Manteca’s own ‘Gilmore Guy’: Burns leaves newspapers for classroom

Manteca High multimedia and journalism teacher James Burns gives his student ideas for a quickwrite in class on Thursday, October 31, in Room 60 at Manteca High School in Manteca, California. (KEIRA MCCULLEY/The Tower)

Editor’s Note: This profile is part of a series of stories on Manteca High School teachers who discovered teaching only after starting their professional careers in another line of work.

By KEIRA MCCULLEY 
The Tower  

James Burns, or should I say Rory Gilmore, once had a life besides just a teacher, coach, and father.

Roaming sideline to sideline, booth to booth, Burns recorded, documented and wrote about the region’s best teams and athletes for newspapers as a journalist.​​ Whether it was covering a rival high school football game or explaining the intensity of a tied championship match, Burns excelled in sports writing, earning numerous writing, editing, and design awards.  

Entering the competition  

Fresh out of high school, Burns knew exactly what he wanted in life — a notepad, pen, and a chance to stay in the sports scene.

Majoring in journalism and communications at Sacramento State, Burns worked hard throughout college to make his writing dreams come true. He worked as a designer, sportswriter, sports editor, managing editor at newspapers in Folsom, Merced, Manteca and Modesto. Continuing his studies at both Grand Canyon University, where he earned a business degree, Burns elevated his love for storytelling, launching his own digital media company: FronRowPreps.com.

“I worked as an intern at a newspaper in Sacramento and that really trained me and gave me everything I needed as working journalist,” Burns said.

Taking the step forward 

As the economy shifted and the newspaper industry turned, Burns no longer was happy as a journalist. With some persuading from his family, Burns looked into a career in teaching. He started subbing and shadowing other teachers at Lathrop High, Sierra High and elementary schools in the Manteca Unified School District. Loving the experience, Burns enrolled at Teachers’ College in Stockton and eventually began working at Weston Ranch High School and Sierra High School as an English teacher. He soon moved to Manteca High School for a chance to re-launch the journalism and multimedia programs, and share his passion for writing and content creation with the young creatives at his alma mater.

Burns is one of the many teachers at Manteca High School who has brought their past work etiquette into their new daily lifestyle.  

“A lot of what I do in the classroom, it’s not modeled on anything I learned in the credential program,” he said. “Everything I do in my class is modeled off what I did in the newsroom.”

In Room 60 at Manteca High School, Burns, or “Burnsie” as the students call him, works three periods a day, teaching different writing and reporting skills, such as lede writing, shot types, mapping, structure and ideation.

“I’m not surprised at all that he’s this successful,” former colleague and longtime friend Ron Agostini said. “James was an excellent writer and it’s so good for me to see him passing along what he knows.”