With around 40 staffers on print and online combined, being a leader of tjTODAY isn't always easy. However, over the years, I've come to embrace a leadership role, and the impact that I can have in one.
LEADERSHIP AND TEAM BUILDING
LEADERSHIP AND TEAM BUILDING
BRAINSTORMING
PRINT ISSUE
Every print issue cycle starts with a class-wide brainstorm. Standing at the front of the room, we motion for any ideas that may work in the magazine and write them down as soon as they fly our way. If an article idea does not work for print (largely due to timeliness), it goes in the online section. My goal as print editor-in-chief has always been to make our brainstorming sessions fun and inclusive for everyone. As a freshman, brainstorming sessions showed me that I have a voice on tjTODAY, and I want others to feel the same way.
Once our brainstorming session is complete, I consult with the rest of the print editorial board in selecting ideas for the issue. Afterwards, we create a Trello board with the layout of the magazine, and allow writers and designers to sign up for the ideas that they like -- as long as they spread themselves out equally.
ONLINE CONTENT
Unlike print, online brainstorming runs 24/7. Whenever a staffer has an idea, they can put it down in the online-idea spreadsheet and either ask to write it or leave it for someone else to claim. As online editor-in-chief, I met with team leaders at the end of each class in order to make sure that editing and posting deadlines were being met.
PRESS CONFERENCES
Every month, we have a class-wide press conference with our principal. As online editor-in-chief, I made sure that we included questions on pending online articles that could benefit from the principal's knowledge. This year, as print editor-in-chief, I do the same for magazine articles. Below are examples of question docs that we prepare before the press conference:
REMINDERS & STATUS CHECKS
As print editor-in-chief, I send reminders whenever deadlines are closing in. This year, in order to help a more inexperienced group of staffers than usual, we added several sub-deadlines. In addition to the traditional first and final draft deadlines, we added dates by which interviews and photos should be done, as well as dates when we would be doing spread and article checks.
I also check in individually with staffers in advance of significant deadlines and provide them with feedback. Because we only have class every other day, I rely on regular status checks to make sure that work is being completed as expected. In previous years, status checks were not as necessary because all designs were hosted on a centralized platform. Now, however, we have to wait for designers to upload their most recent versions to Google Drive before we can give them feedback.
POST-SHUTDOWN COVERAGE
After FCPS shutdown in March of 2020, my team I were initially lost on how to proceed. We weren't sure how we would meet as a team or even if we could continue covering stories. Eventually, though, after a week to determine the plan, we began meeting from a virtual environment. I worked with my staffers to brainstorm articles and conduct interviews online. Considering our collective inexperience at the time (we were all either freshmen or sophomores) I'm incredibly proud of the work that we did to keep Jefferson informed doing one of the most chaotic times in its history. Below are some standout articles from that period:
*PHOTO BY AAFREEN ALI
Online Needs Some Redesigns
Several weeks into remote learning, staffer Aafreen Ali decided to write an opinion on online education. At first, her article lacked solutions to the issues that she described. As a result, it read more like a well-written rant than a journalistic opinion. After going over the article in a team meeting, Aafreen and I were able to revise the piece so that it provided legitimate proposals to improve online learning.
Helping Our Heroes
While news articles on the situation were more important than ever, we also wanted to cover the work that Jefferson students were doing in the wake of the pandemic. In this article, staffers Christina Lu and Nathan Mo covered one student's initiative to provide food for healthcare workers.
*PHOTO COURTESY OF THE CONNECTION
SPORTS COVERAGE
LIVE-TWEETING HELP
After a freshman year in which I live-tweeted six different games, I sought to help others do live updates on TJ sports events as well. In late September, after a staffer expressed interest in live-tweeting, I met with her in-person to give her tips. I also directed her to my previous live-tweets as an example of the analysis and how frequently she should tweet. After her live-tweets (below left), I provided feedback on her work, letting her know that she provided quality analysis but that she needed to be more impartial (below right).
WRESTLING COVERAGE
As a sophomore, my team and I were in charge of wrestling coverage for the season. However, save for my feature on an all-girls' wrestling team, none of us had covered wrestling before. In order to help my staffers, I connected them with members of the wrestling team who I'd gotten to know while writing my feature. Additionally, because it was difficult to explain wrestling scoring in just a few sentences, I created a guide (see below) that they could link to in articles. In total, my team put out a solid six news articles on wrestling that season.
I also met with a staffer before she live-tweeted basketball in mid-January of 2020. Once again, I directed her to my live tweets as an example. This time, I also stressed that she needed to avoid editorializing. After she finished (below left), I complimented her analyses but stressed that she needed to add more depth to her coverage (below right).
TEAM LEADER SPORTS ASSIGNMENTS
As online editor-in-chief, I made sure that every team leader was assigned a sport to cover with regularity, the same way I was assigned to cover wrestling the year before. Below is the chart of spring sports assignments that we made:
INTERVIEWS & PHOTOSHOOTS
As an editor, I occasionally help staffers on tight deadlines get interviews and photos for a story. While I let them incorporate the content into the story themselves, I want to do my best to make sure that they have everything they need to work with.
Fall Sports Standouts
Print issue articles normally take 2-3 weeks to write and refine. But in October of 2019, after her previous angle didn't work out, my staffer was given less than a week to write a completely new piece. In order to help her overcome the time crunch, I set up and conducted interviews with three of the people being featured.
FEATURED IMAGES
When it came to online content, I took a number of photos for the featured images on my staffers' articles. To view those photos, see the gallery on the left.
WINTER WEATHER DRIVING HACKS
This particular contribution of photos (see left) came not as an editor but as a freshman helping one of my fellow staff members. The writer had authored a piece on winter weather driving hacks but lacked relevant images. In order to help her, I ventured into my garage armed with a camera, chips, hand sanitizer, and a pair of socks. While not my most illustrious photoshoot, the experience no doubt ranks among my favorites as a student journalist.
GRATITUDE/WELCOME PRESENTATIONS
Halfway through last school year, I worked with other members of the editorial team to organize a presentation (below left) congratulating our journalism 1 students on finishing staff training. Especially in an online environment, I wanted them to feel welcomed as a part of the tjTODAY community. A few months later, I organized a presentation with short thank you notes for the outgoing seniors of tjTODAY (below right).
