I also want to update everyone on the series I wrote about before the school year began and sent me into a crazy-busy tailspin.

As I previously wrote about, I began in August the first part of a 10-month series. The series is basically a year in the life of a local elementary school on the brink (it was then at least…) of restructuring because of No Child Left Behind. The idea was and is to go inside and spend time at a “failing school” to see what takes place in the classroom, on the playground, in the office, at the homes, etc. and examine why this school is in the position it is and what we can learn from it. It’s a comprehensive look at all the different factors that come into play, each month focusing on a different facet.

The August package was setting up the series, explaining all of the changes this year, introducing some key players and terms and spelling out why we are focusing on this one elementary all year. The second part, in September, was a look at the make-up and motivations of the teaching staff, with a look at how much researchers say those teachers matter to the kids success. The October story, which I’m just beginning now, is a look at the families that make up the high-poverty, highly transient population of the school.

You know what they say about the best laid plans, right? I began work on developing and pitching this story and getting the permissions I needed during my second furlough in May. It took all summer to plan and prepare. And four days before the first story ran the school district dropped a bomb shell: The school’s changes — including an eleventh-hour agreement with the teachers union to extend the school day and year — were enough to constitute restructuring per the Department of Ed. It doesn’t have to worry about closing or replacing staff or hiring private management. That is great news for the school. But it meant a last-minute rewrite and refocus that was not at all fun.

The initial premise of my first version of the August story was essentially that this year was the last great effort to save the school. Once that news broke on Thursday afternoon, I had to not only write a story for online and then Friday’s paper. But I also had to completely start over on the mainbar of my Sunday package. Oh yeah, and Friday morning I had to work the 6 a.m. cops shift, which kept me plenty busy besides finishing that rewrite! It was a great exercise in Plan B and not cracking under pressure. I remember several people coming to me and saying, “I’m sorry about your series…” because they thought I’d give up on it since the premise had shifted. Not at all! The topics I and my editors identified are still important, and whether this school has “restructured” or faced the possibility doesn’t diminish what those areas can tell us not only about our community but about other schools that could reach this fate in the coming years.

Overall, the experience to date has been fascinating and frustrating.

I have absolutely enjoyed the hours I’ve sat in classrooms at the school just observing. Sometimes it’s entertaining and sometimes it’s heart-breaking. I’ve never been a teacher and don’t have the patience to become one, but these sessions have helped give me a glimpse of what exactly goes on in different classrooms and different types of classrooms. It’s been great really getting to talk to staff members and parents on a level I’ve never been able to reach before. It’s funny because the week before the second part ran, I spent nearly the whole school day there several days. A few of the teachers even asked when they were going to start paying me to be there since I was there so much.

Probably the greatest part so far has been the community feedback. In the months leading up to my series, I was writing a lot about the school because it was facing this major dilemma. And people were weighing in, not always constructively, with their opinions. Since the series started running, the discourse I’ve heard both personally and through letters to the editor and even story chat comments seems to be much more proactive. It makes me feel this is helping people understand what is happening (and has happened) and why it matters. Two weeks ago, I was covering a school board presentation at another local district. After the meeting, I was talking to some parents when another man came from across the auditorium and interrupted us to tell me, “I’ve been living here for decades, and you are the best education reporter we’ve ever had.” He specifically cited the first part of the series and said it laid out so clearly the issue that he felt he finally understood. What more could you hope for?

It’s been frustrating, however, because as much as I’ve been able to do, I don’t feel it’s been enough. I knew going into the school year this was going to be an “in addition to” project. That is this package is in addition to everything else I have to do to continue to be the best source of education news in our community. I knew that we were short staffed as it was. But it has been difficult to make this project a priority when the daily paper also needs fed and when there are dozens of other interesting stories I want to tell. Because while this is interesting, there are only 315 students at the school out of 20,000+ in the entire county.

It’s also been both helpful and frustrating working with the photographer on this series. It’s the first time either of us has really latched on to a major project. We’re both young and have lots of ideas but not a lot of time. Bouncing ideas off each other has been helpful, but sometimes we’ve snagged between working out vision out with our schedules. Sometimes it’s been from lack of communication between us or from us to the editors. We’re getting better, and I’m thankful to have her thinking about this as well. She has a multimedia background, so she’s done some video and is continuing that. This package, to date, hasn’t had as much multimedia as I’d like for the same reason I haven’t done as much as I want period: time. Our paper is ~40K circulation. We don’t have a large staff, which means we don’t have time to drop the ball on other things. My priority has been on finding and telling the stories (each package has been the front-page plus a spread inside on two pages), and time hasn’t allowed as much alternative story telling as I’d like. While my editors have been relatively gracious as my deadline approaches, I personally still worry about my time. Finding the time and carving it out to do this package right has definitely been my biggest challenge to date. I’m still struggling with it, but I’m getting better.

That last sentence is important: I am getting better. I am already a better reporter than I was two months ago when this began. One of the reasons I wanted to do this series was it is an opportunity to grow professionally. Not many people get the chance to do a story like this, whether for lack of ambition, buy-in from their editors or access to their sources. I am fortunate I am in a position to be able to tell theses stories. It has challenged me to improve my reporting, my research and my writing. I know, as the year continues, I’ll grow even more.

You can read and see what we’ve already produced and follow the series throughout the year: http://jconline.com/miller (The presentation leaves A LOT to be desired. But we’re stuck with this template, and yeah, it’s frustrating. But I’m trying to focus on things I actually can change.)

I’m still excited about what’s ahead. Glad to be one-fifth finished, but looking forward to more stories to come. If you have any feedback or ideas, definitely share them.

My newspaper, the Journal & Courier in Lafayette, Indiana, is hiring a new city/general assignment reporter and a new copy editor. Both are full-time jobs working in the newsroom. (As a bonus, the city reporter sits next to me. That’s just one perk.) Both jobs are posted on Career Builder, but I’ll paste the descriptions below to save you time.

Reporting position ad:

The Lafayette Journal & Courier, a Gannett Company newspaper, is seeking a reporter to handle city government and general assignment coverage. The successful candidate will have experience on a challenging beat that required handling multiple stories simultaneously. This high-profile beat requires strong planning and organizational skills and demonstrated ability to develop and complete investigative and enterprise journalism. In addition to developing daily stories, the Reporter is expected to respond to breaking news and provide online content as part of the routine.

Send a cover letter, resume and up to six samples of work to Local Editor Dave Bangert at dbangert@jconline.com or 217 N. Sixth St., Lafayette, IN 47901.

Copy editing position ad:

The Lafayette Journal & Courier, a Gannett Company newspaper, is looking for a skilled Copy Editor to publish timely news and information in print and online. The Copy Editor is responsible for editing stories, writing compelling headlines, designing easy-to-navigate pages and posting news content online. Web site: jconline.com. Previous news experience or internship is required.

To apply, please contact: Henry Howard, Managing Editor, at hhoward@jconline.com or Journal & Courier, 217 N. Sixth St. Lafayette, IN 47901.

These jobs are open, btw, because the reporter got a new job in another city. He’s married to the copy editor leaving.

This paper tends to hire quickly. The reporting position in particular I expect to be filled soon because we’ll be down both our city reporter and county reporter (maternity leave) during budget season. I know my editor already has several applications. So if you’re interested, don’t hesitate.

