Teacher Tom Zucco came to John Hopkins Middle School after 25 years at the Tampa Bay Times.
BY HILLARY TERHUNE
NNB Student Reporter
ST. PETERSBURG – The road to a career in journalism is filled with bumps and ruts – awkward phrasing, butchered grammar, factual errors, misspelled names.
That’s why teacher Tom Zucco begins his journalism class every day with a writing exercise. His students watch a CBS Evening News feature called “Steve Hartman: On the Road” and then write the top of a news story about it.
Zucco, 62, a former reporter and columnist at the Tampa Bay Times, is usually pleased with the results. “You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll be amazed at what these kids can do,” he said.
What’s most amazing is that none of Zucco’s budding journalists are over the age of 14. They are students at John Hopkins Middle School at 701 16th St. S in the heart of Midtown.
As some of the students readily acknowledge, their school has a dubious reputation. In 2012, 77 percent of the students were in the federal government’s free and reduced-price lunch program, and Hopkins’ performance on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test makes it one of 11 failing schools in Pinellas County.
Last year Hopkins got a grade of D from the state. This year it got an F.
Inside the journalism classroom, however, remarkable things are happening. Last year the school newspaper, the J. Hop Times, was named the best middle school paper in the country by the National Scholastic Press Association. This year, it finished in the top four.
The school’s journalism classes are part of a program called Journeys in Journalism, which began in 2001 as a partnership of the county school district and the Times. At Melrose Elementary, Hopkins Middle and Lakewood High School, students work with journalists-turned-teachers to produce a school newspaper and website while mastering social media and learning life skills.
Their school may be floundering, but the staff of the J. Hop Times has won national recognition for two straight years.
The Melrose and Lakewood newspapers have also won national honors.
The J. Hop Times, which is designed and printed by the Times, comes out four times a year. This year’s first edition featured stories about school lunches, a quarterly interview with the school principal, and a column about the school’s reputation.
“We really work hard, and I think our paper is good because it’s mostly students that are contributing,” said photo editor Sophie Ojandic, 13.
The students are quick to praise their teachers – Zucco, who spent a quarter century in newspaper journalism, and photography instructor Cyndi Vickers, 56, who has been a photographer for 10 years and a teacher since 1990.
“They make us better at what we do,” said Sophie. “We were already really talented before we got here, but they brought us up to another level.”
Vickers says the reason for the students’ success is pretty simple.
“We have kids who really want to do this, and if interest is there, that’s half the battle,” she said.
“This school has a horrible reputation,” said Sophie. “Once you tell someone you go (to John Hopkins) you get that look.”
The look she talks about is one that many other students are familiar with.
“I have a friend that was supposed to go to John Hopkins but wasn’t sure about it because she had heard that it was a bad school,” said editor-in-chief Rachel Gadoury, 13.
Rachel said she explained to her friend that the school wasn’t as bad as its reputation.
“That girl goes here now,” she said. “She rides my bus.”
The reputation has done little to stop the journalism program from flourishing. In fact, the students said, it only makes them work harder.
The students who work for the newspaper are all in the school district’s magnet program, which offers “education opportunities with very specialized criteria” like art and dance, according to the district website.
The classes are held in the newsroom on campus, which is the old home economics room, said Zucco.
The student journalists are allowed to come and go as they please when they are reporting; all they need is a press pass, Sophie said.
The class also takes field trips throughout the school year. The trips are mentioned in the paper and are often the focus of a major story, Zucco said.
Their most recent field trips included Tropicana Field, Campbell Park, and the Coney Island Grill, an 88-year-old restaurant at 250 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. St. N.
“For many of these kids, it’s the first time they’ve ever been to the Trop,” Zucco said.
Most of the students have never had a hands-on learning experience like this. Many are worried that when they go to high school it won’t be the same.
“We’re already pretty advanced here and the high school that connects to this program starts re-teaching sixth-grade things,” Sophie said.
For these kids, that would be a learning shock.
“We have such fun at John Hopkins that when we leave we’re going to be really upset,” said Destiny Ulanoff, 14.
Take a look
The website of the J. Hop Times is at:
http://jhoptimes.pcsb.org/