The idea for a student newspaper came out of brainstorming by members of the Notre Dame Education Center (NDEC)writing team's publishing committee, which included students and teachers. A newspaper seemed to be a practical activity for implementing one of the team's goals: to increase the amount of writing done across the curriculum at NDEC and to integrate writing strategies into the classroom.

Process
The publishing committee met in March and April to consider how to get student writing (letters to the editor, short stories, and poetry) published in the community as well as to brainstorm about starting a student newsletter at NDEC. We wanted to get a student newsletter published by the end of classes on June 10, so we didn't have much time.

We wanted to be as participatory and inclusive as possible, so we distributed an information sheet: Read All About It: Something New at NDEC to all the staff at the NDEC, and teachers were asked to explore the possibility of a student newspaper in their classes.

Because of the time crunch, the committee decided to focus on a student activity—Cultural Story Hour—for providing contributions to the newsletter. A "Name the Newsletter" contest was held, and 18 names were submitted. Ballots were prepared, votes were tallied, and the name NDEC Students Speak was chosen as the title of the newsletter.

By May 25, we had 25 pieces of student writing, including four poems. The first issue includes all student writing submitted, and next year we will establish submission guidelines and criteria. Volume 1, number 1, was published in June 2004 and we plan to continue the publication into next year.

NDEC writing team members: Charles Katende, Maureen O'Brien and Marilyn Ponder can be reached at 617-268-1912.