once you have some information on them, you can look for the common points and use that in your lead. Or you can point out the geographic range that they cover.

If they are all new to the teaching profession, mention that. If they had previous careers, mention that.

Your lead – especially in a feature story – is something that should grab your readers, and make them want to find out more about this group of people.

So — find something that they all have in common, and peg your story on that. If nothing else, they have all decided to teach at your school. You might ask each one their reasons for applying to your school district — because there are a lot of schools out there, a lot of cities, a lot of states. Something must have drawn them to your area.

Good luck with it.

PS – in a regular story you have to do the who, what when where why in the lead, but in a feature you don’t. It’s a little looser writing than a news article. You still have to include that info in the story, but not necessarily in the lead if you have a colorful piece of info to draw your readers in.

Don’t know how big your school is, but determine the percentage of teachers your new teachers represent.

Maybe they represent 18% of your school’s faculty. Pretty big turnover I’d say.

See where each came from, why they changed schools, their skills, hopes, styles, ya-da ya-da like a et to know you expose.

I remember working on my university paper. A lot of sink or swim occured there also. But hang in there, each feature gets easier.

Ask each one for their favorite Halloween thing!

I figure your paper will come out in oct.! 🙂