Bolles journalism teacher Anna Jacobson recently received her Certified Journalism Educator designation from the Journalism Education Association. The certification builds upon long-held bachelor’s and master’s degrees.  Jacobson tested for the professional certification this fall during the JEA/National Scholastic Press Association Fall National High School Journalism Convention in Boston.

“It was a really hard test, it gave me much more sympathy for my students,” Jacobson said.

While the test was difficult, Jacobson said she felt well prepared because of an intensive, two-week journalism training program for secondary school teachers she experienced this summer. Held at Kent State University, the 2013 Reynolds High School Journalism Institute covered an array of topics including news literacy, reporting, multimedia, photojournalism and ethics and provided her three hours of graduate credit. Jacobson was one of 34 journalism teachers from 21 states who received a fellowship attended the institute.

Jacobson said many lessons from her Reynolds fellowship have helped enrich the academic experience of her journalism students. One class activity she learned at Kent State involved students working in pairs and using snack food to demonstrate concepts of alignment, repetition, contrast and proximity.

“This was a class activity where our students were learning the principles of design,” Jacobson said. “It also helped me study because those were a big part of the test.”

Now that she has attained her CJE, Jacobson plans to take her Master of Journalism Educator certification exam in four years.

Jacobson also hopes to attend the spring 2014 JEA/NSPA conference in San Diego with a delegate of upper school journalism students from Bolles. She said there several students have shown an interest in going to the conference, which is slated for mid-April and provides ample hands-on opportunities for students to expand their journalism experience.