VOLUME EIGHTEEN ISSUE TWO
YEARBOOK
MAKE LIFE
EASY WITH THESE APPS
MATTERS IN SO MANY WAYS EMBRACING
CHANGE IN YEARBOOK & LIFE
WAYS TO KEEP
YEARBOOK
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Ann Akers, MJE
LAYOUT EDITOR Nichole Mango Smith
DESIGNER
PHOTO BY NICK LONGONI, BELLARMINE COLLEGE PREP
Katherine Morgan
“I loved collaboration, leadership and management… and I could see all kinds of possibilities.”
JOURNEYS Some yerds originally gravitated to yearbook because they were looking for an outlet for their photos, they wanted to learn more about design or because they loved to write. Others ended up there because a teacher recommended them or a sibling had been involved. But for Ryan Demo, it was kind of a fluke. As a freshman at Bellarmine College Preparatory in San Jose, CA, Ryan ran cross country. While he was at practice after school, the friend who drove him to school worked on the yearbook... and sometimes Ryan had to wait for a ride. Then, he ventured into the yearbook office and was interested in the work that was being done. His friend worked on the design staff and that meshed with Ryan’s interests as he had already taught himself Photoshop and Illustrator. Second semester, Ryan joined the staff.
Fast forward from a crash course in design principles and completing his first spread through conventions, summer workshops and increasing responsibility on staff. He’d only been a design editor for a couple of months when his adviser asked whether he’d consider stepping up as an editor-in-chief as a junior. “I liked the idea,” explained Ryan, “especially when he told me that most guys wished at the end of their year as EIC that they had another year to use everything they’d learned.” In his new role, he found aspects of yearbook he liked even more than design. The staff had long hosted a gallery where they shared and sold photos, but he imagined additional ways they could interact with readers and the school community. Within months, they’d launched a full site online where they hosted the photos and provided timely release of news and student profiles. Last spring, it was one of NSPA’s Online Pacemaker Finalists. Because he thought the opportunity to provide additional coverage would interest other editors and staffs, he proposed a session for the April JEA/NSPA convention in San Francisco. (See his story on pages 22-23 where he shares the info from the session that he’s now presented at two national conventions.) And opportunities continued to arise. Last summer, he expanded on his craft by serving as an intern at Adobe. He designed digital signs, worked on their intranet and was involved with a project centered around company history. For now, he’s back for a second year at the helm of the 2014 Carillon, coordinating a team of staffers and editors that creates a 400-page award-winning book without the “luxury” of having a class in which to do it. No one knows where yearbook and the skills he has honed will take him next.
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Rebecca Chai, adviser Walnut (CA) HS Ryan Demo, Class of 2014 Bellarmine College Prep, San Jose, CA Carrie Faust, MJE, adviser Smoky Hill HS, Aurora, CO Brenda Gorsuch, MJE, adviser West Henderson HS, Hendersonville, NC Nicole Wilson Laughrey, MJE, adviser Carmel (IN) HS Julie Mancini, CJE, adviser Dunnellon (FL) HS Natalie Niemeyer, adviser East HS, Des Moines, IA Linda Puntney, MJE Herff Jones Special Consultant Michael Simons, CJE, adviser East HS | West HS Corning-Painted Post, NY Lynn Strause Herff Jones Special Consultant
CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Student photographers from Bellarmine College Preparatory, San Jose, CA; Carmel (IN) HS; East HS, Des Moines, IA; George Washington HS, Danville, VA; McLean (VA) HS; Mesa MS, Castle Rock, CO; Pleasant Grove HS, Texarkana, TX; Sierra MS, Parker, CO; Thomas Jefferson HS for Science and Technology, Alexandria, VA Julie Mancini & Mike Simmons Cover photo by Ryan Selewicz, Adobe
HJ LOCATIONS Gettysburg, PENNSYLVANIA gettysburg@herffjones.com Kansas City, KANSAS kansascity@herffjones.com Logan, UTAH logan@herffjones.com Montgomery, ALABAMA montgomery@herffjones.com Winnipeg, CANADA winnipeg@herffjones.com Herff Jones Yearbook Discoveries Volume Eighteen Issue Two was produced electronically using Adobe® InDesign CC, Adobe Illustrator® CC and Adobe Photoshop® CC. This magazine was created on a Mac Pro, 2.66 GHz with 6 GB of RAM and printed by Herff Jones, Inc., at its Logan, UT printing facility. The cover was printed on White Vibracolor Endsheet stock using four-color process. The magazine itself was printed on 80# Matte stock using four-color process inks. The fonts used in this issue were AHJ News Gothic, AHJ Letter Gothic EB and AHJ University Oldstyle. Herff Jones and the Herff Jones logo are registered trademarks of Herff Jones, Inc. Apple and Macintosh are registered trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc. Adobe and Photoshop are registered trademarks of Adobe Systems, Inc.
