The Beachcomber staff looks for journalistic inspiration.
By Julia Carfagno and Ashley Moline
Along with the newly colored picnic benches, the new administration, the scarlet and silver stripes, and the new mulch to walk on, Journalism and History teacher Andrew Weiss rounds out the list as a new young teacher at Miami Beach Senior High. In between advising The Beachcomber and the Scholars Academy, Weiss always manages to keep up a smile.
“[Mr. Weiss] is young, which means he’s more laid back and funny” says Senior and The Beachcomber Opinion Editor Alicia Sanchez.
“I taught for two years at Brownsville Middle School and for a year at East Boston High School,” said Weiss. “That's the building that was the exterior for the TV show Boston Public.” Weiss attended Parsippany High School in New Jersey, studied Latin American History at Georgetown University, and recently finished with a Master of Education from Harvard University.
After leaving the Boston cold, Weiss is happy to be back in the Miami sun. “I don't know if you noticed this,” he said, “but this building is two blocks from the ocean. Sometimes I hear students complaining and I wonder if they realize how lucky they are.”
When Nina Duval, The Beachcomber’s former advisor, came to Miami Beach Senior High in 2004, she reorganized a program that had not existed in years. The Journalism program took shape with her guidance and with help from her students, including favorites such as Hi Tide Harry, a Culture Page and a Letters Page.
According to Sanchez, “Mr. Weiss’ new approach to the newspaper is very efficient and well managed. The on-line paper is new this year. It will be better in a way because everyone will have access through the internet.”
“If you’re a student,” said Weiss, “and you want to know what’s going on at any minute of the day, you should be able to log onto thebeachcomberonline.typepad.com … and be able to find out exactly what happened at school that day.”
Duval agrees that, “this is the way it needs to go.”
Weiss has read prior issues of The Beachcomber, and believes that, “Students working in the journalism department last year really had their finger on the pulse.”
Like so many Beach High students, Weiss does not have the rest of his life planned out. “I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up,” he says, “and I like that feeling. I think the second you know what you're going to be doing for the rest of your life, you might as well start making funeral arrangements.”
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