Editing, Leadership & Team Building
My leadership philosophy over the years has been that Rock Media is a family, and in a family, there is a place for everyone. Every day, I make it my mission to make the staff feel welcome. Whether they’re rookies or returning reporters, I remember to make small talk, give compliments and listen to how they feel. We’ve made it a tradition to play icebreakers, do gift exchanges around holidays, and more.
Even when I’m working with them as an Editor instead of just a classmate or friend, I always take the time to sit down with them, consider their thoughts and emotions, and prioritize them first. As they slowly become part of the family, they find their place, too. Whether that’s becoming the latest up-and-coming podcaster, training to be the next Social Media Manager or having a new role, such as when I created the role of Graphics Editor, I try to guide everyone to find the niche they enjoy and the spot where their talents are best used.
Pictured above is me at the Editor-in-Chief desk, meeting with multiple students as we work together to edit content, check out cameras and get content ready to publish.
STUDENTS SAY...
While I'll explain everything below, one of my biggest beliefs as a leader is that I should put my staff first. So, hear about me from them first:
"In August 2023, I joined The Rock. I was timid and scared to speak up. There was one person in the class who was determined to make me comfortable, and that was Claire Bauer. She was the first to help me check out a camera and encourage me to start reporting. When I came back and got to show her the first-ever photos, it was so exciting because of how kind and encouraging she was. Claire made me feel like I had found my place. Eventually, I was able to pick out photos on my own. She cheered me on with every piece I wrote or picture I took. I always had her in the back of my mind. In November 2023, I was allowed to take pictures at volleyball State. After taking pictures at so many games, I had become more confident, and when Claire asked me if I wanted to do it, she made me feel special and inspired me to make these photos, now some of my best and favorite. I succeeded: with one of the photos, I won second place in the NSPA Clips and Clicks contest in the sports photography category. Claire was the first to tell me. When she told me and told me how proud she was, it was a moment I would remember forever. She inspires me to be better and is the reason I placed where I did in that contest. In our class, you will see her go from person to person, whether their heart is in the class or not. She encourages them to report and work on pieces they are passionate about. My classmates constantly talk about how kind she is and how she makes us feel confident. Claire Bauer is the Rock Online. She makes everyone on staff feel comfortable and is always excited to celebrate everyone. Working with or around her is an inspiration, and I am lucky to work with her every day."
-- Quinn Barton, first-year reporter
"Working with Claire has been an absolute pleasure. I’ve genuinely never met someone with such a strong work ethic. Claire comes to class every day with a smile on her face. She has never missed an editor meeting. While everyone is ready to go home, Claire recenters us with checklists and innovative ideas. Claire’s dedication and desire to be successful inspire me every day. I always had a fear of covering sports. But, one day, after softball Senior Night, Claire showed me her photos. I was in awe. It gave me the courage to produce my own sports content. I also adore how much of a team player she is. Even though Claire is already a skilled photographer and writer, she always shares her work and asks for feedback. She is so humble and holds herself accountable to meet standards. Whenever Claire asks me to do something, I am honestly delighted to, and can’t say that I would do that for everyone. Although it can be challenging to give constructive criticism to your peers, she does not let that get in her way. Instead, Claire consistently leaves edits on every single story that enters our Google Drive while simultaneously making sure the website is under control and that social media content gets posted every day. This year specifically, I got to work with Claire more, as I became a Social Media Manager. Claire helped me manage this new position and gave me specialized training to help me succeed. Claire has done this for every editor. At the beginning of the year, Claire devised our duties and responsibilities in a clear and organized fashion to help us be more productive. As Claire gets ready to go to college, she is leaving us in good hands by advocating for younger editors to take a bigger role in things from awards submissions to lesson-teaching whenever we can. Lastly, Claire makes her job look so seamless and easy, but, we all know being an Editor-in-Chief is not that. I am so proud of her and beyond grateful to have had her as my leader."
