In September of 2000 a new class was introduced to Edison students. This class is known as Journalism, and only one teacher, Ms.Gokturk, teaches it. "I love it," Ms.Gokturk said, "I look forward to coming to class." Besides being involved in Edison's newspaper as the advisor, she also has had experience as a a high school journalist. "I was Editor-in-chief of my school peper and pre-journalism major in college."
In previous years, students who wanted to contribute to The Edison Light, Edison's newspaper, did so by joining an the newspaper club. They would meet after school, and the only credit they would receive would be credit for joining the club. But now students can receive more credit. It has become an alternative English class for any student who chooses to take it rather then taking E7 or E8.
The class doesn't only give the students the oppurtunity to write for The Edison Light, but it also teaches them about the news, the media, newspapers, and history of the press. They also learn different techniques for creating anything from writing a paper to creating an advertisement. In addition, Ms. Gokturk taught all her students the basic HTML skills needed to create web pages, and now they also post their articles on the World Wide Web. This makes this class very unique, and it also explains why so many people have asked to take it. But with only one class, the space is limited, and only thirty-three students are lucky enough to have it. But even if they are in Journalism, they are not guaranteed to stay all year round. Students who don't want to stay or who Ms.Gokturk sees as demonstrating no effort will be replaced, and sent to either drama class, english or honors english, if they have the grades for it.
Most students really like this class because it's a good communications class. Students get to do a lot of group work, and get to be creative by creating such things as advertisements. They share ideas, and compare them or even combine them, which gets interesting. When asked why they prefer Journalism, most students replied that it was the fact that they didn't have to keep reading a book for class, which was because most students either had jobs or night school so it was hard for them.
Not all the students in Journalism enjoy the class. A hand full, out of the thirty-three currenlty in the class, say that they don't like the class. "This class has its ups and downs," stated Kieth Williams (aka K-Life). The rest of the students who don't like the class agreed that they didn't like it because they get "too much work, too little time." Even though most of them seem to be doing well, gradewise in the class. Three of them even have ninety or ninety plus grades in Journalism.
As we look back The Edison Light has gone a long way. It went from being an after school club to an English replacement class, which extends from the school paper to the Internet. As it progresses it seems to be expanding its content and its limit.