Adviser Mentorship
It starts with you.
If you're new to teaching journalism, a veteran teacher who is switching to a new media to which he/she is being assigned, or have been teaching courses for a few years in yearbook, newspaper, online news, or broadcast and want to improve your program, you should consider being partnered with a mentor.
Pennsylvania School Press Association participates in the national Journalism Education Mentoring Program. Teachers new to the profession or new to publications advising can apply for a mentor through PSPA, JEA, the JEA Pennsylvania State Director, or the two nationally trained Pennsylvania mentors Kathleen Zwiebel and Jane Blystone.
The purpose of the program is to retain quality teachers, improve the teaching practice of novice teachers and build stronger scholastic journalism programs. This program was developed using the model designed by the New Teacher Center using evidence-based pedagogy. It provides an ongoing support system for new journalism teachers/advisers both professionally and personally, especially through resources of continued training at workshops, conferences, conventions and classes.
The JEA cadre of nationally trained mentors provides curriculum development and staff management assistance and materials, connection to a wide network of other trained mentors in all areas of student media, and supports quality teaching in the classroom. A number of mentees have earned national Rising Star designation and serve on boards of their state’s scholastic media association. Several PSPA mentees have or are serving on the PSPA state board.
This program is of no cost to the mentee or the school. In fact, mentees receive free JEA membership during the time they are in the mentoring program. Teachers interested in mentorship must have their publications be members of PSPA (Membership Page).