Last spring, the Advanced Contemporary Journalism 4 class attended the High School Media Conference at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and came away with some ideas for this year.

The conference was a new opportunity for The Tooter staff to connect with their journalism peers from different high schools across the state. The staff got an up close look at other schools’ newspapers and agreed that they should add more features to The Tooter to better serve students and staff.

New this year are the weekly poll, a weather report, countdown clock and sports scoreboard.

“I think it adds a new fresh look to the page, and students can look on The Tooter for updates on the sports games and countdowns; this will get them more interested to look at The Tooter,” Tooter managing editor Savannah Galas said.

“It’s always fun looking forward to the weekly polls and seeing the results of what everyone else thinks,” Elizabeth Hernandez Ortega, a managing editor of The Tooter, added. Hernandez Ortega said she also finds it convenient to see the daily weather and the scores of our sports teams.

“The sports scoreboard benefits The Tooter readers because it informs them on how our sports teams are doing even when they forget there is a game or when they can’t attend the game. They can look at The Tooter and see how the game went,” Hugo Hernandez Lara, a senior reporter at South, said.

Now there is also an app available to read The Tooter. Student News Source (SNS) is available in the App Store and Google Play Store for cell phones and iPads. Simply download the app, search for Omaha South High, select it and then allow notifications.