Welcome back, advisers!

Arizona Interscholastic Press Association is an organization that has encouraged Arizona students to pursue journalism since 1949. 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

It’s true, there’s a lot of curriculum out there right now, and determining what is high quality can be a full-time job. If you 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 in the fall, at the Arizona State University main campus. Visit the convention link 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, one request: 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 one of our board meetings, drop us a note for the details! We want your thoughts and ideas on how to support scholastic journalism in Arizona.

Have an amazing school year!

AIPA Board – [email protected]