I know the reporting job says they want experience. But if you have a strong internship or two, good clips and a lot of drive, you’ll be considered. The job I have asked for 2+ years experience, and I started less than a month after graduation. So don’t let that stop you from applying. That said, don’t apply if you don’t think you can handle more than one story per day, plus Web updates and regular A1 enterprise contributions. Those are basic expectations, and you’ll only be miserable if you’re not ready for it.

If you want any more details or background on the paper or what it’s like working here, e-mail me: meranda@merandawrites.com I’ll try to fill in any details. Or just read my blog and you’ll get a good sense of what I’ve done here. As my last post here explained, I’ve been here more than two and a half years and am embarking on a 10-month project. I would absolutely not stick around if I didn’t like my job, the community and my co-workers. That alone should tell you something about the newsroom.

But this isn’t just any story. I’m more excited about this story, or rather the series of stories, than I have ever been about a story and than I probably should be. Not that two years and seven months working professionally is a huge range to draw from, but this will be the biggest story of my career to date. Maybe ever?

And it wasn’t until I was staring at the wall of white board on Friday, every inch filled with the topics I will pursue, the people I will seek out, the issues I’ll explore… Even after months of pitching it, developing a list of topics I wanted to hit on, getting the support of my editors and the permission of the school and district, it wasn’t until I saw the wall of work ahead of me that it hit me how ambitious the undertaking is. How crazy I must be to think I can pull it off. And how accomplished I will feel when I do. And mostly, how powerful the story will be when it’s all in place.

I’m going to be doing a 10-month series. An entire school year, August through May. Each month, I will write a Sunday package on a different but related angle, with different vignettes and issues. I’m not posting the topic/theme just yet as we’re still working out details, but I’ll post about it when the first package runs Aug. 16.

I won’t have the luxury many people have had — in the past or at larger papers — when taking on projects of this scale. I work at a community daily with fewer than a dozen local reporters. I have a beat to cover, with more than two dozen school districts and hundreds of schools full of stories for me tell. I will still be at every school board meeting I’d normally attend. I’ll still write a weekly Schools Page and maintain my School Notebook blog. I will still cover test scores, graduation rates, announcements, accomplishments, features, breaking news and any other schools-related items. I knew that going in. That’s part of why we’ve structured the stories to fit into monthly chunks. They can see fruits of my labor throughout the year. And I don’t drop the ball on the beat I’ve spent more than two and a half years building.

I also have to do it not knowing what the next 10 months holds for the newspaper business or my own newsroom. Just since I first came up with the idea, I’ve been on a one week furlough and through one round of layoffs. (Obviously, I wasn’t laid off.) Both those events made me question whether it was prudent to launch into something as ambitious as what I’ve proposed and what now is weeks from coming to fruition. I’m embarking on a long journey. I don’t think when I first came here, I even expected to still be here today, let alone committing to at least another school year and likely much more. But this is the type of thing journalists live for. I’m going to a tell a story that’s never been told before, that shows my community the consequences of the choices we’ve made and the policies we’ve instituted, that shines a spotlight on an overlooked but looked-down-upon place to see why it matters, what everyone can learn and what they can do about it. Those are the types of stories that make people worry newspapers will go away. Yes, it’s scary to launch into something like this not knowing. But if you spend your life afraid to overstep your comfort zone, or looking over your shoulder worried it’s not worth the effort, you’ll never accomplish anything. At some point, you have to just jump and trust it will work out.

So, I wanted to document my excitement now.

I also was hoping that maybe some of the more experienced reporters and editors who stumble on it will give me some tips. I have, needless to say, never done anything of this scope. I’m on vacation this week (my 24th birthday is Wednesday!), and during that time I’m going to be putting a lot of thought into how I’ll organize my days and my notes as I proceed through 10-months of reporting. So I figured now would be a good time to solicit any tips from the veterans out there.

The reason I want to share this is its over-the-top, pun-filled groan-inducing writing. I have never seen so many puns in one story before, waaay too many not to be intentional. And the reporter says them (you can watch the video) without even cracking a grin and acknowledging the absurdity.

The story is about how bakeries are coping with the economic downturn. A hint at what’s to come: The title is Bakeries rise in the recession. Subhead: Pastry chefs whipping up dollars.

At the risk of copyright infringement, I’m not going to copy and paste but instead link to the entire story. (For any professors/readers who come across this post after the story has been killed out of the system, I did save a copy if you’re interested it.)

But I am going to bold and bullet each of the bakery-related puns/cliches I could spot.

• … one type of business is rising to the top
• … whip up dollars
• … just scraping by
• … earning money during the recession is frosting on the cake
• … Quality takes the cake
• … Creativity is O’Rear’s special spice
• … is mixing it up
• … share their secret success ingredient
• … with a sour economy, there’s a demand for something sweet
• … each cook up a variety

With the title and subhead, that amounts to a dozen (not a bakers dozen, but close) in one 340 word story. Check out the story and see if I missed any. And comment to tell me what you think. Am I overly critical? I realize it’s not a story about murder or anything, but just seems a bit silly to see a professional organization producing stuff like this.

• Anyone who hasn’t updated in 2009. For all I know they’ve been laid off/fired/quit/changed beats/etc. and abandoned the Twitter account. Who wants to follow someone who hasn’t updated in seven-plus months anyway?
• Anyone with protected updates. I can’t tell when the last update was. Besides, it’s obviously a private feed not about advancing their work if they’re not letting the world see. That’s fine, but not really useful to this purpose.
• Anyone who doesn’t state they are an education reporter in their bio. In some cases, I know the person so I included them anyway. But mostly, there really isn’t a good way to find someone who doesn’t put this in the bio short of cross-referencing staff lists with Twitter, which isn’t worth my time.
• Also excluded were group/organization Twitter accounts and those for an agency not a news organization.

It sounds like a lot of exclusions, but they didn’t add up to many of the ones I actually was able to find.

Aside from suggestions by my own followers, I compiled this list largely by scanning the search results on site:twitter.com “education reporter”. I have updated this list to include individuals who identified themselves as belonging here.

So what is the purpose of spending several hours on my day off putting this together? Honestly, it was kind of selfish. I think it’s interesting to see what other peers on this beat are covering. In many cases, we’re writing about the same things. We struggle with the same FOIA-ignorant officials and try to wrap our heads around similarly incomprehensible state test data. And I figured extending my own network to include more of those folks could help me with ideas, trends to look into, and just some camaraderie.

Oh yeah, and I was curious how these people were managing their Twitter feeds and whether I shouldn’t modify my own tack. (For those who don’t follow me @meranduh, I tend to veer from posting about mundane or insightful thoughts on current stories/meetings/topics to the strange things I see on the streets of Lafayette to pictures of my nephew to details of my mundane days.) Unsurprisingly, there was wide variance in how reporters handled their Twitter account. Some were just an RSS feed or a list of links. Some didn’t include a single education-related post. Some had few posts of any type. Some included lots of links to their sites, and some offered none. All of them used real names, if not in the username (which many did) then in the name field. Most identified their news organization, but many left off the URL or their own site’s link. Many were like mine, a mix of the biz and life. Others were clearly representing their company as part of the overall brand. I even came across one that had both a personal and business Twitter account. The takeaway? There’s no right way to Tweet your beat, but there are lots of different ways to do so.

