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This is an archived NSPA Forums thread.

Staff Motivation

Tom, 2/22/2006, 5:58:15 PM

Aside from the typical staff party, t-shirts, and gift cards, I'm struggling to motivate my newspaper staff. We've tried having a workshop day where we got together and shared ideas (and ate pizza) one school day. It helped at first, but, like all ideas we've had, it died out.

Does anyone have any brilliant ideas they might share with a struggling editor. (Think outside the box?) We're trying to take a staff with a lot of potential, and make them want to work.

Is this a lost cause?

(Sorry if this is an overused topic. I don't have time to go back and search the archives)

Thanks for any help!

Responses

Mrs. Gehlhoff, 2/24/2006, 3:15:50 PM
is your staff a bunch of teens? how many are there? I have about 8, and 2 independent studies... All have motivation issues, if that's what you'd call it. Try to get them to take a stand on controversial issues, or find their interests and encourage them to research there. Otherwise, a mixture of positive (prizes/rewards) and negative (grades)incentives tend to help.

Dana Donovan, 2/28/2006, 1:43:29 PM
I try to make sure that the get positive feedback from the student body , faculty and staff. If they make a particularly difficult deadline or win an adward I make sure everyone knows. If people congratulate them, they tend to work harder the next time to make sure they are noticed.

Joelle Keene, 3/21/2006, 8:41:57 PM
Something I did early on was award "Staff Writer" positions only to those who attend journalism workshop seminars during lunch. Anyone who writes a story without attending the workshops just has "9th grade" or "11th grade" next to his or her byline. That has really motivated the kids to learn how to do the stories, instead of just doing them and having to rewrite them a bunch of times.

Re motivation to actually write the stories ... I think that comes from the paper coming out on a regular basis. When the student body looks forward to seeing the paper -- at our school, publication day finds everyone sitting on the floor in the hallways reading the paper through lunch and other free periods -- the kids want to write for it. My first year, the paper only came out three times and it was very tough to get good staff. Now it comes out slightly less than once a month and has been able to build some momentum.