St. Louis -
There's something about reporting that appeals to Eryn Hustler.
"Writing is fun," she volunteers, (but) "when you have to sit there and do it the whole day, it's not fun."
Hustler was the largest single contributor of articles to the first edition of the Falcon's Nest News, a St. Louis Elementary School student publication.
Volume 1, Number 1 of the publication was distributed to all students and staff in the school last week. The 10-page edition is comprised of a variety of news, weather and sports articles, including holiday jokes and crafts.
Hannah DesRoches said she likes the publication because it contains news from around the world. She enjoys writing and said she won't tire of doing stories for future editions. The Falcons Nest News is bilingual; everything is presented in both French and English.
"We are learning stuff by doing it," Hustler noted.
Olivia Batten, a student in Jeff Wilson's Grade 3-4 French Immersion class, suggested the student publication.
"She then recruited class help, and I decided to integrate it with my teachings," Wilson said. "It worked out well. It was kind of a fun thing for them to learn and to bring information together. I got to do mini-lessons before each column."
Olivia's mother, Christine Batten, volunteered to layout the pages. Olivia is the paper's editor.
Plans are to have the publication printed every two weeks. While his students contributed almost everything in the first edition, Wilson said contributions from other members of St. Louis school's student population are welcome for future editions.
Tori Hogan said she thinks the final product is pretty cool.
"Usually you see something with a lot of words, you don't really think it's that cool, but I saw the words and I knew they made sense," she said. "It's not all scrunched together."
Hustler admitted being surprised with the finished product. "I thought it wasn't going to be this amazing," she said, displaying air quotes for special emphasis, "but it's really good and I like it, and I'm sure everyone else in the school does, too."
