back to school

Today I spent the lunch hour over at Central High in St. Paul talking to their journalism students. I really, really love doing this. I love working with the students and I love talking to them about what my passions are and how newspapers work outside of the classroom and how they can make their own paper look and read better.I also love showing them how to take better photos and (hopefully) inspiring them to get more creative with their work. The photo above is of one of the students who volunteered to let me shoot her photo using a variety of settings in class today so I could illustrate some points on how to best operate the camera. Today just confirmed for me that teenagers are pretty cool, and this is one of my favorite ways to volunteer my timeWhich is handy, because I'm not sure I've made it public on this here blog yet, but starting in January I won't have to *volunteer* my time. It appears that I have tricked the University of Minnesota into letting me teach in their journalism school this spring. MwahahahahahaBut seriously, I am a little (ok, a lot) freaked out and overwhelmed by how much I need to prepare in order to pull this off. But? I am super excited as well. And if you're not scared of a job, I guess you won't learn much, eh?And yes, if you are keeping count, this means I will now have three different jobs. I like to stay busy...