Lissauer assists junior Ayelet Prottas as she designs a page in Lissauer's section when she was news editor during the 2019-2020 school year. Lissauer always checks in with writers, photographers and designers throughout the cycle to make sure they are working and offer any help or support.
Editing
When I first became an editor, I found it difficult to teach the new staffers how to write a story in the comment sections of a Google doc. I started to edit one-on-one with whomever I could. I immediately saw so much improvement in not only their writing, but mine as well. When COVID-19 struck, editing one-on-one became much harder. Nevertheless, the power of screen sharing prevailed. Whenever I can, I edit stories with writers on Zoom. Not only does it help staffers truly understand the edits I am leaving, but I can ask clarifying questions. It also allows me to get to know new staffers, a challenge in a world of distance learning.
Once I read the first sentence of this story I knew I had to get the writer on Zoom to go over it. I first explained the overall structure of a news story, and then asked the writer questions to empower their voice. We went paragraph by paragraph and worked together to improve it while addressing any questions that arose.
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Editing this story was a challenge because the story was already late and missed some key aspects of a news story. While meeting over a Zoom with the writer, we addressed spelling, grammar and style changes. We met a second time to review the lead and structure of the story. This first year staffer struggled often. We published the story after extensive editing with the writer to ensure the writer's voice was not lost through the process.
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Presentations
A couple of months into this school year, I realized I was seeing a lot of the same errors when editing stories. Since I am the last person to read a story, that means there were issues with both the writers and editors. To help the writers, I made a Kahoot so we could go over a whole bunch of rules in a fun way. To help the editors, I made a presentation that included an activity in which they practiced editing a lead that we went through as a group after. After working on style rules, I did a presentation about leads with the goal of helping everyone improve.
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Leadership
Growing up, I was the shy kid the teacher had to consistently check in with. I originally hesitated to apply for editor-in-chief because I was afraid of talking in front of the staff. At that point in time, I had already been an editor for over a year and had grown so much, but my shyness was still very noticable. It is mind blowing to me how far I have come. Now, I talk in front of the class with ease every day. Because I know what it is like to be the shy, nervous kid, I always go out of my way to check on and offer support and encouragement to everyone around me.
Organization for print
Since we were not only putting together our first newsmagazine but we were doing it virtually, I created a variety of spreadsheets to stay organized in all the different aspects. Any editor or staffer was able to open up the print folder to find the status of anything related to print, which was an important communication tool throughout the process.
Team building
Since we were in distance learning, three months into the school year I still couldn’t put a face to so many people I was texting on a regular basis. To combat this, we dedicated an entire day to playing “guess the staffer.” For this, I had everyone submit a photo from when they were little that I compiled into a Kahoot. We spent the class period laughing trying to figure out who was who. By playing games like this, our staff was able to bond as a group — with the added bonus of some possibly embarrassing pictures.
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One of my favorite parts of Echo is the holiday traditions, especially the gift exchange “secret Echo friends.” While COVID-19 made it difficult, we had to be creative. We settled on sending a nice note or virtual gift to your assigned person. During class, we all sent ours at the same time, and I sent a nice text to the few who did not participate. This was a simple activity that put a smile on everyone’s face and brought the staff closer. Several staffers said this activity made them feel appreciated and part of the Echo community.
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