Helping shape the next generation of journalists

For the next couple of weeks, I'll be a staff member with The Mosaic, a  workshop that brings together some of the brightest aspiring journalist in Silicon Valley.

And boy, they smart! During the first day of the workshop, our young reporters came up with really good story ideas, all based on what's making headlines these days and their own life experiences. Like, how frustrating it is to take the new Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium tests, the new way California will evaluate how students learn. They were time consuming and scheduled right after AP testing, which means they took a toll on the students. Were they worth it? I'll find out when my reporter gets don with his story.

Another reporter is writing about counselors-for-hire. And yet another about race relations in this country. And these are only my reporters: the other newsroom staffers are writing about the drought, the ban on plastic bags, the Warriors epic season, and more. So much meaty stuff.

The Mosaic San Jose High School Journalism Workshop began in 1993 when a group of San Jose Mercury News journalists put into practice their idea to inspire the next generation of journalists. Participants complete a rigorous application process, and during the two-week workshop they develop their journalistic skills by hitting the streets for news stories and opinion columns that reflect the community from a teenage perspective while meeting professional standards.

I'd been asked to teach journalism in high school before, but haven't been able to for  complicated reasons. If I'd known how fun and rewarding this could be, I would have done it sooner.