Mrs. Narcisi, Seneca Valley IHS teacher,  is not teaching Journalism 1 and Journalism 2, as of this year.  Instead of having two separate courses for Journalism and Newspaper, they were combined and includes IHS and SHS students.

Journalism, taken by Intermediate High School students, focuses on current events and some school news. However, Newspaper, taken by Senior High School students, focuses more on school news and writing editorials about current events. As of this year, the two classes have merged with students in ninth grade through twelfth grade. The class, Newspaper, is taught by Ms. Rice in the SVTV room of the Senior High.

Mrs. Narcisi has been teaching at Seneca Valley for twelve years. She is currently teaching English for tenth graders and Theater 1 mainly for freshman. She had been teaching Journalism for eleven years, and wrote the curriculum for Journalism 2 in her third year teaching at Seneca.

This year, Mrs. Narcisi is teaching a total of four English classes all for tenth grade. In previous years, she just taught ninth grade, but likes the  tenth grade curriculum more than the ninth grade.

She says that the main difference between English and Journalism is “English is a core class, so everyone has to take it and may not enjoy it. Journalism, on the other hand, is an elective class so everyone in the class elected to take the class, therefore, will most likely be enthusiastic about doing the work.”

Mrs. Narcisi enjoyed teaching Journalism because “every day was different and the discussions were constantly changing because the news was changing.”

When Mrs. Narcisi found out she wouldn’t be teaching Journalism this year she had mixed emotions. “My creativity was running low since I taught it for so long.” So she was happy and a bit relieved in that sense. She also didn’t worry too much  because she knows what a great teacher Ms. Rice is and had high hopes for her former students. However, she was also disapointed to let one of her favorite classes go. She may eventually go back to teaching Journalism, but deserves the break and time off.

Mrs. Narcisi will be keeping some of the same teaching techniques and applying them to her English and Theater classes. For English, she’ll use the revision process and writing tips, as well as class discussion. And for Theater she will apply presentation and speaking skills both oral and written.

The one thing Mrs. Narcisi misses the most about Journalism is discussing the current events and applying them to what the class is writing about. One big thing that her students taught her is colloquialism, which she defined as “teenage trends, new slang, and new technology.”

Mrs. Narcisi wishes the best to all her former students on the Seneca Scout and SV Arrowhead and looks forward to reading all their works in he newspaper this year.