The Friar's Lantern - Teaching Craft

The Friar’s Lantern

From 2012-2018, I advised the student newspaper at Malvern Preparatory School. When I accepted the position, my primary ambition was to involve my graphic design students in publication design. I never expected that student journalism would become a reinvigorating passion in my teaching career.

The print publication—titled The Blackfriar Chronicle for the first several years that I advised—circulated eight times a year on campus and to an external subscription list. The associated website—The Friar’s Lantern—started off as a student opinion blog that was moderated by the school’s communications office. We combined resources in 2012, and revamped the website over the next several years to serve as an online news publication. Students decided to rebrand the publication as the hybrid Lantern in 2017. The newspaper and website were fully extracurricular and managed by a staff of student editors.

Alongside the staff of student editors and reporters, I spent my years advising the Lantern immersed in learning the 5Ws: WHO we publish for; WHAT is involved in advising an ethical and educational publication; WHEN I am out of my league and need to turn to the pros for help; WHERE to find resources and support; WHY the students and I find motivation in journalism — and HOW to put it all together into a great publication. Suffice to say, it was an incredible learning experience.

The Friar’s Lantern continues to publish. In 2019, the school re-launched the website site at a new domain with help from SNO, copying the original design. I assisted SNO with transfer of content from the previous site. Content on the site published from 2012-2018 represents student journalism that I coached.