One more unrelated trend I noticed: We all stink at coming up with original beat blog names. Every one linked from a Twitter profile (my own included) is some cliche/pun on something school related. Not that it matters, but it amused me.

OK, so behind the cut is a location-based list of the 120+ education reporters I found on Twitter. (I realize the link still says 90, but so many people had already linked it, I changed the title but not the link.) Location is by state/country, and then it’s alphabetical by username. Also, if the user didn’t provide a link to a resume/site/employer, I tried to provide a link to the organization where he or she works. Finally, if I added other details to fill out a lacking profile, I italicized that change.

If I missed you or your education reporter, send me a message @meranduh and let me know.

Alabama

none found

Alaska

none found

Arizona

@AngelaMGonzales

• Name Angela Gonzales

• Location Phoenix, AZ
• Web http://phoenix.bizjournals.com
• Bio Health care, biotech, education reporter; vocalist; PTO president

@goodeducation

• Name Ray Parker

• Location Mesa, AZ
• Web http://twitter.com/goodeducation
• Bio Hiya! Arizona Republic education reporter, gotta story idea? call: 602-444-7726 or ray.parker@arizonarepublic.com

@JJavierAZ

• Name Jeffrey Javier

• Location Glendale
• Web http://www.azcentral.com/
• Bio Peoria and Deer Valley education reporter for the Arizona Republic

@pkossan

• Name Pat Kossan

• Location Phoenix, Arizona
• Web http://azcentral.com
• Bio Education reporter for The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com

@rhondab3

• Name Rhonda Bodfield

• Location Tucson
• Webhttp://www.azstarnet.com/
• Bio Education reporter

Arkansas

jessicabauer

• Name Jessica

• Location Conway
• Web http://www.thecabin.net/
• Bio Education reporter for the Log Cabin Democrat (also momma, wife, student…)

California

@benefield

• Name Kerry Benefield

• Location Santa Rosa, California
• Web http://extracredit.pressdemocrat.com/
• Bio Education reporter with the Press Democrat

@college_connect

• Name Lynette Mathews

• Location California
• Web http://www.collegeconnect.org/
• Bio Utilizing individual counseling, distance counseling and dynamic workshops designed to explore critical areas of college admissions, we help students succeed.

@DanielleEGaines

• Name Danielle Gaines

• Location California
• Web http://www.mediabistro.com/DanielleGaines
• Bio Education reporter at the Merced Sun-Star

@EducationNews1

• Name Victor Garcia

• Location Tulare
• Web http://www.visaliatimesdelta.com/
• Bio Education reporter for the Tulare Advance-Register/ vdgarcia@visalia.gannett.com

@emilyschoolsyou

• Name Emily Alpert

• Location San Diego, California
• Web http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/
• Bio (none)

@howardblume

• Name Howard Blume

• Location Los Angeles, CA
• Web http://latimes.com
• Bio L.A. Times education reporter

@mattkrupnick

• Name Matt Krupnick

• Location Oakland and Walnut Creek
• Web http://www.contracostatimes.com/
• Bio Higher-education reporter for Contra Costa Times and Oakland Tribune

@NanetteAsimov

• Name Nanette Asimov

• Location San Francisco, CA
• Web http://www.sfgate.com/
• Bio Education Reporter, San Francisco Chronicle / SFGate.com

@reportertanya

• Name Tanya Roscorla

• Location Sacramento, CA, USA
• Web http://www.convergemag.com/
• Bio Education reporter and writer who marvels at creation’s beauty. You’ll find me scrapbooking, playing soccer and reading classics — not all at once, though.

@SarahDC

• Name Sarah de Crescenzo

• Location Porterville
• Web http://recorderonline.com/
• Bio Journalist, lacrosse player, book nerd.

@TunedToTheresa

• Name Theresa Harrington

• Location Walnut Creek, CA
• Web http://www.contracostatimes.com/education
• Bio Education reporter at Contra Times

Colorado

none found

Connecticut

@lmylo

• Name Lauren Mylo

• Location Connecticut
• Web http://blogs.thehour.com/schoolclips/
• Bio Education reporter for The Hour, the Wilton Villager and The Stamford Times

@CTConfidential

• Name Rick Green

• Location Hartford, CT
• Web http://www.courant.com/rick
• Bio Blogging columnist from Hartford Courant

Delaware

@rkipp

• Name rkipp (Rachel Kipp)

• Location Delaware
• Web www.delawareonline.com
• Bio Higher education reporter, sometime pop culture reviewer/blogger,

Florida

@AngelineTaylor

• Name Angeline

• Location Tallahassee, FL
• Web http://www.tallahassee.com/
• Bio Higher Education Reporter

@downsmegan

• Name Megan

• Location Brevard County, Florida
• Web http://www.floridatoday.com/education
• Bio FLORIDA TODAY education reporter

@erikahobbs

• Name erikahobbs

• Location Orlando
• Web http://www.orlandosentinel.com/
• Bio education reporter

@Isabel10connect

• Name Isabel Mascarenas

• Location Tampa, Florida
• Web http://www.wtsp.com/company/bios/member.aspx?storyid=27621
• Bio I’m the education reporter at WTSP-TV, the CBS affiliate in Tampa-St. Petersburg, Florida and Barry University graduate. I was born in Cardenas, Cuba.

@kabushouse

• Name Kathy Bushouse

• Location Florida
• Web http://www.sunsentinel.com/watchthis
• Bio Sun-Sentinel education reporter, viral video blogger, wife, mother, Gator fan

@kmcgrory

• Name Kathleen McGrory

• Location Miami, FL
• Web http://www.miamiherald.com/
• Bio education reporter, Miami Herald

@MarcJFreeman

• Name Marc Freeman

• Location Palm Beach County
• Webhttp://www.sunsentinel.com/
• Bio Palm Beach County K-12 education reporter, long-suffering Philly sports fan

@NDN_KAlbers

• Name Katherine Albers

• Location Naples, Florida
• Web http://www.naplesnews.com/
• Bio Kate Albers is the Collier County education reporter for the Naples Daily News by day, ninja by night.

Georgia

none found

Hawaii

none found

Idaho

none found

Illinois

@marcosantana

• Name Marco Santana

• Location Galesburg, Illinois
• Web http://masantana.wordpress.com/
• Bio Education reporter with the Galesburg Register-Mail.

@msteinbacher

• Name Michele Steinbacher

• Location Bloomington, IL
• Web http://www.pantagraph.com/
• Bio higher education reporter at The Pantagraph

@higherednews

• Name Jodi Cohen (higherednews)

• Location Chicago
• Web http://www.chicagotribune.com/
• Bio I cover higher education for the Chicago Tribune. I have infant twin boys. I get little sleep.

@djschwe

• Name Dani Schweigert

• Location Lake County, Illinois
• Web http://www.pioneerlocal.com/
• Bio I’m an education reporter with Pioneer Press and cover Mundelein, Libertyville and Vernon Hills. I also coach gymnastics at the Gymnastics Factory in Grayslake.

