Monday, December 3, 2007

Make my day

The first e-mail I opened this morning was from Rebecca McKinney, the West Seattle High School teacher whose journalism class I spoke with last week. She thanked me for coming and said the students enjoyed the visit. That was really cool.

Before my visit I confessed some trepidation to both Michelle and Mich -- high school students can be a rough crowd -- but figured that if even one kid came away feeling encouraged about journalism that would be good.

Given that, Ms. McKinney's note this morning really made my day:

Mark,
Thanks so much for coming out last week. Your talk was very informative. My students write a journal entry at the beginning of every class and on Friday I asked them what they learned from you. There were many good reports, but one in particular that I thought was worth sharing was, "Yesterday I learned that I really do want to be a journalist. He reassured me that this is what I want to do with my life. This guy was realistic and he showed the bad and good sides of journalism." Thanks again.
Rebecka McKinney

Nice.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice note, Mark. That's gotta put a smile on your face.

Ronelle said...

good job Mark - now you know the joys of teaching. Pretty soon you will be getting the same positive feedback from the East coast - let's start thinking about how we want to get you involved with my kids. I would like it to do with critical reading of news articles as well as avoiding bias when writing news articles. What do you think?

Kate Cohen said...

been kinda thinkin all day ... I wonder where that kid will work. He's already in high school, so there will probably still be newspapers in the world by the time he gets out of college, but I still wonder ... what will he retire from 30 years from now? Maybe some business we hardly recognize ...

Kate Cohen said...

Hey how are you guys doing in that messed up weather. How's Rita? Once again, the news channels make us outlanders worry.

Mark said...

Very wet, thanks for asking, but otherwise no probs here in West Seattle.

A few places in and around Seattle have flooded, a couple of roads have closed, there was a giant sinkhole by a city park, Michelle said some people from work had to go home to pump out their basements. But here all is well.

Anonymous said...

All is fine here too, Kaye. Thanks for asking. Rain, winds, trees down, etc. I have an advantage, when weather gets grumbly, I stay in.

Kate Cohen said...

I somehow knew that the matassas would not be phased -- and I'm glad no pumping out was required.

freda said...

glad you all survived the weather, it looks really bad on TV

Mark said...

Ronelle: Thanks, I really like this idea. How do you think would be the best way to proceed?