Nationally recognized journalism adviser Mitch Eden will be MIPA’s featured speaker at the 2017 Fall Conference on Oct. 16 in Lansing. Register now
Eden is the yearbook, newspaper and student media website adviser at Kirkwood High School in Missouri. In 2015, Dow Jones News Fund named Eden its National High School Journalism Teacher of the Year.
“Mitch is an outstanding journalism educator and his students consistently produce some of the best high school journalism in the country,” MIPA Executive Director Jeremy Steele said.
The conference draws 2,000 students journalists and their advisors to the state’s capital for a day of nearly 80 breakout sessions. Eden will be leading several sessions throughout the day during the Fall Conference.
Eden has taught for more than 20 years and currently serves as the adviser of the Kirkwood Call. He earned a bachelor’s degree in education and journalism from Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, and a master’s in education from National Louis University.
Planned session by Mitch Eden:
Building a Journalism Culture
One key to a successful journalism experience is the culture. Some staffs are able to build a cult of newspaper and yearbook that yields fun and hard work. This session will focus on what that culture includes and how to create one of your own.
Handling Controversy and Controversial Situations
We’d like our schools and classrooms to be a smooth-sailing Utopia, but we live in the real world where people sometimes say and do things they shouldn’t. As the storytellers of our schools, journalism students tend to be on the front lines. Strategies for tackling sticky situations of all types will be covered in this session.
The Heart of Storytelling
Reporting and interviewing fuels writing. This class will focus on reporting techniques around the concept of Human Journalism. We will explore how we can connect better, report better and write more effectively.
Socialnomics
We don’t have a choice on whether we do social media, the question is how well we do it. This session will discuss responsible social media use and different systems of posting and tracking.
