300-Word Story process
I remember the stress of looking for my colleague Scot the evening he disappeared for a while. He left the school. Quite a while later his wife began calling others in the school who would likely have worked as late as Scot. The Middle School Music teacher and her husband began a search along his route home looking for him. The added stress to our district community was that on the same night, the Instrumental Music Teacher had a heart attack just after a Jazz Band practice. It was a very disastrous night for music.
Eric,
This is a good example of how 300-word features can tell a compelling story and develop a good sense of someone’s situation/universal truth. The alt. copy helps expand the story beyond the subject and provides nice context to the overall piece. I hope you can use this idea in some way if/when you start teaching yearbook.