PLAINWELL -- The journalism students are talking among themselves, working on projects, picking each other's brains. CNN is being broadcast on a giant movie screen, rendering moot the blackboard.
Ken Zelnis, 56, is bouncing from student to student, where he might chat for a minute, look over their work or hand them a New York Times article of particular interest. Computers here, stacks of newspapers there, activity in every corner.
This is not your ordinary high school classroom, and Zelnis is no cookie-cutter teacher.
"Hey, Z, where's the issue with my McCain story?" asks student-reporter Matt Buck, who covered a January speech in Kalamazoo by Republican presidential candidate John McCain for a story that made the front page of the Feb. 12 issue of The Trojan Torch, Plainwell High School's student newspaper.
"Z," who will retire next week after 30 years of teaching journalism and overseeing the Torch, points Buck in the right direction, as he done with so many students."He gets to know you as a person, as a student and as a friend," said Stacy Katsafanas, a junior, who, like Buck, plans to pursue journalism as a career.
If the two find a niche in journalism, they would not be the first Zelnis students to find themselves in the newspaper business.
Dave Coverly, a 1982 Plainwell grad who studied with Zelnis, is the creator of "Speed Bump" an internationally syndicated cartoon that appears in more than 250 publications.
"Of course I'm proud of Dave, just as I'm proud of so many of the accomplishments of former students," said Zelnis, whose relationship with Coverly has changed from teacher to friend through the years.
Zelnis is one of just three outside sources Coverly occasionally uses for cartoon ideas. The other two are close friends -- one is a former cartoonist who is now a lawyer in Washington, D.C., and the other is Jim Borgman, creator of the cartoon "Zits."
Coverly credits Zelnis with giving him the guidance to understand that cartooning could be a viable profession.
"I always loved to draw cartoons, but I really didn't have any idea how to do it for a living," Coverly said. "He would bring me cartoons from the New Yorker, from newspapers, and he would show me that it was possible.
"I had never met a cartoonist, but Kenny almost made me feel like I had. He brought it home for me."
Tailoring his teaching to individual students has been a staple throughout Zelnis' career.
"His big thing is to keep us culturally literate in ways that are interesting to us," Katsafanas said. "He makes it personal."
Coverly gave a personal nod to Zelnis in his May 20 "Speed Bump" cartoon after finding out his former teacher was retiring. The cartoon depicted a retiring journalism teacher, and the name Zelnis appeared backwards on the glass door of the classroom.
"I told his wife, Julie, but he didn't know about it," Coverly said. "He's been such an important part of my life I wanted to tell the whole world what a special person he is."I have my own little venue, and I'm glad people saw it and seemed to appreciate it."
Zelnis' interest in people gives him an ability to instruct and befriend students. But he also challenges them and can be "a real solid authority figure," Buck said.
Ron Faurot, who is near the end of his second year as Plainwell High School principal, also has been the occasional target of Zelnis' challenges.
"We have had some pretty lively discussions about whether an item was appropriate for the school newspaper," Faurot said. "But it's always been respectful, and many times educational.
"He goes to bat for his students. He cares about every kid he comes in contact with. His impact on them is undeniable."
Zelnis, whose retirement plans are in the "formulation stage," said the relationships with students are what he'll miss most.
"There's a social aspect I'll never get anywhere else," he said. "Every day I say hello to a few hundred friends."
REPRINTED FROM: Kalamazoo Gazette By Jeff Barr May 31, 2008
Zelnis talks with his students during Friday morning journalism class at Plainwell High School. Zelnis has taught journalism to students for 30 years and will retire next week. (Photo by Mark Bugnaski)
http://blog.mlive.com/kzgazette/2008/05/influential_plainwell_journali.html
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