Indiana

@AndyGammill

• Name Andy Gammill

• Location Indianapolis
• Web http://blogs.indystar.com/education/
• Bio Indy Star education reporter

@brianzim

• Name Brian Zimmerman

• Location Richmond, Ind.
• Web http://www.pal-item.com/blogs/extra_credit
• Bio Education reporter and blogger for the Palladium-Item; 27-year-old male; husband; father of two boys; Blue Jackets fan; Steelers fan; Miami University alumnus

@ericweddle

• Name Eric Weddle

• Location Lafayette, Indiana
• Web http://family-vineyard.com/
• Bio Journal and Courier higher education/Purdue reporter by day; greasing the avant wheel of the Family Vineyard record label by night

@meranduh

• Name Meranda Watling

• Location Lafayette, Indiana
• Web http://www.merandawrites.com
• Bio I watch people and ask questions. Then write about what I see and learn. I’m the education reporter for the Journal and Courier. http://jconline.com/schoolblog

Iowa

@dianeheldt

• Name Diane Heldt

• Location Cedar Rapids, IA
• Web http://dianeheldt.wordpress.com/
• Bio Higher education reporter, covering University of Iowa and regents, for The Gazette

@mhdochterman

• Name Meredith Dochterman

• Location Iowa
• Web http://morningannouncements.wordpress.com/
• Bio K-12 education reporter for The Gazette (http://www.gazetteonline.com/)

Kansas

@LindseySlater

• Name Lindsey Slater

• Location Lawrence, KS
• Web http://www2.ljworld.com/staff/lindsey_slater/
• Bio K-12 education reporter living in the world of convergence

@monicaspringer

• Name monica springer

• Location Garden City, Kansas
• Web http://www.gctelegram.com/
• Bio Education reporter at the Garden City Telegram. Fan of dogs, friends, macs, the words ought and might, sleep, reading and writing (but not arithmetic).

Kentucky

@tkonz

• Name Toni Konz

• Location Louisville, KY
• Web http://www.courier-journal.com/
• Bio I report/write about Jefferson County Public Schools and other K-12 issues for The Courier-Journal. I am a Milwaukee native and went to college in Mississippi.

Louisiana

@bayouschools

• Name Daniel McBride

• Location Houma-Thibodaux (LA)
• Web http://www.houmatoday.com/
• Bio Education reporter for Terrebonne and Lafourche.

@LafayetteEdu

• Name Tina Marie Macias

• Location Lafayette, La.
• Web http://www.theadvertiser.com/
• Bio Tina Marie Macias is the education reporter for The Daily Advertiser.

Also: @tinapita

• Name Tina Marie Macias

• Location Lafayette, LA
• Web http://tmmacias.googlepages.com/
• Bio Education reporter, videographer, muser, Latina. This twitter is mine and not affiliated with a news organization.)

Maine

@Matthew_Stone

• Name Matthew Stone

• Location Augusta, Maine
• Web http://www.reporterstone.com/
• Bio Education Reporter, Kennebec Journal

Maryland

@casamuels

• Name casamuels

• Location Bethesda, Md.
• Web http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/speced/
• Bio Special education reporter and blogger

@chendrie

• Name chendrie (Caroline Hendrie)

• Location Maryland
• Web http://www.edweek.org/
• Bio Managing editor for digital operations at national education pubs Education Week & edweek.org. Married with 3 kids.

@kmanzo

• Name kmanzo (Kathleen Kennedy Manzo)

• Location Bethesda, Md.
• Web http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/curriculum/
• Bio Education Week Associate Editor, reporting on curriculum, ed technology

@lizbowie

• Name Liz Bowie

• Location Baltimore
• Web baltimoresun.com
• Bio Education reporter for The Baltimore Sun

Massachusetts

none found

Michigan

@kathrynprater

• Name Kathryn Prater

• Location Lansing, Mich.
• Web http://www.lsj.com
• Bio I’m an education reporter for the Lansing State Journal, the daily newspaper in Michigan’s state capital.

@nbickel

• Name Nardy Bickel

• Location Grand Rapids, Michigan
• Web http://www.mlive.com/grand-rapids/
• Bio Higher Education Reporter at The Grand Rapids Press interested in gardening, science, free speech issues

@ReporterDMurray

• Name Dave Murray

• Location Grand Rapids, Mich.
• Web http://blog.mlive.com/headoftheclass/
• Bio Dave Murray is an education reporter for the Grand Rapids Press, covering Grand Rapids schools and issues that affect schools across Michigan

Minnesota

@ByJenna

• Name Jenna Ross

• Location Minneapolis, St. Paul, Minn.
• Web http://www.startribune.com/bios/10645826.html
• Bio Higher education reporter for the Star Tribune in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

@dancingjim

• Name James Sanna

• Location Minneapolis, MN
• Web http://www.tcschools.wordpress.com/
• Bio Freelance journalist, Education Reporter — Twin Cities, Minnesota

@elliotmann

• Name Elliot Mann

• Location Rochester, MN
• Web http://www.postbulletin.com/
• Bio Education reporter, emann@postbulletin.com

@EmilyJohns

• Name Emily Johns

• Location Minneapolis, MN
• Webhttp://www.startribune.com/bios/10645116.html
• Bio Emily is an education reporter for the Minneapolis Star Tribune, covering schools in the city of Minneapolis, and education accountability issues in Minnesota.

@KAREmorninggal

• Name Kim Insley

• Location Minneapolis/St. Paul
• Web http://tinyurl.com/insley-linkedIn
• Bio KARE TV morning news anchor, blogger, content producer, education reporter

@posttim

• Name Tim Post - MPR

• Location St. Paul, Minnesota
• Web http://minnesota.publicradio.org/about/people/mpr_people_display.php?aut_id=53
• Bio Higher Education reporter at Minnesota Public Radio

@tomeber_mpr

• Name Tom Weber

• Location St. Paul, Minn.
• Web http://minnesota.publicradio.org/about/people/mpr_people_display.php?aut_id=30282
• Bio Education reporter for MPR

@vsawkar

• Name Vineeta Sawkar

• Location St. Paul, MN
• Web http://www.kstp.com/
• Bio news anchor, blogger, education reporter, busy mom

Mississippi

@elizabethcrisp

• Name elizabeth crisp

• Location Jackson, Mississippi
• Web http://tinyurl.com/elizabethcrisp
• Bio Higher education reporter for The Clarion-Ledger. I also cover a lot of other things.

Missouri

@davidhunn

• Name davidhunn

• Location St. Louis, Missouri
• Web http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-grade/
• Bio I’m an education reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Montana

none found

Nebraska

@SaundersM

• Name Michaela Saunders

• Location Omaha, Neb. USA
• Web Omaha.com
• Bio PK-12 Education reporter, homeowner, young professional in Omaha, NE.

