Jason Wallestad

Exploring the worlds where parenting, teaching, advising, and coding coincide.



Advising

Tools vs. Skills: Rethinking WordPress and the focus of modern scholastic journalism

August 27, 2013

Our students use a lot of tools in their work as journalists; they use physical tools such as computers, phones, recording devices, card readers, and cameras, but they also use software tools such as InDesign, PhotoShop, and Microsoft Word. It seems that in the last five years, there’s been a veritable explosion of new tools Read More

Developing an authentic and effective grading system in a journalism class

April 8, 2013

Every year I struggle with how to grade my journalism students –– they all have different responsibilities and assignments, and there just isn’t an easy formula for grading all the things they do.  Some students write, some take pictures, some design pages, some copyedit, and some lead and coordinate –– none of it translates easily Read More

Toward more effective revision: teaching editors and writers self-sufficiency

February 23, 2013

With every student I’ve taught, the writing process varies––some students can write beautiful first drafts and some require dozens of drafts to get there.  Critiquing a story, like writing one, is an art, and the writing teacher’s and editor’s job is to sense the needs of each writer and help him or her build a Read More

Becoming an online-first publication

February 12, 2013

My journalism students have been publishing an online edition for five years now, and it’s only in the last two years that they’ve really figured out how to do it right.  When we first launched our website, it was a novelty, an afterthought, a place where we deposited our stories after they were printed, hoping Read More

Creating a legacy of student leadership

February 6, 2013

We teachers sometimes mistake our own hard work and busyness for good teaching.  Years ago, I used to be proud of myself for spending hours critiquing drafts of journalism stories on the nights before deadlines.  We had a shared Google Doc with a list that students added their names to when they were ready for Read More

Gather ‘Round the Campfire

January 23, 2013

I love my editors this year, and they’re one of the most talented groups I’ve taught, but man, are they bad at paying attention to me.  What was that over there? A shiny bauble?  What was I saying again… They come to class, and the first thing most of them do is migrate to the Read More

The Accidental Adviser

January 18, 2013

I never intended to be a journalism adviser.  I took my first teaching job in a rural school in the middle of South Dakota, and, like many others who advise high-school publications, I was handed the newspaper advising responsibilities along with my first English classes.