Journalism is an effective tool for anyone to learn, even if you’re not looking into a future in journalistic writing.  Many of my fellow classmates in Mrs .Gordienko’s Journalism class had no interest in pursuing a career in journalism, but despite that, there were still lessons that were effective takeaways for them as well.  Early in the year we focused on grammar and proper spelling, both skills that are necessary for everyone, writer or not.  With lessons ranging from the parts of an article to ethics and laws this course goes beyond just writing. But the greatest lessons are those that had nothing to do with Journalism at all.  This course pushed my classmates and myself to hold ourselves accountable.  With strict due dates and often limited time in class given, it came down to us to make sure our work was being completed and turned in on time.  These high expectations set the example for the future when we won’t have teachers to push us to get our work done.

If projects are your strong suit, then this is the class for you.  Many lessons are followed up with an assignment that allows you to put what you learned into action.  This helps create and maintain an interesting and exciting learning environment.  An extended project known as newsgroups not only makes use of all the earlier lessons you learn throughout the year, but it also teaches a new one: teamwork.  You and three other of your classmates will cooperate on a single article every week and it’s up to the group to make sure it gets done on time.  This teaches the valuable lessons of effective communication, often outside of class, and working with your group so that no one is left doing more work than the rest.  Teamwork is a skill that everyone will need in their lives to have success in everything from college to marriage.  This project along with others pushes students to work together for a common goal.

Pennridge offers many amazing classes that are each beneficial in their own ways, but I am so glad that I decided to take this one.  Not only will this aid me in my future of pursuing journalism, but the life skills I learned in it will stay with me as well.  After this class I feel that my performance as a writer and a student has grown and improved.