The most interesting and fun elective of all time, Journalism, is a great opportunity for students to get valuable experience and work on The Lariat newspaper, the backbone of Shadow Ridge. It’s a great program for students who are going into any kind of communications or journalism career because it can help people write in the straightforward journalistic style needed for many different future professions. Journalism Foundations starts off by introducing students to writing newspaper articles in an unbiased way and then gradually incorporates the new journalists’ into The Lariat staff. Students brainstorm and decide on ideas to write articles about and then often interview other students and take pictures to help add to their article. In Journalism II, students become more involved, responsible, and self-sustaining in their work. Since The Lariat is now online, Journalism II not only writes articles for The Lariat, but also manages and takes care of the website, along with the help of Mrs. Smith, the Journalism teacher.

Smith, who has been teaching journalism and running The Lariat along with her various editors for 15 years now, has had to adapt and change her ways during this past year. With COVID, Smith wound up putting The Lariat online after years of printing and handing out physical copies of the newspaper. Although there can’t be physical copies, the newspaper is now timelier and more loaded with stories than ever before.

Smith explained, “I love teaching journalism because it allows me to interact with the students in a nontraditional classroom setting; I get to know the kids a lot better and I can really see them grow as writers.”