Saturday, March 5, 2011

Investing in coverage

Been raptly following the Peterborough Examiner's five-day "In the classroom" series this past week. The paper dedicated approximately a half-page a day plus video as reporter Elizabeth Bower shadowed King George Public School for the week. Unfortunately, the only part I can find on the Examiner's website is day one. That's disappointing for you, since there were even some video teasers on the printed pages for days two and beyond. I've searched every section of the website as well as using the search function and cannot find the other four parts on the website.
Regrettable.
Regardless, I commend the Examiner and Bower for this five-part series. The Examiner is not that large of a newsroom (it was about 20 people when I interned there 12 years ago and has only gotten smaller since then) so the decision to spring one reporter, with support from a photographer/videographer, for five full school days is a large commitment.
The articles are comparative ('back when I was in school...') but also explanatory in nature. We all tend to fall back on our own experiences when we were in school, so writing of this nature on an occasional time frame helps remind us of how the practices in schools change.
We all win when we have a better understanding of what happens in our classrooms and readers of the Examiner have that this week.

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