Welcome to Journalism 1-3 Mr. VanWestervelt 2016-2017

Five Things About Mr. VW Graduated from Towson U (undergraduate) and Goucher College (graduate) with an emphasis on writing, teaching, and publishing; Has taught at Centennial since 2003; has been teaching grades 5  graduate level since 1987; Is a Teacher-Consultant with the National Writing Project; Lives in Towson with his wife and 3 kids; and Was a columnist for the Towson Times, has written two novels, and has published hundreds of articles on parenting, writing, education, mindfulness, creativity, and publishing.

The Focus 3-fold focus to prepare students for a future in media/communications Communicate Effectively with a target audience Write, Create, and Design using the latest technology embraced by the communications industry Produce Publications (online and print) that are relevant for our current community and that serve as archival documents for the school’s history

Achieving The Goal Of Our Focus Building and Producing professional publications from “scratch” Understanding how to represent, accurately and fairly, the entire population of Centennial Recognizing our practices using metacognition and formative assessment so that our actions begin to cross over to other educational disciplines, and eventually to our everyday lives in our jobs, our relationships, and our social responsibilities.

The Curriculum Thinking: Creative process, WIIFM, formative assessment, Bloom’s taxonomy Producing: 4-6 Wingspan newsmagazines and a weekly online newspaper Engaging: Working with the immediate Centennial community and beyond to build strong partnerships

Mr. VW’s Website and Contact Information www.chswingspan.wordpress.com (Wingspan) www.chsrvw.wordpress.com (School) www.baltimorewriter.wordpress.com (Writing) rvanwestervelt@hcpss.org (Email)