Newspaper Issue #1 of 11.11.13.

This is indeed so, we have finally been able to issue our very first official school newspaper, and it has been both a thrilling and busy day for us as we tried to coordinate everything in order to deliver a good impression of our cause, and most importantly, have people enjoy our work. As stated in a previous post, we are planning to make the paper a bi-weekly edition, although if we struggle with the timings we may revert to a tri-weekly scheme. 

Front page

For the primary edition, we have been able to gather a wide variety of gripping articles from students of differing ages, all the way from year 7 to year 13. Our issue contained an editors' note reflecting the purpose of our enterprise and thanking the students for taking time to read our newspaper, although this notice was placed on the final page whereas usually the editor's column goes on the front page, so for the next issue we may consider transferring it. The creative writing showcase consisted of three very diverse pieces: we had a descriptive article on snow, a poem, and a story in many parts which we will publish consecutively in every issue. We had informative writing on skating opportunities in Moscow, along with a captivating article commenting on the death of a fascinating artist named Lou Reed. Two entries constituted the list of so-called 'personal' contributions: a confession of a student on their love of singing, and the expectations of a young year 7 upon their arrival in high school. We've had some discussion-based writing on the matter of celebrating disparate occasions, an encouraging article written by Cveta herself asking students and teacher to join in the Movember phenomenon to raise funds for charity, and a book review produced by a devoted reader. A few advertisements went up concerning the Art and Literature Expo which is being organised by Cveta yet again, although I have volunteered to write a welcoming entry piece boosting people to attend it, and a comic strip competition hosted by the newspaper. Finally, we have included a 'guess the teacher' rubric which features images of teachers at a young age, an art focus commenting upon recently produced school artwork, and a crossword, all of which has been formalized by Cveta. 

First double page

Unfortunately I was off sick for the whole of last week and therefore unable to aid Cveta with many preparations for issuing the newspaper; this time I shall most certainly put my best effort into helping her with this grand project of ours. Due to lack of coordination on our behalf, we ended up printing the papers on Monday morning, although that was when we were supposed to hand them out; ultimately, we distributed them during class which was incorrect for we disrupted lessons, and this is why next time we shall prepare the copies in advance so that they can be administered for the long registration period on Monday.

Second double page

Another significant improvement that should be made is to ensure that our supervisor examines the final draft of the paper before it is issued, so that if any problems occur concerning the material, then logically the teacher and not the students will be held responsible; for this issue we ended up printing it without finalizing the content with our main editor, which could potentially cause some concern, hence next time we shall agree on everything prior to setting the edition into stone.

Final page

Albeit I believe that we have done a good job for a first ever issue of a complete newspaper; we may have experienced some trouble with formatting it since the software that was being used wasn't acting exceptionally user-friendly, however that is a minor issue that could easily be averted next time. What's most important is that we have tried to adopt a more liberal approach, allowing our correspondents to compose on a topic of their choice, yet we were successfully able to edit the material so that we excluded some inappropriate or provocative parts (which is a very important ethical issue, especially in our multinational institution), although we didn't fully deface the work submitted to us. Both me and Cveta look forward to the following issue and we shall work hard to improve the quality of our service, hopefully making the newspaper more appealing every time. 

Expanding our newspapers' benefits

That's right, just as the title suggests, Cveta and I have decided to extend our newspaper to not only cover its natural purposes of delivering information to the eager readers, but to also enable us to be more ecologically-friendly and well-aware of the surrounding world. With the additions, we hope to encourage the population of our school to seek and use any opportunity they can to aid our planet and its peoples.

The first advancement is the idea of recycling the newspaper; it may seem trivial, albeit we will be issuing around 200 copies of about 4-5 A4 sheets, which would otherwise simply end up in dustbins when that significant amount of paper could be reused with a benefit to the environment; moreover, we will ask both the students and the teachers to contribute to the general pile with newspapers brought in from home, for it is evident that there must be allegiant readers in a fair few families. The collected material we will then transfer to the nearest recycling facility, with a small portion being donated to the art department for further creative usage. To make the compiling process more efficient, I have decided to make a special box which will be used as a drop-off facility: I began with some plain cardboard which I then decorated with old newspapers (I believe that too counts as recycling...) and a fancy label welcoming people to dispose of unwanted material.  

The attractive label

Overall view of the box

The other change that we have decided to implement into our work is a fund-raiser: we realised that it is of vital importance for the school as a community to donate money to those in great need, and gathering finances through our service seemed like a workable idea. As of right now, we don't have a concrete charity or cause that we will be collecting the funds for, albeit we plan to find one as soon as possible; we chose to set up a coin jar in the hallway of the school, next to the recycling box, to attract greater attention from the students and the teachers; through the newspaper itself we shall alert them both of the significance of our enterprise and our desire to get everyone involved. The jar has been designed and renovated by me in attempt to make it noticeable and potentially capable of collecting large amounts; as a sort of an encouragement, I have placed a few coins and a note into it so that it wouldn't appear empty upon placement.

Frontal shot of coin jar

Piggy-bank style opening

I will further keep updating information concerning both the recycling and fund-raising activities in order to create a legible account of their progressions. We may add a few more tweaks to the newspaper because we see it as a great opportunity to expand our knowledge of the school population and involve everyone in various beneficial events.

Flickr beginnings

A while ago I finally decided to commence a photo stream through the use of a famous website, flickr.com; I have become interested in photography only recently, and in order to somehow enhance my ability to take reputable images and to turn my constant camera shots into something more fruitful, I chose to set up an online image bank so that people could view my work and hopefully become interested in what I do.

As of right now, my page contains only a petite amount of images, albeit I plan to expand it to house tens of pictures which will reflect my surroundings as well as my personal feelings. Instead of just uploading photos in a disorderly manner, I will work towards creating streams of related pieces corresponding to, for example, the season of autumn, or a certain place I may have visited; that way I hope to make my page more alluring for those interested in photography. In order to expand the amount of material available for editing and display, I shall ensure that my camera will accompany me almost everywhere I will go, and I intend to offer the services of a photographer at different events being held both within and outside my school. 

Screenshot of my page

My photo stream can be viewed here; I hope to update it regularly, and I shall post new entries on my thread concerning any developments that I may make or any projects I may become involved in. I will also track what will hopefully become a development in my image skills so that I will have something to show for my work.