Triad elementary school starts student-run newspapers to help practice writing

KERNERSVILLE, NC (WGHP) — Cash Elementary School Media Coordinator Jessica Schaeffer loves working with her students on projects. But while doing so she noticed something.

“Our kids really needed more help in writing and learning how to write and express themselves in writing well,” says Schaeffer. “And so, I was trying to find a way like an after-school club or activity that we could do for kids to develop their writing. And I thought about, well, let’s do a newspaper..”

That’s when the Crucial Cougar News was born. 3rd, 4th, and 5th-grade students became reporters tackling all the news happening in their school, writing stories and doing interviews. they say it’s been an eye-opening experience.

Fifth grader Ryleigh Matthews admitted, “It’s fun and you get to like cover topics that you didn’t really know existed until you got to write them.”

Her classmate Elle Peay agrees.

“It’s been very fun because I’ve been able to like type the words I’ve used not usually be being able to like type before and like the teachers help us so it’s been very exciting and helpful.”

Says Ella Pennington, “I kind of get nervous when I do it cause like most of the people that I had to talk to, I haven’t really had a conversation conversation with but it was really fun and I like doing it.”

While they were covering events and activities, something special happened along the way.

According to Schaeffer, “It also brought our community together because you know here at Cash. And it’s easy for a school to there to just be like pockets like the classrooms to be kind of like isolated within themselves. Well, now that we have this, this news crew and they’re writing stories, you know, about things that are happening all over our building. And then everybody’s reading it and, you know, the kindergarten teachers, oh, they’re doing that wonderful thing in 3rd grade. We didn’t know about that.”

Once word got out about the News Crew, more students wanted to be a part of it, like the exceptional children’s classes. They became the Circulation Crew.

“They would roll the newspaper, which helped with fine motor skills, and then they would go out and they would circulate it, circulate a print, copy to all of our classrooms here. And so it helps them get out and say hello to all the classrooms, improve and work on social skills as well, and we’re going to continue that this year with our circulation crews,” says Schaeffer.

The newspaper is created on a digital platform which gives students valuable experience, in creating, editing, layout and more.

“I think it’s fun because it’s challenging and like it’s not easy,” says Matthews. “And so like, you actually learn something.”

Peay admits, “When Miss Schaefer we usually say when we have to get this article done, we will stay focused and show that we can do that article on time.”

And they learned about asking the right questions.

“Who? What, when, where, why and how,”

Says Pennington.

They also learned about the seriousness of being a reporter.

Says Schaefer, Media Coordinator

“Learning about journalism, what principles there were in journalism, making sure that the news that we covered here was timely and accurate. They weren’t. We weren’t being biased in our reporting.”

That’s why the Crucial Cougar News was chosen by the digital platform as being the best student newspaper in Community Engagement.

Schaeffer says it was a great accomplishment.

“And this isn’t on a contest. That’s just our district or even North Carolina. It’s an international Contests, so thousands of schools. People that use this platform, not just the United States and outside the United States, they submit projects and our little school here in Kernersville won.”

That was just in their first year. Ms. Schaeffer says she can’t wait to see what the future holds for her budding yet accomplished journalists.

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