LeopardLife.net, a student-produced news website for Sloan Creek Middle School, launched its first issue last spring. Since then, the Leopard Life staff aims to produce news weekly to the site.

“LeopardLife.net is a real-world educational project and tool that allows students to produce journalism collateral, just like professional journalists,” said SCMS journalism adviser, Nicole Sanders. “Students are always on the beat, looking for new stories and coverage ideas to produce to the site. It gives them much more of a real journalist feel for working on a daily or weekly publication. The website is just part of our efforts to teach students to produce highly-effective convergent news using several media platforms.”

In addition to the six print issues of LeopardLife put to press throughout the school year, local news around campus news is frequently updated on the web. The first story published to LeopardLife.net last spring, written by Blake Parker, was featured on the National Issue of myhsj.org. (My High School Journalism.org,) the site which hosts LeopardLife.net.

“I felt like a had produced a real story that did more and meant more to others because of the awareness it helped to create,” said Parker.

The new website is a fast way to stay updated on news around the middle school. Currently the school also produces a daily news show with announcements on Sloan Creek News Network (SCNN), led by media journalism and technology instructor Ray Cooper, who is also producing a DVD yearbook to accompany the print yearbook.

Contributed By Liz Schasel,
LeopardLife Newspaper Editor and Chief
LeopardLife.Net Assistant Editor