Nevada

none found

New Hampshire

none found

New Jersey

none found

New Mexico

none found

New York

@alexanderrusso

• Name alexanderrusso

• Location Brooklyn
• Web http://www.thisweekineducation.com/
• Bio Freelance education writer, blogger, and media critic

@dianacostello

• Name dianacostello

• Location White Plains, N.Y.
• Web http://listeningroom.lohudblogs.com/ (also: http://hallmonitor.lohudblogs.com/)
• Bio Just trying to enjoy life…

@gothamschools

• Name Eliz and Philissa

• Location New York City
• Web http://www.gothamschools.org/
• Bio Reporters and editors at GothamSchools, offering independent reporting on the New York City public schools

@HernandezJavier

• Name Javier C. Hernandez

• Location New York
• Web http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/h/javier_c_hernandez/index.html
• Bio education reporter for the new york times, keeping an eye on the city’s 1,500 schools, 90,000 teachers and 1.1 million students

@John_Merrow

• Name John Merrow

• Location New York(?)
• Web http://learningmatters.tv/
• Bio Education Correspondent, The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer (PBS) and President, Learning Matters, Inc.

@klreynolds

• Name Kelly Reynolds

• Location Watertown, NY
• Web http://www.watertowndailytimes.com
• Bio Education reporter from Michigan living in Watertown (Northern) New York and having the time of my life.

North Carolina

@anndosshelms

• Name Ann Doss Helms

• Location Charlotte
• Web http://www.charobs.com/
• Bio I cover education for The Charlotte Observer. Reach me at ahelms@charlotteobserver.com

@campus_notes

• Name N&O’s Campus Notes (Eric Ferreri)

• Location Raleigh, NC
• Web http://blogs.newsobserver.com/campusnotes
• Bio News about Duke, UNC, NCCU, NCSU and community colleges at the Raleigh News & Observer’s higher ed blog.

@juliehenry

• Name juliehenry

• Location NBC 17 Raleigh/Durham
• Web http://nbc17.com
• Bio Health and Education reporter looking for interesting stories!

@newswriterana

• Name newswriterana (Ana Ribeiro)

• Location Wilmington, NC
• Web http://poets.starnewsonline.com/
• Bio Reporter, Wilmington StarNews; poet; hopeless romantic; singer; movie lover (According to Willmington Star News site: Brunswick education reporter Ana Ribeiro)

@sadialatifi

• Name Sadia Latifi

• Location Chapel Hill, NC
• Web http://www.newsobserver.com/
• Bio Education reporter for the News & Observer.

@zureick

• Name Erin Zureick

• Location Sanford, NC
• Web http://ezureick.wordpress.com/
• Bio I’m a reporter at The Sanford (NC) Herald covering education primarily. Interested in intersection of social media and journalism

North Dakota

none found

Ohio

@jammin230

• Name Ben Fischer

• Location Cincinnati, Ohio
• Web http://www.cincinnati.com/
• Bio I cover Cincinnati Public Schools and education topics for The Cincinnati Enquirer.

@KimWheeler3

• Name Kim Wheeler

• Location Cleveland,Ohio
• Bio Cleveland TV Anchor and Education Reporter

@MarieRossiter

• Name Marie Rossiter

• Location Liberty Township, OH
• Web http://www.pulsejournal.com/
• Bio Education reporter/Pulse Journal

@mgildow

• Name Megan Gildow

• Location Springfield, Ohio
• Web http://springfieldnewssun.com/
• Bio I am the education reporter for the Springfield (Ohio) News-Sun, covering Clark County schools and general education issues.

@sethisthegoat

• Name Seth Roy

• Location Newark, OH
• Web newarkadvocate.com
• Bio Reporter. Budding novelist? Sports fan.

Oklahoma

@dawnmarks

• Name Dawn Marks
  Location Oklahoma City, OK

• Web http://newsok.com/
• Bio Education reporter for The Oklahoman

Oregon

none found

Pennsylvania

@DKreports

• Name Daveen Rae Kurutz

• Location Pittsburgh, PA
• Web www.triblive.com
• Bio An education and suburban reporter for the Pgh Trib

@ydblogwork

• Name Andy Shaw

• Location York, PA
• Web http://74.52.71.146/dispatch/blogzone/src/lyceum/blogwork/
• Bio Education reporter for The York Dispatch

Rhode Island

none found

South Carolina

@FLOMOedreporter

• Name Shireese Bell

• Location Florence, S.C.
• Web www.scnow.com/scp/community/morning_news/
• Bio I’m the education reporter for the (Florence, S.C.) Morning News

@JasonWermers

• Name Jason Wermers

• Location Sumter, S.C.
• Web www.theitem.com
• Bio I am a reporter for The Item newspaper

South Dakota

none found

Tennessee

@JaimeSarrio

• Name Jaime Sarrio

• Location Nashville
• Web http://www.tennessean.com/edblog
• Bio I take notes.

@MStewart_report

• Name Matthew Stewart

• Location Maryville, TN
• Web http://thedailytimes.com/
• Bio Education reporter for The Daily Times

Texas

@brendabernet

• Name brendabernet (Brenda Bernet)

• Location Amarillo
• Web http://www.amarillo.com/
• Bio I’m a 30-year-old education reporter at the Amarillo Globe-News. I’m quickly becoming a Twitter nerd. I am married and have a 1-year-old.

@Dallasisd_blog

• Name Tawnell Hobbs

• Location Dallas, Texas
• Web http://dallasisdb…
• Bio Tawnell Hobbs covers the Dallas school district.

@fwstayala

• Name Eva-Marie Ayala

• Location Fort Worth, Texas
• Web http://www.star-telegram.com/
• Bio Education reporter for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram

@hollyhacker

• Name Holly Hacker

• Location Dallas, TX
• Web http://www.dallasnews.com/
• Bio I cover higher education at The Dallas Morning News, with some K-12 thrown in for good measure.

@jennycaputo

• Name jennycaputo

• Location San Antonio, TX
• Web http://blogs.mysanantonio.com/weblogs/education/
• Bio Education editor for San Antonio Express-News

@katealexander

• Name Kate Alexander

• Location Austin, TX
• Web http://www.statesman.com/
• Bio Austin American-Statesman reporter covering the state budget, pensions and education

@lkastner

• Name Lindsay Kastner

• Location San Antonio, TX
• Web http://blogs.mysanantonio.com/weblogs/education/
• Bio I’m an education reporter at the San Antonio Express-News

@mmdelarosa

• Name mmdelarosa (Michelle De La Rosa)

• Location San Antonio
• Web http://blogs.mysanantonio.com/weblogs/education/
• Bio Education reporter for SA Express-News

@monicarhor

• Name Monica Rhor

• Location Houston, Texas
• Bio Houston-based journalist, covering education for the Associated Press and looking for stories that illuminate and inform.

@raleighmaroon

• Name Melissa Ludwig

• Location San Antonio, TX
• Web http://www.myspace.com/raleighmaroon
• Bio Higher Ed reporter. Musician with Raleigh Maroon.

@rubi12rey

• Name Rubi Reyes

• Location Victoria
• Web thevictoriaadvocate.com
• Bio I am the Education Reporter for the Victoria Advocate newspaper in Victoria, TX. I am a Texas A&M University-Kingsville May 2008 graduate.

