The Discoverer Arrives at The Columbus School

Escaping from the routine of traditional English classes, 11th graders are studying journalism working on The Discoverer,  The Columbus School News Portal.

Approximately 82 11th graders are writing articles, conducting interviews and shooting photos on news  and events to inform TCS community on everything that is happening.

We cover the student news, all the writing and decisions are made by students, to inform The Columbus School community about interesting things that are happening in school,” David Gold, Discoverer Advisor and English Teacher, said.

This project will help students face the future with the skills need to be successful in the real world. The process grows their ability to interact with people and to solve problems. In addition, writing journaism article help students develop new forms of writing.

It is real, it prepares you for real world. When you are in real world you need to learn how to solve problems, you need to deal with different people,” Gold said.

Advisors Gold and 11th grade English Teacher Emily Butterworth don’t tell the students every step they need to complete, so they are more independent in the process of gathering ideas, interviews, notetaking, and writing articles. 

Teachers are more a facilitator, helping students to find their own path. It is different from a typical English class,” Butterworth, said.

Producing The Discoverer for TCS, brings the students, families and alumni closer to the school. By reading each article, they inform themselves about everything going on at school.

I think it is a great idea go and learn about the school, and that we can interact with all that is happening. I feel this is a great idea because The Discoverer not only allows you to write about it, it also allows you to read all the stories that your friends wrote,” Juan Jose Escobar, 11th Grade student, said.

Each student is assigned a beat, a special zone in the school to find stories and write articles. Beats are given to students according to their interests. Each individual grade level has its own beat, for example K4, as well as special groups like GIN, sports and adminsitration.

Students report on things they get interested in. In the past you needed to write a paper and there you have the exact concept on what you needed to write,” Butterworth, said.

All the TCS community is getting involved, obtaining information for every section of the school. They are  included do to the fact that articles may relate with them or topic appeal. 

“It’s a way of getting information out of the community, getting community members more involved in what it is happening in school, informing people events that are happening in and outside school,” Butterworth, said.

Students are constantly working on articles and covering news during and after school, because of this they have to be very organized and responsible with their time. This demands a lot of discipline and responsibility from students.

“Sometimes you need to go out of school, depends on the beat you are doing, almost all the people have the beat in campus, but a couple of them take them off campus,” Gold said.