Tyrone principal also serves as Huntington reporter

By Jessica Berg

On Thursday, December 8th, Tyrone Area High school principal, Thomas Yoder, visited the Eagle Eye newspaper class to share what he does with his spare time.

For about 5 years, Yoder has been a monthly writer for the Huntingdon Daily News. In addition to the Huntingdon Daily News, Yoder also writes for Penn State University about education.

Before becoming a writer for the Daily Herald in Huntingdon, Yoder was an English teacher for 10 years. This is where he began writing. His first article was encouraged by a friend and was about the history of Huntingdon. At first, he began writing a quarter of a page, but for the past 4 years, Yoder has been writing full pages once a month.

Like many writers, Yoder prefers writing about certain topics. For Yoder, historical articles and stories of his childhood in Huntingdon are among his favorite topics. Yoder’s most popular stories are his personal stories about his childhood. Although some of his childhood memories are negative, Yoder tends to focus more on the positive than the negative.

“When I think back to my childhood, the bad times fade, and I’ll remember the good,” Yoder said.

Because of his positive stories, Yoder receives “miraculous” feedback. Unlike many writers, Yoder loves getting feedback from readers. He also looks forward to getting revisions back for his stories from an English teacher that he sends all of his articles to for editing.

For any writer, there are difficult parts of writing and for Yoder it’s no different. Deadlines are one part of the newspaper business that gets to Yoder.
“I like to typically think that I get things done ahead of time,” Yoder said.
In addition to deadlines, Yoder admitted to having one other major flaw in his writing.

“I tend to be ‘sappy’ in some of my stories,” he said.

Yoder stated that his “sappiness” sometimes makes the story better from his point of view and he leaves it in there because he likes it.

Once Yoder shared his career of writing for the Huntingdon Daily News, he shared some tips for the Eagle Eye students to think about.

“Getting started is the hardest part,” he said.

Yoder suggested that if writers are having problems with their introductions, try starting with what they know then go back and write the introduction. Other tips Yoder shared were to edit as you go, follow the format for the article, and keep the audience in mind.

Tessa Corle, Eagle Eye student, related to some of what Yoder said.

“I thought his presentation was very helpful. I realized that it is possible to do many different things at once and get them done. Also he showed another side of him that not many people would expect from him,” Corle said.

“His presentation was very helpful because he showed that as a principal he can balance many different things at once. This made me think that I might also be able to do many different things at one time too,” Alisha Weight, another Eagle Eye reporter also shared her thoughts.

Yoder’s next story will be published in the December issue of the Huntingdon Daily Herald about the significance of different Christmas songs from his childhood.