Team Building: The Drawing Game!
Bootcamp
Whenever we've just reached a deadline, or need a little break, or just for fun, I make my staff play the drawing game.
I learned how to play this game from one of my teachers in middle school. When we played it during the first bootcamp I hosted as EIC, it was a big hit. Basically, everyone starts with a sheet of paper. At the very top, we have 30 seconds to draw something, maybe a scene or an object. Then, we pass the paper to the left. The next person has 30 seconds to decide what they think it is and write it down under the photos, then fold the photo down so when they pass it to the left again, the person can't see what the original photo was. The next person has to draw what the writing says in 30 seconds, fold down the words so it can't be seen then pass it to the left. This continues until the papers make it back to their original owners or until they run out of space on the page. Usually, the end results have everyone laughing. At the end, everyone shares the transformational journey of their original scene to the ending translation.
On a more journalism related note, I've come up with a few activities to both break the ice, work on writing skills and get some beginning of the year housekeeping done . During the boot camps, I had staff members pair up with people they didn't know very well. In an ideal world, I would have had more experienced writers pair up with the new staff members, but almost everyone was new. They took turns interviewing each other using question ideas from the interviewing presentation, then wrote mini profiles using that information. Those mini profiles were used as bios for the staff page on the website.
During bootcamp, and throughout he rest of the year, I present Powerpoints about writing, profiles, event coverage, interviewing and designing. This gives people the very basics, although I find that the most beneficial activity to improve someones writing is to have them actually go out and write, then give them personalized edits.
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Another bootcamp activity is the photography lesson. To practice event coverage, staff members get to throw water balloons at the editors while others take pictures. We also bring bubbles and glitter so the people who don't want to get wet can participate. The pictures are always so much fun and its a great way to teach the new staff how to use a camera. They can see for themselves how the shutter speed and iso affect a picture.
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Brainstorming
Paper Plates
This is pretty self explanatory. Everyone comes with at-least five ideas prepared and we go around shouting out ideas for either the upcoming newspaper or magazine, or for our weekly yearbook coverage. I turn it into a budget ready to go for the next class.
This is me adding the classes ideas to a brainstorm for the opening and closing theme pages of the yearbook.
A fun tradition on the 506 staff is paper plates at the end of the year. My co-editor and I spent hours coming up with ideas and decorating paper plates for the end of the year banquet. They were hilarious.
Just a little staff picture because we're the cutest high school journalism staff ever!