@TraciShurley

• Name Traci Shurley

• Location Arlington, TX
• Web http://startelegram.typepad.com/extra_credit/
• Bio Traci Shurley is an education reporter with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Utah

@kirstendstewart

• Name Kirsten Stewart

• Location SLC, UT
• Web http://www.sltrib.com/
• Bio Education Reporter at The Salt Lake Tribune

Vermont

@mokawa

• Name Molly Walsh

• Location Burlington, VT
• Web www.burlingtonfreepress.com/
• Bio BFP education reporter

Virginia

@cathgrimes

• Name Cathy Grimes

• Location Newport News, VA
• Web dailypress.com
• Bio I cover schools and education issues in Hampton Roads, Va.

Washington

@EverettEdWriter

• Name Melissa Slager

• Location Everett, Wash.
• Web http://www.linkedin.com/in/melslager
• Bio Seattle-area freelance education writer covering local and national angles to the Petri dish that is education.

@KateMartin13

• Name KateMartin13

• Location Mount Vernon, WA
• Web http://www.electricfishwrap.com/
• Bio Education reporter at the Skagit Valley Herald

@wallamama

• Name Maria Gonzalez

• Location Walla Walla, Washington
• Web http://www.union-bulletin.com/
• Bio I write about education full time and am also a full time mom. I’m quite busy.

@writetorachel

• Name Rachel Schleif

• Location Wenatchee, Washington
• Bio education reporter, check out blog: http://blogs.wenatcheeworld.com/author/rschleif/

Washington, D.C.

@D_Aarons

• Name Dakarai I. Aarons

• Location Washington, D.C. Area
• Web http://www.linkedin.com/in/dakarai729
• Bio Award-winning journalist specializing in education reporting. Write, blog, tweet and shoot video for Education Week

@eddyusn

• Name Eddy Ramirez

• Location Washington D.C.
• Web http://www.usnews.com/
• Bio Education Reporter for U.S. News & World Report.

@gtoppo

• Name Greg Toppo

• Location (Washington, D.C.)
• Web http://www.usatoday.com/community/tags/reporter.aspx?id=232
• Bio USA Today education reporter

@kasiehunt

• Name Kasie Hunt

• Location Washington, DC
• Web http://www.nationaljournal.com/congressdaily
• Bio health/labor/education reporter at National Journal’s CongressDaily

@lfabel

• Name Leah Fabel

• Location Washington, D.C.
• Web http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/
• Bio Education reporter for the Washington Examiner

@lquaid

• Name Libby Quaid

• Location Washington, D.C.
• Bio Associated Press Education reporter, did time on the Huckabus and the Straight Talk Express

@michaelbirnbaum

• Name Michael Birnbaum

• Location Washington, DC
• Web http://projects.washingtonpost.com/staff/articles/michael+birnbaum/
• Bio Education reporter at the Washington Post

West Virginia

none found

Wisconsin

@ahetzner

• Name Name Amy Hetzner

• Location Milwaukee, WI
• Web http://jsonline.com
• Bio I’m an education reporter at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

@emrichards

• Name Erin Richards

• Location Milwaukee, Wisconsin
• Web http://jsonline.com
• Bio When I’m not covering K-12 education issues for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, I’m riding my horse, Hobbes, and giving hunter/jumper riding lessons in MKE.

@ericafperez

• Name erica perez

• Location Milwaukee
• Web http://jsonline.com/blogs/news/education.html
• Bio Higher education reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Native Californian and Angeleno.

@tfinkelmeyer

• Name Todd Finkelmeyer

• Location Madison, WI
• Web http://www.madison.com/tct/blogs/campus/
• Bio Higher education reporter at The Capital Times

Wyoming

none found

Canada

@HugoatWSR

• Name Hugo Rodrigues

• Location Woodstock, Ontario
• Web http://www.woodstocksentinelreview.com/
• Bio Education / municipal reporter at the Woodstock Sentinel-Review

@jsteffenhagen

• Name Janet Steffenhagen

• Location Vancouver, B.C.
• Web http://www.vancouversun.com/reportcard
• Bio Education reporter at the Vancouver Sun

@krushowy

• Name Kristin Rushowy

• Location Toronto
• Web http://www.thestar.com/
• Bio Education reporter at the Toronto Star … baby name columnist … editor, GTA colleges and universities guide

@scodonnell

• Name Sarah O’Donnell

• Location Edmonton
• Web http://www.edmontonjournal.com/
• Bio Edmonton Journal education reporter

UK

@Education_Ben

• Name ben turner

• Location (Liverpool?)
• Web http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/
• Bio (none written)

@JoannaDesira

• Name Joanna Desira

• Location Middlesbrough, Teesside
• Web http://www.gazettelive.co.uk/
• Bio Education reporter, Boro fan, keen at reading, keep fit, and cooking.

This list was current as of July 7, 2009. If you want to be included or removed from my list, let me know @meranduh or meranda@merandawrites.com.

I usually don’t do this. And this year, as in the past, I had resolved to ignore such contests. But my editor sent about three reminders to local reporters, and then, before I left Friday, he made another pitch to us to get him our suggestions. I figured, whatever. If nothing else, I should pause to reflect on this past years work?

My issue with such contests goes deep. I’ve never entered my work in any, and any awards I have won have been the result of other people submitting it. I think it’s great some people use these contests as a way of setting a goal for their work. And I can see why people get a high from winning them.

I am just not motivated by external praise. Sure it’s nice to win, but I never have been that disappointed when I didn’t or overwhelmed with pride when I did. I trace this to childhood: I was always one of the top in my class, super involved in everything and a hard worker. I received a lot of certificates and awards throughout the years. I haven’t kept a single trophy or certificate. If you asked me, I would have to do a great deal of searching just to produce my high school diploma or college degree. I think they are stashed in a bin in a storage unit back in Ohio.

As far as my work today, I don’t need validation from a panel of judges sifting through hundreds or thousands of other peoples’ best work in hopes they find my gem. Besides even if they do, it’s probably one of a hundred gems they’ll award. Few prizes, especially ones a person in my spot could hope to compete for, are really that “special.” I mean, the Pulitzer is one thing, but a regional award? Think about it, there are four different circulation size contests in my state, and a dozen-plus categories for each. Multiply that by 50 states, and soon the certificate seems even less special. Besides, a community-serving story’s value is not diminished by not winning a Pulitzer or other award. Great journalism doesn’t need a gold star to be great.

I get enough positive feedback from the community I cover to know I’m doing OK. This week I received two phone calls, two e-mails and one thank-you card, each thanking or commending me for stories. I care a lot more that my community finds my stories relevant and helpful than a panel of strangers who don’t understand where my work fits in here. Maybe our community is better about contacting reporters than most, but I feel my work is appreciated by the community.

It often seems awards are a crap shoot. I often see “award-winning” stories/packages/Web sites highlighted that are not that impressive or even that good. (Maybe that’s because the definition of award-winning is so broad, see my comment on the number of awards.) I find myself wondering if all the entries were not great so they picked the best of the discard pile or if my taste is just way off. I always decide I just must not have the same vision. All the more reason to not enter contests: I hear enough from my community to know I’m on the right track, which means my vision might not line up with contest judges but it does with my readers.

