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Editing, Leadership, & Team Building

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Editorials Reflection

A few months after joining Verde, I became an editorials editor, leading class discussions on various editorial topics including Palo Alto High School Principle Brent Kline's approach following a controversial event dubbed "Egg Wars", and increasing pay for substitute teachers in the district. After being confronted with class concerns on the Kline editorial, we narrowed the focus from the topic of restorative justice down to a simpler praise of Kline's handling of "Egg Wars." For both editorials, I was able to compassionately deliver critique while helping them through the writing process, both verbally and online (see the images above).

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Perspectives Reflection

Becoming a perspectives editor was a daunting yet exciting experience. As perspectives editor, I was sure to consistently remind staff writers to update their story drafts during in class check-ins at least once a week, and left detailed and nuanced feedback on story documents. Working through stories such as that of "Rejection Comes at a Cost" and "Dear Future Self" was sometimes challenging due to the limited space to write, sourcing problems, or the need to create a more logical line of reasoning, but ultimately, we were able to collaborate with the EICs and work through potential issues to create satisfying final products.

In my senior year. I continued my role with a focus on improving my interpersonal communication with staff writers. Early in the semester, I was presented with a staff writer who struggled to accept feedback from myself and other EICs. This was an issue as the entire outline of the story required significant revision. Ultimately, while I wanted to ensure that I was still being kind and cordial to this staff writer, I knew I had to put my foot down and so in subsequent meetings with this writer, I decided to set clear goals and had clear discussions to ensure that these goals were accomplished. Learning when to be harsh while still supporting my staff writers was not only a helpful experience for me to get a greater understanding of how to deal with students who struggled with feedback on their stories, but gave me the tools to better praise and instruct students who were writing award-winning perspectives.   

© 2022 by Andy D. Robinson.

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