With many schools just past that first big yearbook deadline, now is the perfect time to refocus on storytelling. In this week’s episode of Ask Mike, host Mike Taylor, CJE, speaks to two advisers who lead their students to tell great stories. Tiffany Kopcak Tiffany Kopcak teaches her students to eavesdrop. Really. That’s how the yearbook staff at Colonial Forge …
How a new adviser, new editors and new outlook made for one of Azle High School’s best yearbooks ever When The Hornet yearbook staff at Azle High School in Azle, Texas, gathered for their very first meeting just one week before the 2017-2018 school year kicked off, there was a lot of uncertainty about how the year would go. At …
Everyone always wants to know what the current “trends” are for the upcoming yearbook year. What cool things are other schools doing that we should consider doing? Or even better, what did we do that has become a trend that everyone is going to be doing in 2019? At every workshop and every convention everyone wants to hear this session. …
Yearbook is a form of storytelling, and Bruce Watterson, known as “The Yearbook Whisperer,” is the Homer of the art form. In the newest episode of the Ask Mike podcast, Watterson and host Mike Taylor, CJE, contemplate the ways yearbook staffs can tell a great story. Creativity They muse on the many options yearbook staffs have tell a story – …
Below is list of common excuses you might hear from yearbook reporters, after they’ve had a bad interview and they return with bad information. Fortunately, good interviewing skills can be taught to help counter each of these excuses and help every student on yearbook staff – even the shy, quiet ones – become more confident interviewers.
The holidays and winter break are likely a time for most yearbook staffs to pause, regroup and get ready for the second semester. A week or two off to recharge is great for all involved, but it’s also good to keep in mind that this time of year is also filled with story possibilities. In our latest Coverage Spotlight, we’re …
There are lots of ways to be informative. Pie charts, bar graphs, quotes, polls, and lists are all ways to convey information. The key is to use them to impart information that is important to the students. A bar graph for a survey question on whether students were happy the football team won the homecoming game does not make for compelling reading.
The sports section of your yearbook will be some of the most fertile ground for interesting feature stories. Are you currently stuck and looking for sports story ideas?
Take a look at the list below and see if you can find a sports feature idea that makes sense for your school and applies to your yearbook.
Whether your yearbook is organized in traditional format, chronologically or a combination of the two, an effective beat system ensures complete coverage throughout the year. Spice up beat selection by hosting a draft day to motivate your staff to get off the sidelines. Collaboration tools such as Trello can take beat management and communication on your team to the next …
“Suzy, you are going to be the academics editor of the 2018 yearbook.” These words strike pride, excitement and dread into academics editors across the country. Why? Let’s explore that for a few minutes. Yes, you have a great responsibility. You are in charge of a portion of the book. Yes, a portion that could be the least-read pages within …