, azaipa.org, for more information about past conventions. Registration will open in early September at azaipa.org, so start the field trip process now. Interested in presenting a session or facilitating a roundtable? Propose and present it at the convention!

Finally, my request to you: forward this page to fellow journalism advisers in Arizona and invite them to join our organization, register for the convention and get their students involved with media programs. We all do such important journalism education work, and now — more than ever — we want to come together to support and encourage each other. If you are interested in attending our board meeting on Aug. 28, 2021, at 8:30 a.m., drop us a note for the details! We want your thoughts and ideas on how to support scholastic journalism in Arizona.

Have an amazing start to the 2020-21 school year!

Michelle Coro

AIPA Board President

[email protected]