Finally, I’m my own biggest critic. When I read old stories, and often when I read stories in that day’s paper, instead of thinking about the Sunday enterprise I worked very hard on, “I love this story,” I think, “I should have…” I don’t know if others feel that way. But it’s always been a challenge for me. When I was job hunting, I struggled picking clips to send. I knew I was at least as good as other kids at my school, but when I looked at what I’d written I couldn’t find seven stories I loved. Even today, when I have a far greater stack of stories to choose from, I don’t know if I could find seven I loved. It’s not that I’m a bad journalist. I have room to grow. But I think I’m good, especially given my age, my resources and my amount of output. But I am hypercritical. I can always find some quote I wish I’d left out, some angle I wish I’d over- or underplayed or some paragraph break I’d reconsider (this is especially true if bad editing ruined it for me). So it’s hard for me to even find stories I think are good enough — even if judged against a stack of similar also-rans — to bother entering in contests.

As I said before, I don’t object to people who thrive on such competition. Sure, it’s nice to earn some cash or even some solicited praise. Removing myself from the competition probably does those who thrive a favor. Fewer entries means better odds. They should thank me. ;) The bottom line, for me, though, is I get enough of a high out of knowing I worked hard and did a service to my community. I guess I’m one of the lucky folks who doesn’t need much more.

But I realize it’s not about me. So I’m going through the 534 stories that carried my byline or tagline over the past 12 months to see if any of them are worth considering. Whether I find awards validating or not, they reflect well on my bosses and my paper. Even if I don’t care, they do.

Scanning the education section of the site, I noticed under the refers to education reporter Andy Gammill’s blog and twitter there was a new link: “Andy’s info stream.” I think it’s new because I look at this page almost daily (Indy is the largest paper in the state and the J&C’s sister paper), and I have never noticed it before.

This is what I found when I clicked the link:

Pretty cool if you’re interested in what the reporter is writing, reading, working on, blogging about, twittering about, etc.

I tried to find similar pages for other reporters on the site, but I didn’t see any even for other blogging & twittering reporters, like their politics columnist Matthew Tully. A quick Google search turned up a page for racing reporter Curt Cavin and music reporter David Lindquist. Lindquist’s list even includes recently played tracks from last.fm, which seems like a neat addition for his beat.

Other papers have pages set up about the reporter, with links to recent bylines, etc. But this is the first I’ve come across that compiles essentially everything that reporter is already doing and puts it together on one page. You can even subscribe to that reporter’s info stream. It reminds me a lot of friendfeed, where the reporters could pick what they want added (i.e. their blog, twitter, bookmarks, music, etc.). Except it’s sleeker and it’s hosted on the news organization’s site.

As a reader, I find this information fascinating. At least for Andy’s stream because he covers the same topic as me and often writes about things I’m also writing about. I already subscribe to his blog and follow him on Twitter, but for readers who don’t want the hassle of subscribing and belonging to tons of services or who just want a clean interface to quickly see what the local reporter is doing, this could be a cool tool. And once the widget (as this appears to be) is set up, it’s not like it takes a lot of work to keep fresh. The reporter is already producing the content to go there daily.

On the other hand, I can see how some reporters would be apprehensive about a feature like this. Most print reporters I know (columnists excluded) didn’t get into this business to be a personality, which is what this feature kind of creates. And even if all the feed pulls in is information you’re already posting, I could see their unease at their online life being aggregated like this for every reader. However, because I think the news train is headed in the opposite direction of such reporters — who are also the hold outs refusing to see the utility of blogging and twittering or trying such tools for their beats — I don’t feel bad for them.

In my case, all this information is already out there. It’s already mostly streamed on friendfeed, Facebook and Twitter. So I think this feature is pretty cool. It will be even cooler when they get a list of all the reporters posted. It also would be great if you could pick which of those reporters streams you wanted to have all appear in one mega info stream (like the people you follow on Twitter — I could pick the education and politics people but leave the sports folks behind), or if you could see what everyone at the Star is saying/reading/blogging all in one time line (like the public time line on Twitter). It might be pretty telling about the organization en masse.

But I also write a lot of daily enterprise. When I’m working on these stories, I’ve found having a direction saves me time. It’s worth the five minutes to outline a story if it saves me 20 minutes of trying to just get started. The usefulness of outlining stories is almost directly related to the length of time I’ve been reporting and how much information I’ve gathered.

Sometimes, a story just comes to me and flows without much effort. Other times, I’ve reported so much I’m overwhelmed by everything I’ve gathered. Deciding what to include, or not include, and what I need to do more research on, and then, how to arrange all of that information can put me at a deadlock, as I was on Friday, when I was writing two A1 stories for the weekend papers and had been working on one for an hour but had just two paragraphs written.

I’ve talked to my editor before about this, and he suggested the way he writes is to do each chunk as he reports it. That’s a great idea. I’ve tried it — with limited success. I know some reporters have to have the perfect lede before they write the second paragraph. I can write a bad lede just to get me started and come back when the first draft is done. My problem is I need to be able to see where it’s going before I start writing. I need to have everything reported and ready to be compiled. That’s why outlining a story works for me.

On Friday, in an effort to get the stories written, did just that. I posted a picture of my “outline” on Twitter. Kate Martin commented on it, which made me realize, this might be a method worth sharing with the wider community.

I don’t know if I originally saw this outlining method somewhere or invented it out of necessity (or genius?). But I do know, it’s effective. Here’s how it works:

1. Gather all the story notes. I flip to the pages in my notebook(s) if they’re written or print the document off the computer if they’re typed or transcribed.

2. Highlight the facts you want to include. I also highlight and star the quotes I like. I use different color highlighters for each person/source to make it easy to identify quickly who is speaking and where the info came from.
3. Write each of those ideas/facts/quotes on a Post-it. I don’t write the whole thing out just the general point and who said it/where it came from so I know where to quickly find it in my notes. (Remember, those are color coded.) You also could probably just as easily do this on the computer, in a Google Notebook like program. But I find taking a break from staring at the screen helps me process the information better. Note: I cut up a regular size Post-it into about four flags each to be less wasteful. I’m actually not wasting office supplies anyway. I usually buy my own Post-it notes because I don’t like the plain-vanilla yellow in that shot.
4. Group related topics/information/quotes together. I usually do this on my desk, or if your desk isn’t cleared enough, a sheet of paper works well. Usually at this stage, I can eliminate duplicate or tangential information pretty quickly: I can tell the areas I have the most information on and those I don’t have enough. If I don’t have enough and it’s important, I know it’s time to do some follow-up reporting.
5. Within the group, arrange the information. This is what my boss does when he writes chunks. You’re just putting the information together in a logical sequence, and again cutting things that don’t fit or need to be there.
6. Arrange the groups. At this point, I pull out the anecdote or fact I want to lead with and/or those I want to end the story with. (In my example above, I had just written a place-holder “Lead ???” at first because I didn’t know yet how to start.) Then, I put each group down in a sequence that makes sense for the direction of the story.
7. Re-arrange the groups or the facts within the group. I add back in anything I took out that feels like it’s missing. Or I take out anything that feels unnecessary. This is the entire point of using Post-its, which you can quickly and easily reconfigure.
8. Write. Organizing the story was the hard part, so once I have that figured out, I can just write through by filling out the full quotes and facts I abbreviated on my Post-it notes.
9. Read and rewrite. Once the story is written, I go back through at least once more. Read it, proof it, clean it up, double check the names and numbers, clarify anything that needs more explanation.
10. File the story. And move on to the inevitable next story.

