Informing the community

Vickery Elementary unveils new newspaper club

Members+of+the+Galaxy+Post+pose+for+a+staff+picture.+Courtesy+of+Anna+Jones.

Members of the Galaxy Post pose for a staff picture. Courtesy of Anna Jones.

Vickery Elementary started its own newspaper, the Galaxy Post, last September. It was originally going to be a short term club but that changed due to the student’s love of the publication. The main goal is to teach the kids how a newspaper works.

“When teachers were given the opportunity to host their own club, I ran the idea by our admin and it was approved,” newspaper adviser Anna Jones said. “The response from students was tremendous. They really enjoyed being able to see what goes into publishing an article. When clubs for the fall ended, the kids wanted to continue. So with permission of parents and the school, we continued. It’s been a great experience for the kids in many ways.”

Due to the school’s theme for the year and the history of Vickery Elementary, Jones chose the name “the Galaxy Post” to best fit how this club functions and what it means to be on staff.

“Our theme this year is sort of galactic,” Jones said. “We have a house point system, similar to ‘Harry Potter,’ but we use the constellations instead. We are also the ‘Vickery Voyagers’; we have Astro the Astronaut as our mascot as well. I wanted something to go with post, since we are small yet specific. Galaxy Post was just simple and perfect for the student body we represent.

To publish a story, students must cooperate together by completing tasks newspapers have to do on a daily basis like obtain interviews and create story ideas. Then they can begin to print the stories after they are reviewed by the office staff.

“The students collaborate on topics, practice interviews and provide questions for when I do them,” Jones said. “They have learned about the type of language used in print. They do the research and find the pictures we use for the articles. Once everything is compiled, we put it together using a template I provide. We give a copy to the office and it gets reviewed and published.”

Vickery Elementary principal Adam Gray loves the newspaper and sees the benefit of the club for the students. He hopes it can continue to further help inform the school and community alike.

I know the students who produce the newspaper are proud, as are the students who read the stories,” Gray said. “Any time the students are writing for an audience, there is a benefit. In this case, students are choosing topics that interest them and sharing news that is important to them with the rest of Vickery.”

So far they have only published a few articles but all of the stories are chosen by the staffers. They choose what topics to write about and who they interview for their sources.

“We have published four stories together as a club,” a fifth grade Galaxy Post staffer said. “We did one on a parent, one for holidays, one for Day of the Dead and we just did one on Groundhog Day. We got to do a vote for that one. It was fun.”