Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Out of Business

Tuesday of last week (16th) was the last day of school. I received our ASB report for JagWire. Our balance was -$3,190. Not so good. I sat down with Brian and our ed board on Thursday to try and figure out what happened. We looked at our revenue statements, and compared them to the ads sold. We determined that we had collected $400 in ad revenue FOR THE YEAR! We sold almost $4000 in ads.

Tomorrow is the first in a series of meetings with the ed board to try to strategize about collecting our ad revenues. We'll see how it turns out. I've spent a good chunk of the day today putting together invoices. Tomorrow morning I'll need to write a generic letter to advertisers, and then the students will get to go collect the funds.

Without settling our account, it will be difficult to put out a paper next year. We'll begin with no ASB support, so collecting this ad revenue, selling ads for issue 9.1, and making sure those funds are collected is extremely important.

Friday, June 20, 2008

Revisions of Revisions

At my last posting, I announced my decision to go back to elementary. Well, I changed my mind again. Why? Well, because.

Some good things happened to me after Spring Break. The first was the trip to Anaheim. I got to know Jim Meyerhoff and Gary Osborne a bit better, and felt we were all trying to do the same thing. They are also CTE teachers, and I felt like was part of something. It was also great to hang out with students for the better part of a week. You feel just a little bit closer to them.

The other really important thing that happened was choosing a new editorial board. I am very fond of the five girls we chose. They are talented writers, and they want to become better designers. I think they are going to be fun to work with. They are also my board. As much as I loved the 07-08 edition, they were Nusser's kids. These guys will be mine, and I will work as hard as I can to support them.

My American Studies classes turned out to be a mixed bag. The morning class ended up being a fun group, but a mixed bunch of students. Some finished the year strong, others just played out the string. The afternoon class was just not fun--some great kids in there, but too many with special needs, and too many others who were just idiots.

My goal for next year is to be more focused in my approach to history, and to learn to become a better English teacher. I'll continue to work at being a stronger journalism teacher and adviser too. In fact, I'm still trying to understand the rhythms of high school. It is a much different gig than elementary. It's harder, the work is more constant and the hours are longer (if you do it properly.)