-- Sanaa Sow, third-year reporter and current Social Media Manager
"Without a shadow of a doubt, I would not be still on the staff without Claire Bauer. As Editor-in-Chief, she has gone above and beyond to help out her fellow classmates and me. My favorite memory was when I just started on staff, with no confidence. I was only doing it for an A. She submitted one of my photos for a competition and it ended up winning eighth place. That kept me going in this class, striving to do bigger and better things, and it wouldn't have happened without her. She brings energy and leadership to class every day and it makes me look forward to it. She is the right candidate. She is my E.I.C., but also my friend."
-- Blake Cartwright, second-year reporter
"Claire Bauer is phenomenal. She continues to amaze me with how much she contributes, including helping the yearbook program on top of the work she does for News. When working on yearbook, I can't express how thankful I am for her phenomenal photography gracing our pages. She is always willing to help by any means possible, whether it is through photo contributions, editing copy or serving as emotional support. While her work is amazing, her personality shines above it all--which, trust me, if you've seen her work, that's a lot to live up to. She is always jumping in to assist staffers. She is a friendly face who is kind to everyone she encounters. If you're lucky enough to work closely with her in the journalistic field, you'll soon learn that there isn't anyone comparable in her skill and nature."
-- Ali Gustafson, Rock Canyon High School's Editor-in-Chief of the yearbook
"If there were one person that deserved to win this award, it would be Claire Bauer. Words can't describe her hardworking, loving, knowledgeable, patient nature. She has been my mentor and friend, and has helped me grow my skills and build my love for journalism. Her passion for journalism comes out through her drive for her work. As our Editor-in-Chief, she leads our publication to thrive. We wouldn't win our awards without her. She is the glue to our class. Her skills are exponential, and she is always the first I ask when I have a question regarding Journalism, before even our teacher. Her expertise has enhanced my learning and encouraged me to grow independently as a journalist. She is the most supportive person when it comes to our work and is constantly encouraging us and pushing us to be better. I have never met someone with such exceptional planning skills; without them, our publication would not be what it is today. No one else could be as worthy of this award. I will forever be grateful for her friendship and mentorship through my years on staff."
-- Elly Brooks, second-year reporter and current Social Media Manager
EDITING
One of my main goals is to edit every single piece, rough or final draft, entered in the Drive at least every other day, if not more. As I've done more and more editing, I've made efforts to catch everything, from AP Style mistakes, formatting issues and spelling errors to areas where clarification is needed or a quote needs to be used. I do my best to meet with students in person when making changes or going through edits to ensure they understand the 'why' and 'how' behind the edits.
I've found that the best way to maintain a fast turn-around for content is to already have comments and suggestions left on the drafts before class so that we are ready to go as soon as we can, even if that means I'm spending hours outside of class with a cup of coffee and a computer, reading and editing away.
In order to help students make and understand edits as much as possible, I maintain availability almost 24/7--except when I (rarely) sleep. I have and will continue to meet staffers during lunches, study hall, my off periods, before and after school, and even over weekends and breaks. If I can't meet, then I can almost always call or send support via texts and emails.
Use the arrows below to scroll through examples of some editing comments I've left on drafts.
LEADERSHIP & TEAM BUILDING
My proudest leadership and team building moments have been when I am not leading.
I believe that a leader’s ability to set the staff up for success, train others and prepare for the future can say more about their leadership than anything else. I am proudest when an underclassman reporter approaches me with a desire to take on leadership or to sign up to cover an event. I am proudest when I see students celebrate each other or help each other with AP Style instead of needing me to make corrections. I am proudest when the program’s future steps up and succeeds: that is how I know that I’ve trained, taught and inspired them.
Use the left and right arrows below to scroll through pictures.
