Oklahoma scholastic media advisers gathered at Gaylord College July 19-23 for training in online media publications.

Have you ever heard that teachers make the worst students? I’ll admit, as a professor, when the tables turn and I become the student, I am not often the ideal pupil. However, I also have to say, what makes teachers bad students often makes them excellent teachers.

Recently, July 19-23, I ran the Oklahoma Scholastic Media Initiative in my fourth year as its director. This grant program, made possible by Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Education and Gaylord College, gives money to scholastic media teachers to start or improve student-led online media publications and provides training for them in running those publications.

For the 2016 program, we trained 18 teachers and awarded 14 schools with a grant between $3,000 and $7,000 per school, for a total of $70,000 in funding for scholastic online publications.

For five days, media professionals and Gaylord faculty and graduate students offered sessions to the teachers on topics ranging from setting up and managing a website and using social media to report news to refreshers in photography and media writing.

During our time together we joked often about how a bunch of teachers in a room all together often talk over each other, interrupt, can’t settle down, take a presenter off topic–you know all those actions we don’t want our students to do. But I figured out why we (teachers, instructors, professors) are like this.

The energy in a room full of educators is too electric to contain. We are full of ideas and knowledge, and it wants to burst out of us in all directions. That’s what I witnessed at OSMI 2016. Thank you to EEJF and Gaylord College for making OSMI happen, and thank you to all the presenters and participants for making the week something special.

I can’t wait to see what you do with your funding!

Schools/advisers receiving OSMI grants for 2016 include:

Donna Deaton, Wister Public Schools

Debbie Frankenburg, Purcell High School

Amber Harp, Little Axe High School

Derrick Miller, Duncan Middle School

Tammy Parks, Howe High School

Lauren Peck, Poteau High School

Kacee Price, Collinsville High School

Adrian Ramos, Elgin Public Schools

Irene Runnels, Indiahoma High School

Heather Slater, Pansy Kidd Middle School

Ashely Spencer, Broken Arrow High School

Stephanie Terry, Del City High School

Darla Tresner, Bartlesville High School

Jamie Weston, Ada High School

Paige Wilson, Harding Charter Preparatory High School

Additional teachers trained at OSMI 2016 include:

Robby Carriger, Purcell High School

Jeremy Davis, Norman High School

RaShonda Hutchings, Wewoka Public Schools