by Eva Joyce S. Valenzuela
[NEWSFEATURE] “A stepping stone for young journalists,” said Mrs. Evelyn Navia, school paper adviser-in-charge in Cluster 2 and English head teacher in Los Baños National High School, as she discussed the 2013 Division Training-Workshop on Campus Journalism on August 28, Wednesday.
Ms. Marjorie Molinar, Cluster 2’s News writing speaker as she discusses the basics of news writing, and the winning structures of news article (Magnon Dionell D. Domingo).
The Laguna Association of Secondary Schools Paper Adviser, Incorporated (LASSPAI) and Department of Education (DepEd) organized the training-workshops in preparation for the Division Secondary Schools Press Conference on October 17-19.
LASSPAI officers, members, and advisers gathered for a preliminary meeting on July 24 in Nicolas Galvez Memorial National High School. Details were finalized by Mrs. Erma Valenzuela as Education Program Supervisor (EPS I) in English, together with Mr. Jonathan H. Marquez, Mrs. Evelyn Navia, Mr. Mark Anthony Idang, and Mrs. Theodora Salamat in the DepEd Division Office last July 31, 2013.
Mrs. Valenzuela explained that the Division Training on Campus Journalism would give the potential writers the opportunity to discover and to strengthen their journalistic skills. In addition, this training was also designed to help the school paper advisers to decide and to place the writer appropriate to his category.
Campus journalists in Cluster 1, composed of private and public secondary schools in San Pedro, Biñan, and Cabuyao (Jonathan Marquez ).
The division training was divided into two types, namely team category and individual category. Under the team category are collaborative which requires each school to submit a mock paper at the end of the training; and radio broadcasting and scriptwriting which is composed of seven members: a scriptwriter, anchor, infomercials, news presenters, and a technical director). In the Individual category, it covers, news writing, sports writing, feature writing, editorial writing, copy reading, editorial cartooning, and photojournalism.
The division training was conducted by cluster to allow small group discussions providing close interaction between lecturers and the participants. It also offers achievable objectives of the training since in each cluster, students will be observed, taught, and assessed properly.
On August 10 and 17, clusters 1 and 2 conducted the training-workshop in Jacobo Z. Gonzales Memorial National High School (Jacobo MNHS) and Los Baños Community National High School (LBCNHS). The training aimed to expose the student-journalists and school paper advisers (SPA) with the new trends and practices and guidelines in campus journalism; assess the training needs of the participants as supported by their outputs; and provide our student-writers the opportunity to hone their journalistic skills.
About 800 students represented cluster 1, composed of the public and private secondary schools in San Pedro, Binan, and Cabuyao. On the other hand, 401 students represented cluster 2, which covered public and private secondary schools in Los Baños, Bay, Calauan, Victoria, and Pila.
Mr. Jonathan H. Marquez of Pulo National High School was head of the organizing committee for cluster 1 training-workshop where each school was assigned a room to work in.
In cluster 2, the participants were grouped based on their respective categories allowing students from different schools to train together. According to Mrs. Navia of the Los Baños National High School and cluster 2 organizing committee head, this type of grouping will increase the fighting spirit of everyone where they can feel the training already as a competition which in return will motivate them to listen and participate in the lectures and workshop.
The training resource persons selected have who worked with the National level speakers or judges and were also the facilitators of the Division of Laguna. The resource persons were requested to submit a Structural Learning Episodes (SLE) which consists of the flow of the speaker’s lecture, PowerPoint presentations, and exercises. The lecture discussions followed the 4As: Activity, Analysis, Abstraction, and Application. Each lecture was allotted two hours, one and a half hours for the discussion and the remaining 30 minutes for the workshop.
During the Radio Scriptwriting and Broadcasting lecture, students were able to identify the characters they fit in. It was like a skills orientation as well as voice training. During the session on photojournalism, the participants were strictly prohibited to use DSLR. Digital camera with minimum of 12 megapixels and maximum of 16 megapixels was be used.
Speakers for the individual category included Ms. Sherryl Ann M. Dadal of Sampaguita NHS in San Pedro for newswriting, Joselie G. Quemada of San Juan NHS in Kalayaan for editorial writing, Mr. Jonathan H. Marquez of Pulo NHS in Cabuyao for editorial cartooning. In feature writing, Marza Palentino of Philippine High School for the Arts in Los Baños trained the student while Mr. Paolo Manuel C. Fule of Plaridel NHS in Nagcarlan served as the resource person for sports writing. Lastly, the trainer for copy reading and headline writing was Mrs. Evelyn P. Navia of Los Baños NHS.
From the outputs of the participants who joined the individual category, top three best outputs were chosen. In cluster 1, 12 best outputs were chosen in each class, English and Filipino. These best outputs are selected based on the National Guidelines. A total of 48 best outputs were recognized in cluster 1. On the other hand, there were 42 best outputs. From the winners, facilitators have observed that most of them are already experienced writers who attend the regional level and even the national level.
Mrs. Valenzuela explained that the large turnout of participants became the challenge for the training-workshop. The organizers created additional classes and invited other speakers to accommodate the journalists and to have quality training to address such concern. Despite such limitation, the participants found the training beneficial not only in honing their journalism skills but also for gaining new friends from other schools.
“Masaya po,” Kristine Faith B. Manayam of Nicolas N. Galvez Memorial National High School said regarding the workshops she attended. The journalists-in-training said that their passion for writing increased after the training-workshop they attended. “Wag susuko!” was Kristine and her schoolmate Robert Borihaga’s realization after the training.