By, Peyton Litterick

A wise man once said, “the show must go on.” and indeed, it shall.

As the Northeastern Wisconsin Scholastic Press Association announced a few weeks ago, the 2021 spring NEWSPA conference will be virtual. However, that is not going to stop you from accessing great resources to helpful information through our programs! The NEWSPA conference will run similarly to last years, but will instead run as asynchronous, recorded videos you can access from anywhere.

Advisers and teachers will be able to access content from January 2021 all throughout the spring semester. Additionally, NEWSPA will offer two live sessions on April 21, the day that the in-person conference was supposed to take place. NEWSPA is offering Journalism Smackdown as an interactive Kahoot to engage students in the sessions that they would be attending live. Afterwards, stay tuned for the live awards ceremony to commemorate student’s work in competitions!

What are the benefits of a completely virtual conference you may ask? Access to great content and industry expert video sessions to utilize wherever you feel fit throughout the spring semester! These sessions make the perfect incorporation of content into busy lesson plans as they are only between 10-15 minute videos, and can be paired with an in-class or online activity.

The live experience for students the day of the conference will be a good shake up to their day, and taking time to pause after videos and reflect will engage students to analyze what they learned and create great talking points! 

Although NEWSPA looks a little different again this year, the goal still remains the same: connect aspiring journalism students, faculty and advisers to valuable resources to enhance their learning experience. Click here for more information!