I am addicted to conferences. I love to attend the workshops and conventions, where I can learn about new ideas for yearbooks, software and writing. I always leave with something I can use in my classroom. However, when I get back into my routine of grading papers and preparing lessons, my new-found ideas get lost in the shuffle.
You may be overlooking a vast and multi-talented resource for your yearbook program: parents. Parents love their children, want them to succeed and want to help when they can. If you show them the value of your program, and explain how it works in a way they can support it, your program will benefit.
I suffered from deadline dread my first year as adviser of The Spinnaker at Laney High School. Despite those early days when pages were turned in the day of shipping for the mad dash to the plant, I have survived and learned from my mistakes. While I still have a lot to learn about yearbook publishing, I have come to understand that deadlines are a necessary evil.
The new editor could visualize it: a pink and purple yearbook cover with a castle and the words, “Once Upon a Time….”
Money raised from ad sales at Shaler Area High School, Pittsburgh, Pa., has continued to increase over the years based on the idea that the more motivated salespeople you have, the more money you can raise.
Each year, advisers and staffs work to develop a theme to unify their yearbook and make it a reflection of the school and students during that particular year. This is one of the most daunting tasks of the entire production process. Themes do not magically appear. It takes thought and hard work. And theme development itself has a process.
Well-written job descriptions are like fences providing defined boundaries for what is inside and outside the enclosure. For students, job descriptions define their role on the yearbook staff and help them meet the expectations of their position. But the descriptions also aid advisers, who can use them to develop their staffs and ensure goals are accomplished.
How many students does it take to misplace the stapler in a classroom?
One. Now multiply that by the number of students on your yearbook staff, and keeping your classroom organized will not happen unless you have a plan.
New yearbook advisers routinely face obstacles, but when the little pink phone message sheet appeared in my mail tray in mid-November, it aroused no suspicion. The message seemed harmless: “Call the yearbook plant.” Yet, the news I learned when I made that call was straight out of the yearbook X-files.
As yearbook adviser, you are the captain of a ship setting out for a one-year voyage with an inexperienced crew. If you have been on this trip before, you know about the rough waters ahead. It is likely you have already begun to prepare. However, if this is your maiden voyage, you probably are not sure what to expect.