Simply put, I have taken advantage of every opportunity in and out of class to get involved, take leadership and build the team. I instilled weekly editor meetings that worked to keep all members of the editorial board on track and on the same page. At each meeting, I begin with my carefully crafted agenda and to-do list, then open up the floor for questions, discussions, concerns and more. The meetings were such a success that they've continued for a second year, improving our productivity as a whole, keeping our leaders working together in a team and allowing us to better produce content, train staffers and submit to awards.
I presented my "Tools for Teams" session to students and advisers from around the state at Colorado's Continental League Journalism conference in October 2022, then proceeded to teach it to students and advisers from around the nation at the JEA/NSPA National High School Journalism Convention in St. Louis in November 2022.
When I'm not teaching, I'm learning. I also attended the JEA/NSPA NHSJCs in San Francisco in April 2023 and in Boston in November 2023. I've led my staff at the Colorado Student Media Association's state-wide J-Day convention each year. Even over the summer, I helped run my school's ReThink summer camp and joined the yearbook staff in spending a week at Jostens's summer camp to improve my skills and prepare for the new year, all while encouraging my peers to tag along with me, whether that meant offering rides or Starbucks bribes.
View my "Tools for Teams" session below:
Part of being a leader and building a team means looking to the future, too. Not a year has gone by where I've been on staff and haven't made efforts to connect with the newest generation of possible staffers. I've answered questions from middle schoolers signing up for high school schedules, run the table at Future Jags Night, an annual event for eighth graders to explore different extracurricular options, and always decorate and pass out candy for the school's Trunk or Treat, a Halloween activity for students, staff and community members of all ages.
Not only have I worked hard to advertise the media program, but I've also made sure it's been fun, too. Bonds are built on those long and cold nights, bonds that are needed when deadlines roll around.
Speaking of fun... while I admit I struggle to keep my hands off of work, I've made an effort to intentionally build the team through fun times, too. Every year, we play icebreakers with a beach ball, so this year, I worked with editors to remake it with deeper and more meaningful questions so that students could have fun, get to know each other and practice interview skills.
We set goals with the changing of the seasons--writing on leaves in the fall, snowflakes in the winter and flowers in the spring--to hang on the ceiling and keep ourselves and each other motivated and inspired.
Gift exchanges and candy swaps such as "Boo Buddies" at Halloween, "Secret Snowman" at Christmas and "Valentine Bags" at Valentine's Day give students more chances to have something to look forward to while also forming relationships with one another. In everything we do, fun or work, staffers are reminded of the value of working together and looking out for each other.
Even when the weekend work days reach their 12-hour limit, I personally make sure staffers take breaks to eat, compete in chair relay races, go for a walk, and more. I'm not afraid to mom a little bit.
Our celebrations to recognize our peers, a.k.a. teammates, are crucial. Bubbles and bouncy balls are popular choices from the Treat Tray, a reward for those who meet deadlines or go above and beyond. Shoutouts, pizza and donut parties, and birthday celebrations are just about constant. I specifically even make sure our adviser ("BunBun") is getting celebrated too, forcing her to wear our notorious birthday sash as we sing and ask awkward birthday questions.
ORGANIZATION
I strongly believe that organization is what keeps the world going 'round, and that belief is reflected in the Rock Online. This year was a big shift for us, as we moved from Trello to a Shared Google Drive to SNO FLOW back to the Drive. Once we settled down with the Drive, I organized it with a combination of previous folders and new folders, all newly labeled and organized. It's been important to stay organized outside of the Drive, too, leading to my creation of multiple new lists, charts, calendars and more.
The Shared Drive is organized first by year, then by five main folders: Admin, Awards, Class Assignments, Reporting & Coverage, Resources and Social Media Posts. Admin contains everything from staff profile photos to passwords and Awards offers a location to enter and house submissions and results, Class Assignments include everything from worksheets to group projects we've done outside of our content-creation, Reporting & Coverage hosts all photo and video coverage and every rough, final and in-between piece that's been submitted and Social Media Posts are organized by month->week-->date to help both the staffers uploading and the managers posting to stay organized and timely.
