ABOUT US
What is the Falcon Facts?
_ The Falcon Facts is the school newspaper for Forest Hills Lutheran School. It is written and published by 6th through 8th grade students in the Falcon Facts Fine Arts class. Along with the actual team, we have the help of Karen VanScoten and Dan Seim for copying and publishing the paper to the web.
History of the Falcon Facts
_ The Falcon Facts was first published by Jessi Beyer in 2009. Only a few issues were published that year, and the staff was mostly one person. Next year, Jessi’s 7th grade year, the Falcon Facts began in January and was published monthly for the rest of the year. That team was larger, and consisted of 5 8th graders: Jessi Beyer, David Gehlen, Matthew Johnson, Dallas Underwood, and Amber Holland. This year, the 2011 - 2012 school year, the Falcon Facts has been made a middle school fine arts class (see below for more information on how the class works). The students have enlarged the Falcon Facts by almost 50%, and have continued to publish it monthly. Jessi’s goal is to train someone during the last two issues to be the editor, so that the Falcon Facts can continue when she goes to high school next year. For the April issue, some of the middle school students - and this is not limited to only current newspaper members - will be shadowing her as she does her editorial duties. For the last issue, the apprentices will be the editors.
How the Falcon Facts class works
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The Falcon Facts is one of the middle school fine arts classes. First, to be accepted into the class, the students were asked to write about what their skills were and why they would be an asset to the Falcon Facts. Now, the class meets twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, to work on the issue. The first class of a new issue consists of choosing sections and brainstorming ideas. The next 2 - 3 weeks, the students use the class time to work on their sections, whether that means taking pictures, interviewing people, or writing. Over the weekend, Jessi Beyer edits each section and puts all of them in the paper to create a semi-final draft. The following class, each student receives a copy of the finished paper. They each go through the whole thing and read every story, looking for editing mistakes to be corrected by Jessi. The morning of the next class, after the changes are made, the final paper is given to Mrs. Karen VanScoten, who copies the paper for the team. That class time, the Falcon Facts is folded and distributed.
When and where to get the Falcon Facts
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The Falcon Facts is published about every four weeks, or every month (on the home page, under the section “What we’re working on”, it will have a date that the next issue will be published.*) The Falcon Facts is distributed to every student at Forest Hills, and an email containing a PDF of the paper is also sent to every family. There will also be some extra copies in the lobby by the main office.
*The Falcon Facts paper copies are in black and white. The email and online copies are full color.
*The Falcon Facts paper copies are in black and white. The email and online copies are full color.
Sections in the Falcon Facts
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· Main Article
· Sports
· Games
· Student-Authors (this is where a non-team member submits a piece of writing to be published in the paper)
· What’s New at School? (this is the local section, with details about what each class is doing)
· Short Stories (these are pretty self-explanatory. There are normally 3-5 per issue)
· Review (this varies between a book, movie, or game review)
· Survey
· Editorial
*Not all of these sections are guaranteed to be published in each issue. Some sections that are published are not mentioned on this list.
· Sports
· Games
· Student-Authors (this is where a non-team member submits a piece of writing to be published in the paper)
· What’s New at School? (this is the local section, with details about what each class is doing)
· Short Stories (these are pretty self-explanatory. There are normally 3-5 per issue)
· Review (this varies between a book, movie, or game review)
· Survey
· Editorial
*Not all of these sections are guaranteed to be published in each issue. Some sections that are published are not mentioned on this list.
How you can support the Falcon Facts
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The Falcon Facts team is always looking for ideas on how to improve the paper, with new section ideas or small layout tweeks. Reviews and comments are also always welcome, and can be a huge encouragement to the writers, photographers, and editor as they hurry to complete the paper. Volunteering to help with the Falcon Facts is another great thing, too - a very special thanks to Mrs. VanScoten for copying the paper each issue and sending out the school-wide email!
