This was my first assignment I completed at my internship. It was a promotional flyer for the school-wide basketball night. My supervisor provided a template for me to base the design on, but she allowed me some creative freedom. I created the document in Word and it was a very simple first project.
Farmville Herald Article: One of my mentors, Christy, asked me to write this article, because she said I had strong writing skills and liked the previous articles that I had written for the Falcon Flyer. She ended up sending this article to the Farmville Herald and it was published. Christy retrieved all of the interviews and I simply wrote the story. It was a neat project and I was very honored and excited to have it published.
I worked on making a documentary for Fuqua School this semester, focusing on the past 25 years and how the school has changed over time and how innovations today will impact the future. This documentary took several interviews, reshoots of interviews, countless hours of retrieving b-roll footage and many hours of editing. I had fun with the project and it is something that Fuqua School can use to educate their families.
This article was the last written task I completed as part of my internship. My source was not available for an interview and did not respond to my email until after the article was due, so I decided to write the article from more a a research standpoint. I was given an article about Olive and some information from my supervisor, Dara, and I constructed this article for the latest Falcon Flyer.
Falcon Flyer Article (May 1, 2018)
Like other students, Olive spent her days learning and growing. She liked to be around others and worked tirelessly to do her best. However, Olive was not the typical Fuqua School student, because she is a service dog. She was trained by Elizabeth Rutherford, who is an assistant teacher in Mrs. Carilli’s K/1 class. Olive is the second dog that has been trained at Fuqua School by Elizabeth. Students learned how to properly interact with Olive and enjoyed her presence daily campus. At times, students had to be respectful of her training standards and refrain from petting her, but occasionally, she could be treated as if she was more like the school’s pet. Now Olive is doing what she was trained to do, serve others, in this case a woman named Hannah. Hannah has a condition called Addison’s disease which causes a deficiency of the adrenal gland hormone, cortisol. With this disease, Hannah may feel extremely fatigued and weak. Olive has been trained to detect Hannah’s cortisol levels through scent and determine if she may need to seek medical attention. With Olive by her side, Hannah is able to pursue her interest in theatre as a stage manager, without fear for her health.
I wrote this article for the Falcon Flyer. I retrieved the interview, but did not take the pictures that are attached to the article on the site. Falcon Flyer articles are written in a unique manner that is not quite APA or AP or MLA, I am still not really sure what the writing style they are going for, but I tried to implement what I have learned in media writing into the articles, whether it is the inverted pyramid or some techniques from the Associated Press.
Falcon Flyer Article (April 15, 2018)
Mrs. Kathryn “Kathy” Jefferson who teaches the fourth/fifth grade (4/5) class in the lower school has recently been recognized for her successful completion of the National Geographic Educator Certification Program. She was selected by the Virginia Geographic Alliance (VGA), to participate in the program, specifically for training on the new Giant State Traveling Maps, which are geared towards elementary education. “I was very excited and honored to participate in the conference for our state,” said Kathy. She also mentioned what a privilege it is to be a member of VGA and how every educator should take advantage of its free membership with many benefits and opportunities. Kathy embarked on the mission of becoming certified through the program beginning in July 2016. “It took me about a year to complete the lessons and capstone video, because I was challenged by the VGA to work with and develop lessons for older students, too. Through the process, I worked with Pre-k through college level students” Kathy said. The National Geographic Educator Certification program is free for educators, but is extremely competitive. “Each state selected 2 representatives for their state. My cohort consisted of the east coast educators”, Kathy said. The certification is offered three times throughout the year for a fall, winter or spring Cohort and evaluations occur twice a year, in the fall and spring. The program requires the completion of three phases, the first being a certification workshop, that she completed in Washington, D.C. In the second phase of the certification process the educators were prompted with creating and facilitating two activities that have to do with themes associated with the ideals of National Geographic. For her activities, Kathy created lessons for the Giant State Traveling Map of Virginia. The first lesson is on the five regions of Virginia, which includes making a topographical map, marking various locations on the map and identifying resources. The second lesson she completed in Phase 2 involved using GIS on the map. “Students use iPad technology to locate and label their home town in relation to cities printed on the map,” Kathy said. The final step of the process is the Capstone project in which the educator must submit lesson plans, photographs of student work, and film a brief video explaining their work. “The most challenging part of the experience was learning how to create and edit video,” Kathy said.
She mentions that she plans to continue to incorporate concepts that she learned through the certification process and plans to continue using the Giant State Traveling Map. “The map is really a wonderful tool for teaching students how to develop the attitudes, skills, and knowledge to learn about the world around them. Students of all ages love the hands-on, feet-on learning style” said Kathy. For a geography camp this summer at Fuqua School, Kathy will host “The Giant State Traveling Map of Virginia” (16’ x 20’) and “The Giant Traveling Map of North America” (26’ x 35’). Kathy is the state coordinator for the Giant State Traveling Map of Virginia. “Our first year was a learning process and time to develop more lessons,” Kathy stated. The National Geographic Educator Certification Program proved to be quite an incredible process that has provided Mrs. Jefferson with many opportunities.
Many congratulations to Mrs. Kathy Jefferson on her certification, Fuqua School is very proud to have an exceptional and dedicated teacher like you!