Take an abridged version of a walkthrough of our Drive below with a few example photos.
Members of our editorial board, me included, have a lot of moving pieces to keep track of. At the start of my leadership, this was leading to miscommunications, mistakes, missed deadlines and more. To help fix those issues, I created a few key editor documents.
Master Doc: as its title suggests, this document holds enough to get you through the day. It begins with a calendar that includes everything from birthdays and events to meetings and deadlines, using a color-coding schedule of yellow=deadlines, blue=meetings, red=birthdays, green=events. Then, there is are notes for the meeting agenda for the weekly editor meetings, available for any editor to add to. Following that is a rough class agenda, with a daily to-do list and instructions for both each editor individually and the class as a whole. Finally, there's the extended to-do-list, there to serve as a home for the tasks and thoughts we can't quite put on our plates yet. Scattered throughout are even links to story ideas, resources, our passwords and more.
2. Currently Working On: again, the title is no mystery as to what this document is used for. Complete with four columns--name, pieces they're currently working on, what they need to do to get it published and a notes section--editors, especially copy editors, utilize this chart to see who they need to meet with and what about, who's working with who and when things are ready to publish.
The chart follows my color-coding of red=missing, yellow=work in progress, green=good to go and teal=priority and/or time sensitive.
*names were blacked out for privacy
3. Coverage Sign-Ups: it has taken a lot of flexibility to figure out the best way to have staffers sign up for coverage. The class switched between a paper calendar on a poster, an online table and a whiteboard, which we are currently using. I also ensure to include staffers in class-wide coverage brainstorms when creating these sign-ups, both to include as much as possible and to train their reporter antennae.
Both of the options listed below received mixed but mainly positive feedback, which encouraged us editors to attempt to combine the two and use a whiteboard, a project we're currently working on.
Coverage Brainstorm
Students were able to both suggest ideas they had to write about and claim events they want to report on.
Coverage Sign Up
The Coverage Sign Up features the event/topic, suggestions of options for what content students could produce, an area for them to sign up with their name and the due date.
4. Story Pitch Form: again, sounds self-explanatory, because it is. Staffers fill out story pitch forms, and/or present their pitch to the class, so that editors can keep track of who is working on what and so that other staffers have the opportunity to volunteer information and sources and stay aware of the rest of their team.
Communication
Our main form of communication is GroupMe. While anyone can send out questions, comments or concerns, I consistently use it for alerts, announcements, shoutouts, reminders and more to keep everyone on staff equally connected and informed. Use the left and right arrows below for some examples.
Part of communication is explaining expectations in a clear and concise way. The Editor Roles document that I created, as seen below, did exactly that by specifying daily tasks to complete and general subjects to be aware of so that each editor on the editorial board knew exactly who they were and what was needed of them.
See below for a few editor role examples.
TRAINING
Who doesn't remember the stress and panic of starting student media and not understanding any of the things being thrown at you a mile a minute? Not only have I seen others go through it, I've experienced it, too. Because of this, I've done everything in my power to train staffers as best as I can and provide all possible resources.
I train hands-on as much as possible. From editing with students in person to taking rookie photographers with me to cover events so I can teach them my ways, I do whatever I can to act as a resource for my students. Sometimes, it's even as a whim, such as using fake voices to do on-the-spot mock interviews with staffers struggling to talk to strangers. However, despite popular belief, I'm not always in our media lab, so I made sure we had resources that would be.
Over the summer, a student who was beginning Newspaper for the first time reached out to me and wanted practice so she could dive right in by the time school started. I spent the summer working with her when we could, including creating practice homework sheets for her, such as the one below:
Although things like the caption format, lede types and headlines are second nature to me, I can remember the daunting days when it was anything but simple. The documents below are just a few examples of many resource pages I worked with editors to create and add to the Shared Drive. The many documents include formatting, steps on caption writing and a formula to use, photography tips, AP Style reminders and examples of everything so that students can have the guides whenever and wherever.