VOLUME EIGHTEEN ISSUE TWO
ADVISER OF THE YEAR
Brenda Gorsuch, JEA’s 2013 Yearbook Adviser of the Year and six other Herff Jones advisers will be recognized by JEA at the Saturday luncheon in San Diego. Kudos to these well-deserving advisers!
WHAT’S INSIDE 02 YOU HAVE IMPORTANT WORK TO DO 06 CHRONOLOGICAL SUCCESS
16 REACH THEM WHERE THEY ARE
08 EVERYONE WANTS TO BE INCLUDED
20 LOOKING FOR HELP?
10 THE SAME BUT DIFFERENT
22 MORE TO THE STORY
12 IT TAKES ALL KINDS
24 YBK, ETC.
In addition to creating the traditional history, yearbook journalists need to tell the big stories of the day.
Don’t do it because someone says it’s trendy; know when (and how) to do a chronological book for higher impact.
Making more people smile when they see how many times they are in the yearbook can help with coverage — and sales.
There’s more to great captions than just lots of details. Follow these guidelines to make your captions stand out.
A great yearbook staff is made up of designers, writers, photogs and editors — and lots of others. There’s a niche for everyone.
14 DEMYSTIFYING GRADING
While new requirements originally created the need for a change, an assessment plan that makes sense emerged.
First Facebook, then other social media outlets allowed this staff to engage the students at their school in new and different ways.
18 GO TO YOUR HAPPY PLACE
Taking care of yourself is the first step to being a great teacher and adviser. When you maintain balance in life, everything works better.
Check out these apps that make life in the staffroom easier and learn how other staffs have simplified some yearbook tasks.
Want to raise the bar on coverage? Consider sharing photo galleries, adding video and more to create a comprehensive story of the year.
Fun traditions that allow staffers to “contribute” to the school after the yearbook is done and has been distributed.
DISCOVER MORE DOWNLOAD THE FREE DIGIMARC DISCOVER MOBILE APP FOR YOUR SMARTPHONE AND ENJOY EXTRA CONTENT WHEREVER YOU SEE THIS ICON. APP IS AVAILABLE FOR IPHONE & ANDROID DEVICES.
Invictus, Ward Melville HS, East Setauket, NY This community (and many others!) will never forget the havoc that 2012’s Super Storm Sandy wreaked on lives of students and their families. In addition to covering major structural damage at one family’s home, the staff compared power outages faced by various students and relief efforts in which students participated. Summit, Smoky Hill HS, Aurora, CO First-person coverage both humanized and localized some tragic events of the year in this volume. A yearbooker was actually inside another theater in the same multiplex when the Aurora shootings took place and an SHHS teacher had travelled to Boston because his wife was running in the marathon. His story details the couple’s brief separation after the bombings occurred, as well as the moment that they located each other again in the panicked sea of humanity.
