What is NIE?

NIE (Newspapers In Education) is an educational program for schools that are committed to assisting teachers in the development of reading, math, language, and life skills using the one medium today's youth are most likely to read as adults...the daily newspaper.

From current events to worldwide understanding, newspapers provide a life-long learning process.

NIE is a partnership between the newspaper, local buisnesses and schools to encourage daily reading habits by providing newspaper and other support material to classroon teachers.

As a resource, the newspaper helps to bridge the gap between the classroom and the real world in which the student lives and to which the student relates.

Through the school year, the Sweetwater Reporter will sponsor educational programs and provide curriculum activity ideas, aimed at helping teachers use the newspaper to teach the standards to help students reach benchmarks to be proficient on the TAKS test.

On a national level, NIE is co-sponsored by more than 700 newspoapers, the News Association of America Foundation and the International Reading Assoication. It is the supports of community businesses and professionals that make NIE successful by helping to place newspapers in classrooms every week. Their participation is a service to schools and our future.

NIE Goals

The goals of the Sweetwater Reporter NIE program include:

• Help students become informed and involved citizens who can determine and guide their own destinies in a democratic society.
• Help students develop critical reading skills.
• Provide educators with an economical, effective and exciting teaching tool.
• Increase the probability that students exposed to newspapers in their formative years will become lifetime readers of all forms of literature.
• Produce newspaper-related activity work sheets and other material for classroom use.

The Sweetwater Reporter provides:

• Teaching aids and material.
• Tours of the Sweetwater Reporter printing facility.
• Free delivery to schools.
• Special rate per copy.

Benefits of NIE

Teachers receive:

Newspapers delivered FREE to their classroom every week.
Teaching aids designed for their subject area and grade level.
Businesses match the newspaper's contribution.
The added benefit of direct contact with their classroom sponsor.
The real beneficiaries are the students.

Classroom sponsors receive:

• Business listed in a "Thank You" ads.
• Recognition on a banner on the Mini-Page every week.
• A certificate that sponsors can display at their businesses recognizing them as partners in education.
• Acknowledgment on the weekly bundle covers going to the classrooms.
• Positive public relations.
• The satisfaction that their contribution puts newspapers in a classroom of up to 25 students each week for 9 months.

Sample classroom activities:

• The Mini-Page is a full-page in the newspaper consisting of activities, events, puzzles, entertainment news, recipes, word searches, and connect the dots. This page is used for reading, critical thinking, math, geography, history and life skills.
• The Keys Page is a pull-page pictorial of school happenings and a school calendar.
• The Teen News provides entertainment news and quotes.
• Pigskin Geography will be coming in September, 2006.

NIE's growth

• Since 2001, the NIE program has grown from 24 classrooms to 55 in 2006, a 129% increase. This growth is due to the program's tremendous response from teachers requesting newspaper and sponsors deeply committed to their community.

For more information about NIE, contact Terri Garza, Circulation Manager/NIE Coordinator at (325) 236-6677.