The paper is supposed to be the voice of the students in the school, so we would all have discussed the content together, and tried to have articles from each class. The content really reflects where the students are coming from: they chose what they wanted to write, based on what they were interested in, and we all chose which articles would go in.
There were two teachers available if we had any major problems. But mainly they chose the editor, and then it was up to us. We wanted to have a paper which was total student input.
The current issue is the second paper we've done at the school. We had one last year and I did the social column for it. I was chosen to be editor this year on the basis of that work. The title was chosen because it is something to do with computers, and because we hope the paper will have a bit of "bite" and be of interest to people!
We got our equipment from the Information Age project, which was great. We got computers, a digital camera and a scanner. The camera was brilliant - one of the girls was responsible for doing photography, and the pictures make a big difference.
Roughly 10 to 15 of us worked on this issue. I had to listen to the different ideas and work on deciding which would go forward. I also had to collect the articles and edit them. I read all the articles that came in and got everyone's opinion on which we should use.
We've a piece on fashion in Ennis, film reviews, sports and some school news. One of the first-years wrote about her impressions of the school (see below, left), we've a story on Ennis itself and we've an interview with one of the students doing the Leaving Cert. Applied here about why she chose to do it, and what she feels the advantages and disadvantages are.
I started calling meetings in September and gathering up ideas. I gave everyone deadlines for their articles so we'd have time to get it all into the computer and ready. We had everything pretty much sorted, the ideas, the stories and the backgrounds, by December.
Eircom gave us a deadline of January 22nd, and we were still working up to the deadline. It was a bit tough, but in the end it all pieced together. It was a matter of getting everything together and sorted really well, so that you would meet the deadline.
We had to work on it as often as possible. We did it all out of school time, at lunch and after school, which was very hard work because we had to fit it all in between studying.
I think the thing I liked most about it was they way you had to work with everyone, having to adapt to the different personalities. I also love writing myself and I especially enjoyed the editing work.
The only drawback was the amount of work we had to do, though it really was worth it in the end.
I don't know how many hits we've had, but we've had loads of feedback. I even got an e-mail from someone in Tasmania the other day who saw the site and is hoping to do something the same in his own school.
I don't think I'll do a course in journalism when I'm finished school. I didn't put it on my form because I didn't think I'd get the points, but I would like to do something else and then end up in journalism by some other route. Basically I really love writing, so that's what I'd like to end up doing, and if it is in journalism, then that would be fine.
In an interview with Jackie Bourke
Check out Byte on http://colaistemuire.ennis.ie/paper.htm
