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Photo by Jay Seawell

HSJI lab assistant Jenna Gerber (right) helps Donna Griffin and Luke Wiseman use camera settings during a workshop this week. Journalism teachers and advisers are attending to refine skills and learn news ones.

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Participants in this year’s High School Journalism Institute’s teacher workshops come from a variety of backgrounds, but they tend to agree on one thing: the institute provides that rare opportunity to focus exclusively on scholastic journalism.

Now in its 64th year, HSJI targets journalism teachers and publication advisers with four course offerings over two weeks. These workshops often qualify for participants’ certification credit, recertification or enrichment hours.

HSJI also includes three weeks of workshops for high school students in July. But teachers and advisers say having a workshop of their own provides valuable time to network with colleagues and to zero in on their goals as journalism teachers and advisers.

At a social event Tuesday in the Ernie Pyle Lounge, participants reflected on their participation over the last week and a half and, in some cases, over the many years.

Elizabeth Levin of Downers Grove High School in Downers Grove, Ill., attended her fourth and fifth workshops this summer. She first attended HSJI in 1999 and both she and her students have been attending in the years since.

Photo by Jay Seawell

Instructor Tony Willis of Carmel High School taught a session on law and ethics last week’s session.

“I’ve found it’s a wonderful place to meet with faculty, to develop curriculum and to come back energized,” said Levin, who attended the Methods of Teaching Journalism workshop the first week of the institute and is attending the Multimedia for High School Journalism Educators workshop this week.

Sessions are led by other high school advisers with years of expertise in specific areas, and School of Journalism and other university journalism faculty. Participants come largely from the Midwest, representing large and small high schools.

For Levin, who advises a monthly high school newspaper, the opportunity to think about journalism practices on a more theoretical level is valuable.

“It’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day business of putting out a paper and to forget about the philosophy behind it,” said Levin, explaining that the workshops give her just that opportunity.

Donna Griffin, a journalism teacher at Arsenal Technical High School in Indianapolis, attended this week’s multimedia workshop to better understand and cater to her students’ digital tendencies.

“I’m trying to make journalism relevant,” said Griffin. “They think news is something completely separate from everything they do online, that there’s some big distinction.”

Photo by Jay Seawell

Gina Hale of Assumption High School in Louisville worked on a group activity during a session last week.

As part of her work in the multimedia workshop, led by Julie Dodd and Judy Robinson from the University of Florida, Griffin is creating a WordPress blog targeting the school’s large alumni base and community members with the goal of promoting the journalism program and publications.

Though the teacher’s workshops conclude Friday, HSJI director Teresa White, administrative services coordinator Linda Johnson and assistant Melanie Mason will welcome the first wave of the hundreds of HJSI high school student participants next month. The student sessions, covering topics as diverse as design, business, multimedia work and television news, run July 5-9, July 11-15 and July 17-21.

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