After I outlined my story Friday, I finished writing all 23 inches in 20 minutes.

Do you have any suggestions to improve my method? Or better tips to try to improve organization/writing? Let me know. I’m definitely game for suggestions to make me write better and more efficiently.

See, even though I’m not in the newsroom, or even in the city, I’m still following the news. I mean, as I said on Twitter in someone’s reply to me posting about some of the education news that broke today, “I can’t like, not, read news. One of the perks of what I do is I’m interested in it — not just in getting paid to be interested.” That is to say, I would have to step away from all media and people for a week to really not “work.” And that’s beyond a furlough, it’s punishment: Reading newspapers, magazines and Web sites is something I enjoy. Education is a topic I’m interested in reading about, or I wouldn’t be wasting my time writing about it. Plus, I process the world in a such a way that I see story ideas everywhere. I was talking to my mom about her job, and I commented, “Wow, that would be a great basis for a story: What’s the stupidest rule your company ever instituted?” (For the record, I’m pretty sure hers, which she is planning to leave, wins: They have to get a manager to sign off on each potty break!)

So today was a test of my ability to step away. … And I fail.

If I didn’t have computer access, it might be easier. But as I did, I wanted to check in at jconline and see what’s going on. It’s my community, and I’m interested in the news about it. Although some young journalists probably don’t feel this way, I’m not paid to be interested in the news where I live, I just am. I would read the paper/Web site where I live even if I didn’t work in local media. Plus, most of the education news was stuff I wrote last week. But there was one story following up an event I previewed. I posted a link to on Twitter because to me it’s interesting a community rallied behind laid off teachers to raise $98K to save some of their jobs. I’d be interested in that whether it was local or a few states away. It’s a cool story. Then, there was an announcement from the state superintendent about graduation rate incentives I was genuinely interested in because I knew it was coming. It’s a topic I’m interested in, so I’m going to read about it.

So, I was flipping through my RSS feeds, Twitter and my daily list of sites I visit out of habit this morning. And I came across a blog posting that said one of our local school superintendents was going to be hired by another district. This created a dilemma. No one else at the J&C would be reading that site to see that blog post. So, we’d almost certainly get scooped. In a normal week, I’d post that information and link to the blog from my schools beat blog. But that blog is off-limits this week. Part of me thought when I saw the posting, “Well serves them right for not paying me for a week!” But the bigger part of me said, it’s wrong to know and withhold that information and intentionally let us get scooped. Because even though I’m not working this week, people still associate our education coverage with me.

So, I forwarded the blog post to my editors from my personal e-mail and moved on with my day. Then, I got a curt note back saying not to have any further communication while on furlough. To be honest, that annoyed me. Would it be better had I not just forwarded them the note the same way I’d have forwarded it to anyone with an interest in it? Should I have forwarded it to my contact at the paper located in that city, because I am allowed to contact that person but not my own colleagues? Should I wait a week and a half until I return and it’s old news to say, oh yeah, by the way, I knew this was going to happen last week but I didn’t tell anyone.

I understand the purpose, I guess. They can’t call me. I can’t work. They feel like they’re following the letter of the law. Blah blah blah. Whatever.

But they’re ignoring the reality of the Web and the realities of this business.

For example, I posted the link to the blog post with a message on who was reporting it from my Twitter account. Does that constitute work? I think some of my followers would be interested in it. I pass on links to interesting stories, education and otherwise, nearly daily. But what if people I work with follow me on Twitter, which they do, or are friends on Facebook, which they are, and one happens to see my updates in their news feed. Are they breaking protocol? Am I??

Which is to say, what am I supposed to do with all the lines between work and my life that just blend?

I don’t consider my personal Twitter account work-related. I don’t want them to either. I was on Twitter before they’d heard about it. Any benefit the company gains from links I post or community interaction or sourcing or anything is purely tangential to my being there because I enjoy the conversations and community. Am I not supposed to post anything from the J&C this week because it might be construed as “work”?

And what about Facebook? Just today, I got a friend request from a colleague. Whether or not that person knew I was on furlough is irrelevant. Should I ignore it until I return next week? Should I accept it because, well, again, my Facebook persona is mine. But what if we happen to mention something related to work? Will I or they be in trouble?

And in reverse, what if someone I know to be on furlough contacts me through one of those channels, as has happened. Do I ignore their chat window? Do I block them on gmail from seeing my status? Do I not read their tweets? Do I skip over their facebook updates?

And what about my colleagues who are also my friends. My new roommate is a co-worker. My best friends in this city are, too. Is talking about work taboo? If I wasn’t out of town, would lunch or dinner together be off-limits? How far do you take this?

Also, I can’t, or rather don’t want to, shut off each of my dozens of google alerts that come to my personal e-mail account about the districts/cities/people I cover. It’s inconvenient. Plus, as I said above, I am interested in what’s happening here and in the topic I cover. Beyond work, It’s something I’m interested in following. I can, and did, put on an e-mail responder on my work e-mail and temporarily stop forwarding it to my blackberry. That was easy. But turning off everything else is more complicated and cumbersome to turn back on later.

And should I block jconline from my phone or any computer? It’s my natural compulsion when I am idle waiting on someone to check out the mobile site for news. It’s the natural site I start typing in the address bar when I sit at a computer. It just is.

All of this doesn’t even hit on the fact that, let’s be honest, if I came back from an 11-day absence without a clue as to what happened while I was gone, my boss would probably be pretty annoyed with me. (The furlough is just this week. But I’m off through next Tuesday because Memorial Day and then I’m working the following Saturday.)

I get the point of the furlough. Keep jobs, save money, blah blah. But it’s bad for the people left behind and it’s bad for those doing the leaving. I’m in Ohio now, then going to Florida for a week. But even that doesn’t make up for the guilt that I feel leaving behind all my work for colleagues to pick up. It sucks. I know it sucks because like all my co-workers, I’ve been helping pick up the slack since the first furloughs were announced earlier this year. I am glad to have job, which is what I tell everyone who asks how much it sucks (which is a surprisingly large number of people). Compared to the alternative, it’s great. But it’s hard to just really step away and not care. I do care. If I didn’t care, I would quit. Because, as I’ve said before, I don’t get paid enough to not believe in and enjoy what I do. And since I’m getting paid even less these days, the fact that I do — on most days — like what I do is one of the top incentives to stick with this and see this business through the rough days.

I’m going to try to be a better furloughed employee. I feel like Bart Simpson writing, “I will not have contact with co-workers while I am on furlough. I will not have contact with co-workers while I am on furlough. I will not…” But as such, I am wondering who will tell the features editor that I ran out of time last week to do the column that’s due this Friday and is supposed to run next Monday? All the news I had to chase last Friday, which kept me hours over when I wanted to leave, made me forgot to send her a note. So she’s going to be pretty upset when she looks for it Friday and it’s not there. But, I guess the right response, given my experience earlier today is just to say, even though it feels — and is — completely irresponsible, “oh well, it’s not my problem.” At least until next Wednesday when I get back. But, that’s the problem with a furlough. You can’t just dip in and dip out of this business. It doesn’t work that way, especially when your job and your life are all tangled up in the Web. I don’t make the rules. I’m just trying to get the hang of following them.