Hi, we’re Annie Myers and Marah Shulda of the JagWire newspaper. Back in eighth grade, we passed the ball to each other on the girls basketball team. Now, we’re co-writing a blog together. Each week, we’ll compile a list of what we believe to be the top 10 things of different topics and explain why we think each one deserves a spot on the list. To start off, we decided to share the top 10 things we’ve learned on staff so far.

1. How to get work done on time: This is one of the biggest things we’ve learned in these past couple weeks. This is also one of the most helpful skills that we can use in school and in the real world. Deadlines will always be apart of our lives and since being on newspaper we have learned how to use our time wisely and make sure the work is done on time. Just like in the real world, in newspaper, if you don’t get your work done on time you are not only hurting yourself but the other staffers.

2. Remember to log off at the end of class: We’ve made this mistake only once, but we’ll never make it again. The journalism staff finds pride in changing the desktop background of staff members who forget to log off. We were victims of this several weeks ago, and we logged in the next class to find senator Ted Cruz gazing into our eyes in high definition.

3. How to communicate with people: This skill is again, very helpful in the school and real world. On newspaper, we communicate with fellow students and teachers to gather information and to get feedback.These people skills that we will learn over the school year are going to be very useful.

4. Always bring extra Skinny Pop: At work nights, the staff brings food to snack on throughout the work time. Without fail, the Skinny Pop disappears first every time. Maybe it’s because there’s only 39 calories per cup, maybe it’s because it fits perfectly in the bowls. We are frequent Skinny Pop consumers, so for this reason, we always keep an extra ziploc bag of it in our lunch boxes.

5. Writing skills: We learn writing skills here that regular English classes just can’t offer. All of our writing is public, so we have to sometimes be careful about what is said and how we say it. Some of the skills acquired are just basic formatting things that we never would’ve thought of.

6. Don’t be afraid of the back row: The back row is where a lot of the editors sit, but you can’t be intimidated by them. If you have a question, simply get up and ask them. If you sit in your seat with your hand raised, your arm will be sore because nobody will come to you — trust us.

7. Photography skills: This generation is constantly snapping pictures on their phones but not many people are able to use a traditional camera on manual. Most students in newspaper learn to use a real camera and on manual mode. We love taking photos and being able to have access to and use these really nice cameras is amazing.

8. Don’t procrastinate: This seems like a Captain Obvious, but it’s very important and very true. You may think that you can slam it out at the last minute, but trust us — you can’t and you won’t. It’s always better to have more time to go through and do your work to the best of your abilities, anyway. If you do your work ahead of time, you won’t cry and you’ll feel way better about it.

9. Teamwork skills: A lot of newspaper is work with a writer and photographer and those two have to work with each other. The writer is communicating with the photographer constantly so that there is no confusion as to when and where an event is happening. They need to tell them when and where interviews will happen and when they plan to report.

10. Don’t be afraid to crack jokes: One of the best parts about journalism is the people on it. You have to put yourself out there in the beginning, and you may have to do so by telling a joke or three. The experience is so much better and less stressful is you’re close to the people you’re working with.