Jacket journal or digital journalism is a creative arts credit class, where students get to be independent and express themselves creatively by writing articles on any topic they would like. Going into Digital journalism as a Freshman I just thought this class was for journaling, and not for something like a school paper. But I soon found out that it was, and I am going to share my experience as a jacket journal member, and what Jacket journal is all about.
The jacket journal class is run by Mrs. Boss, an English teacher here at WCHS; she is very kind and understanding. I am grateful I was able to have her as a teacher this year. Although the class is run by a teacher the students mostly run the class. We have editors who are kinda the leads, they edit the articles made by students before they can be posted to the website. I personally learned a lot from the editing and have been able to learn what many have learned, which is that articles unlike essays don’t have a specific set of rules, it’s a way to express yourself and not be judged on format.
In digital journalism we have something called a standup, that helps boost confidence or at least it did mine. Basically the whole class stands in a circle and we say what our goals are for the day, while the editors write it down. In The beginning many had trouble talking and were shy but over time as we got to know each other it was a breeze. In these standups we also share news going on in the world and are opinions; no judgement. It’s cool to hear all the different opinions on things happening in the world, especially with the election and everything that happened this year.
Digital journalism is not just a cool class and a way of expression but we also get many learning opportunities, such as the head of the Woodford sun came to visit and students got the chance to write articles for it. Students including myself also got to make STLP projects in which I was able to make mine on a very sensitive topic that was important to me. We also were able to read a book that we chose from a list, to learn about investigative journalism, and write about it.
I sadly won’t be joining again next year as I am wanting to go down a specific pathway; but I enjoyed myself this year and had a lot of fun writing articles, and expressing myself. I would highly recommend this class; it is truly a great experience; it’s one of those classes where you can be yourself and enjoy yourself. It’s a class where you can express your opinions without them being rejected. I hope I convinced you to join jacket journal. Don’t miss out on this fun high school experience!
