Poynter High - Your Turn

The online Pacemaker finalists have been announced, and winners will be named at the Journalism Education Association/National Scholastic Press Association convention in April. Here's what I liked about a few finalists:

Silver Chips
Montgomery Blair High School
Silver Spring, Maryland

I really like this site. It's engaging, and the color scheme is attractive. Having two lead stories keeps the page from being overwhelming. The image teasers at the bottom are nice, especially the pop-up info boxes that appear when you move the mouse over each picture. There's a lot going on on this site. The left rail frequently changes, displaying games and other ways to interact.

North Star
Francis Howell North High School
St. Charles, Missouri


This site reminds me of a networking site like MySpace and Facebook, which makes it fun and appealing. It's a clean layout and it has a great variety of content, from articles to videos and podcasts. Viewers can even play games on the site. I'm guessing the interactivity keeps people on the site longer.

Wayland Student Press
Wayland High School
Wayland, Massachusetts

This site is great! There's great use of color and space. The information is easy to read, and the teasers with images are good. I like the content, which is rich and engaging. Everything looks professional. The best part is how it all got started. Although Wayland High School lacks a journalism course, freshman Robin Kim asked his teachers about starting a student-run Web site a year ago. Read the story here.

Take a look at the other finalists: