Awarded for overall excellence

Last year’s student staff at Coeur d’Alene High School’s Viking Voice took home an international first-place award for overall excellence from the Quill and Scroll, the second first-place award in three years for the monthly newspaper.

Six of the Voice’s eight issues were submitted and judged on content, writing, editing, display and design. Applicants also were judged on policy guidelines and business practices, based on statistics such as circulation and operating budget numbers. The paper earned “superior” ratings for its coverage, policies and business practices and a “substantial” rating in writing, editing, display and design, earning it 921 points out of a possible 1,000.

Adviser Teri Asher said the award reflects the hard work of her students.

“I may be their adviser, but this is definitely a student-run paper,” the teacher and former St. Maries Gazette-Record employee said.

The contest judges offer detailed critiques of all submissions, something Asher said provides valuable feedback on what students are doing well and where they might look to make improvements.

Though 2005-06 editor-in-chief Christina Grimsley, managing editor Lauren Lepinski and several other members of last year’s staff are gone, Asher and a few returning staff members are helping new staffers learn the ins and outs. Students hold brainstorming sessions for each issue and typically write about three stories per month, though not all are published. Asher is strict on deadlines and says the staff’s never missed a monthly deadline in the three years she’s been adviser.

Amanda Mall is in her fourth year as a Viking Voice staff member and said she has no regrets.

“I just remember writing my first story and seeing it come out in the paper that month – I loved it,” she said.

She’s been a staff writer and features editor for the paper and now is its chief photographer. She said she’ll still do some writing, and she plans to pursue journalism in college next year.

Teachers win grants

Five Kootenai County teachers received grants from the Idaho Forest Products Commission to help them teacher forest-related class lessons.

Michele Haynes, of Canfield Middle School; Heather Ketchum, of the Coeur d’Alene Charter Academy; Katherine Kosareff, of River City Middle School in Post Falls; and Colleen Peloquin and Jeanette Talient, at Spirit Lake Elementary, submitted proposals for the money and were awarded the money last week.

Haynes, a sixth-grade science teacher, plans to purchase microscopes and hand lenses for students. Ketchum, the arts and visual communication teacher at the Charter Academy, plans to use the money to create a reference portfolio of native Idaho trees in hopes of connecting art and science.

Kosareff, a language arts teacher for grades six through eight, will purchase books listed in a tree activity guide for the middle school’s library. Talient, a second-grade teacher, will use the money to buy magnifiers and education kits to help students learn about ecosystems in science, writing and art classes. Peloquin, also a second-grade teacher, will use the money to support the school’s Walk in the Woods field day. The grant has been used by Spirit Lake Elementary School recipients in the past, including Peloquin last year, to support Walk in the Woods, which gives students a chance to learn about forest trees up close.

The grants are all in the $200 range. Of the 25 educators who applied for the grants, 19 received them, according to the Forest Products Commission.