Behavioral Guidelines and Grading

• Behavior and Expectations: Students in RedEye are required to produce content that will necessitate spending hours after school filming, interviewing, or photographing. The structure of the staff provides much flexibility in the type of work each staff member can contribute, with students choosing many of their own projects and arranging their own deadlines. The biggest challenge for RedEye staffers will be to meet their own deadlines. Time management skills are essential to balancing workloads, planning the steps it will take to complete work, and polishing it so that it is publishable. It is not acceptable to use RedEye class time for unrelated homework or activities. When listening to music or any kind of audio, always use headphones to not disturb others.

• Staff Membership: Membership or positions with a J&C publication are never guaranteed for the entire length of the year. If the adviser feels the student is not fulfilling the role or is not a positive contributor, the adviser may choose to reassign positions during a staff review at the start of a new semester or at any time. If necessary, students may be switched to another J&C class or a study skills class.

• Professionalism: Because RedEye staffers are often out in the building or in the community working on stories, they must exhibit professionalism at all times. This includes professional appearance, language, and behavior, as well as always carrying press passes when on assignment. Students who do not exhibit professionalism or who abuse press pass privileges can be dismissed from the staff. It is very important that RedEye staffers give a positive impression of their staff, their program, and their school.

• Press Passes: Having a press pass is a privilege for staff members. You may use it only on official staff business and reporting; it does not double as a hall pass. Remember that when you are wearing the press pass, you represent RedEye and Manual as a whole.

• Grading (subject to change): Students are graded on a matrix system. Different work earns you different amounts of points. An editor must give you a deadline for each project you are working on and must sign off on the amount of points you delegate to yourself for that project. It is at the final discretion of the adviser if the amount of points delegated was too high or too low. You must earn 80 points per six weeks to receive full credit for the class (plus the 20 on-task behavior points). You are expected to turn in your matrix every three weeks with 40 points on it. Points can carry over from the first three weeks to the second three weeks. Matrices should be turned in to the appropriate box in Mr. Miller’s room, and blank matrices can also be found here.

  Note that even if you have earned your 40 points for the three weeks, or the 80 points for the six weeks, this does not give you an excuse to stop working. 
  Being a part of RedEye is not about earning a good grade, but about producing a great website.

• Editing (subject to change): Everything, including videos, must be reviewed and approved by an editor before being published. When a staff member has completed a project, they must upload it to Wordpress (or videos to Vimeo) and let their Assignment Editor know. The Assignment Editor will let the staff member know of any necessary changes. If the designated Assignment Editor is not available to look at a piece, it is their responsibility to either find someone who can do so or refer the staffer to someone else. Reply to editing requests as soon as possible: do not leave people hanging!
• Videos: Video scripts must be approved in advance by editors before shooting starts.

  EDITORS: Don't make changes to previously posted stories by other editors unless it violates specific rules and requirements (such as AP Style or specific style guidelines listed elsewhere on the wiki). You cannot just edit to suit your personal tastes!