Excitedly, the Uncaged News team waited for The Paw Times visit on March 8. The group of fifth graders were inspired by Uncaged’s work and decided to create a newspaper of their very own. When coming to visit, The Paw Times had a lot to learn, and Uncaged was ready to teach.

Fifth graders Reagan Mowery, Azora Parks, Gabby Chivikas, Olyvia Hoard and Gaven Numinen all make up the staff of The Paw Times, the Heritage Elementary newspaper team.

When the cub reporters visited Uncaged, they went through stations with the staff, who showed them how to take photos, how to do post-shoot effects, how to conduct interviews, how to use the green screen, how to take photos in the light box and how to lay out the newspaper.

“They loved coming to visit,” Judy Brune, student support specialist said. “They could not stop talking about it, and they learned so much from their visit. I can honestly say that I am so proud of them and love working with them. It’s not just me that’s proud, it is also their parents.”

They took notes and were able to try all the jobs performed by the staff.

“It was a fun experience and it gave us a lot of knowledge to keep going with our newspaper so we can make our newspaper better,” Gabby Chivikas, a The Paw Times staff reporter, said. “My favorite part was actually getting to know how to interview people, so we didn’t just interview someone, we have to ask someone if they want to be in the newspaper, we have to have their permission, because some people don’t like their name being put out there.”

During the visit, staffers made press passes and were given reporters notebooks, learning about what it means to put sources “on the record.” They also had the opportunity to ask the Uncaged staff questions and get an insight into journalism.  

“I think it was really fun because they actually were interested in what we were trying to teach them,” Uncaged staff reporter sophomore Abbey Sayler said. “And they payed attention really well. I had to teach them the basics of interviewing, basically what you should do and what you shouldn’t do when interviewing. “I think my favorite part had to be at the end when they got to ask us questions. They actually did have some really nice questions to ask us. I’m actually hoping that they come back again.”