It started as an idea to encourage students to gain more experience with writing and it became a project that could be reviewed and graded. Now it has become a newsletter and digital storytelling that teacher Laura Davies is hopeful could turn into still more.

“Digital storytelling is the only high school class I teach, and it was essentially working on the yearbook, but there are also students who do video production as well,” she said. “I decided that the kids needed to start getting more experience with writing, so I wanted to find a way to incorporate that.”

Davies said she spent some time looking back on previous school board reports, and she also remembered attending the joint school board/borough assembly meeting on March 5 and hearing a desire to know more about what the students were doing.

“I think it was one of the assembly members who said they wanted to hear more about student accomplishments,” she said. “So the idea of a newsletter, I felt like, closes that information gap between the school and the community.”

What emerged was the first newsletter, released in early September, completely written and produced by students with all the photos by students. The articles were written by 14 different students and focused on sports, academics and one article about a welding project. The newsletter was edited by senior Andrei Bardin-Siekawitch.

“At first, the students were kind of hesitant,” Davies said. “They didn’t have the most confidence. But they were each able to select what they wanted to write about, with guidance, and within one day their attitudes were all better and enthusiastic about the project.”

She said each student is now responsible for providing one article per month, and the fact that they have to deal with real-world disappointments like interviews falling through or missing a deadline provides them with practical experience for life beyond high school.

“It’s a good experience for them, and will help prepare them for college,” she said. “I know that when I made the transition from high school to college, it wasn’t exactly easy.”

With the original goal being that of writing with a deadline, she said the next objective is distribution. As of now, she said the newsletter isn’t exactly being circulated, as she is determining how best to share the product beyond including it in the school board meeting packet.

“There are legal aspects to look into, and I need to be sure each student is OK with their photo being out there,” she said. “I’m hoping to have that figured out soon. I have already been asked by one student if we could make a book out of the newsletters after this year, and that is something I would like to do. We could keep it in the library.”