Students at Edgewood Middle School now have their own news magazine to share what’s going on at the school. The first edition of “On The Edge” debuted in October. It featured stories on the Edgewood Tigers football team, cheerleaders, scary books to read, Soul Takers Acres and more. Adviser Kami Toumey came up with the idea for the bi-monthly news magazine. “This is my first full year here as a teacher. In the interview, (Principal JoElla Smyth) asked me how can I endorse schoolwide reading and this was my plan,” Toumey said. The club works on the news magazine for 1-1/2 to 2 months. Students write the articles after they discuss what they want to put in the edition. They put their articles in a drop box, which are then put in the news magazine using Microsoft Publisher. When it’s all written and put together, it gets published on the school website at http://edgewood.warsaw.k12.in.us/ There are 10 students on the staff. Students had to apply for specific jobs and got teacher references. “I just like writing in general. Journalism was something I wanted to do for a while, so this was the perfect opportunity,” said student Lora Kuhaneck. Kuhaneck and Miriam Hagg were the editors for the first edition. Each student likes a different aspect of the news magazine. “I like to write about the advice part, if someone needs help,” said Emily Brink. If there’s a problem, she said she likes to show the different sides to it. Kuhaneck stated her favorite part was writing the debates, showing two sides of an issue. In the October edition, the debate was “How old is too old for trick-or-treating?” Hagg said one of her favorite things about writing for it was taking a “regular” thing and telling people there’s more to it than they know. She cited her story about cheerleading in the October edition as an example. “I like to write articles that make people think outside the box,” Hagg stated. Meredith Phipps said she was interested in writing about events that interest the student body and faculty, like the upcoming canned food drive. Kuhaneck said jobs change for each edition so that every student can do anything. The Edgewood magazine is a feeder program to the high school’s journalism program, Toumey said. The high school journalism teacher made the recommendation to her that students try everything so that when they get to high school they will know what they want to do. “We discussed how to write as a journalist,” Toumey said, including the inverted pyramid style and the five questions of who, what, when, where and why. She said students’ articles are more columnist style than current events, though some students do write about those. “It’s made for the students. Faculty, too, but it’s for students,” Kuhaneck noted. For the next edition, Toumey said they’re talking about having a Christmas and winter break issue. There may be a story on the canned food drive, and student Ella Knight will have an article about going with the Junior National Honor Society to Nappanee Missionary Tree to feed starving children. Kuhaneck said the October edition was kind of rushed. As they get more time to work on it, however, she said they will be able to develop it more and add things. “We can change stuff and get it better,” Hagg stated. Toumey said she is encouraging teachers to give her focus ideas for the news magazine. “I just like having a way to express yourself. And there is a topic for everyone in there,” Kuhaneck concluded.