Now, more than ever before, it’s crucial that the yearbook staffer is aware of the by Carrie Faust
OF THE WORK AT HAND WE’VE SAID FOR YEARS THAT IT’S THE YEARBOOKER’S JOB TO BE THE HISTORIAN OF THE SCHOOL. “IF IT’S NOT IN THE YEARBOOK, IN FIVE YEARS IT WILL BE AS THOUGH IT DIDN’T HAPPEN,” WE SAID. “NEWSPAPERS,” WE SAID, “LINE HAMSTER CAGES TOMORROW WHILE YEARBOOKS LIVE FOR GENERATIONS.” BUT NOW THERE IS A NEW URGENCY AND INTENSITY FACING YEARBOOK JOURNALISTS THAT GOES FAR BEYOND THOSE TIRED CLICHES. The day will come, perhaps very soon, when yearbookers are the only embedded journalists left in our schools. As standardized tests and budget cuts begin to dictate scheduling decisions, newspapers find themselves moving online and underground. But yearbooks, perhaps because of long-standing traditions, may have more time left as curricular courses. Now, more than ever, it’s important for yearbook journalists to capture the life and times of the school community each year. This job begins with selecting themes and colors and graphics that showcase the trends of the day. After that, staffs must choose coverage plans that allow the important stories to be told.
Thirty years from now, the students of Smoky Hill High School will look back at their 2013 Summit and remember the tragedy of the Aurora theater shooting, when a gunman opened fire at the premiere of The Dark Knight Rises, killing 12 and injuring 70 more. Among the hundreds of students there that night was Drew Ipson, the junior editor-in-chief of the yearbook. His experience became the heartbreaking, first-person account that only someone who was there could tell. Later that year, the entire country watched as two bombs went off at the Boston Marathon, killing three and injuring hundreds of others. Once again, the Smoky Hill community was affected; the head cross country coach and his wife were at the race and no one knew whether they were ok. Later, staffer Dagne Milasiute interviewed the coach and came back visibly shaken with tears in her eyes saying, “We have to run this story.” That feature appeared in the spring supplement. It is no longer enough to cover the homecoming dance and the school play and the National Honor Society induction. Our staffs must produce living time capsules which catalogue and define the people of today. We must cover wins and losses, births and deaths, tragedy and triumphs as well as the trends and events and traditions at our schools. The job of the yearbook journalist continues to evolve. Without strong yearbook journalism, the histories and memories of our schools will be lost, perhaps forever.
POWER OF A YEARBOOK WINNING SPREAD As we expected, the entries were amazing. A story in the yearbook can preserve successes and challenges, needs and contributions. For a closer look at Smoky Hill’s coverage of the theater shootings near their school and the power demonstrated by all of the recognized staffs, go to http://bit.ly/poay_winner.
VOLUME EIGHTEEN ISSUE TWO YEARBOOKDISCOVERIES.COM
03
Award-winners share why they think
“IT’S A WINDOW INTO THE WORLD. EVERYONE CAN SEE WHAT STUDENTS ARE DOING AND WHAT THEY THOUGHT ABOUT THE YEAR.” Jed Palmer Distinguished Adviser Sierra MS, Parker, CO
“IN THE PROCESS OF PUTTING TOGETHER THIS TANGIBLE PRODUCT FOR A REAL AUDIENCE, WE HAVE AUTHENTIC LEARNING EVERY DAY.” Meghan Percival Distinguished Adviser McLean (VA) HS
“PEOPLE SAY THAT IF IT’S NOT IN THE YEARBOOK, IN FIVE YEARS IT WILL BE LIKE IT NEVER HAPPENED. THE STAFF KEEPS THE RECORD OF THE YEAR AND OTHERS REFER TO IT FOREVER.” Erinn Harris Special Recognition Adviser Thomas Jefferson HS of Science and Technology, Alexandria, VA
“EVEN IF THE STAFFERS DON’T GO INTO JOURNALISM LATER, THE SKILLS ARE TRANSFERABLE AND EXPERIENCE IS VALUABLE.” Nicole Wilson Laughrey Special Recognition Adviser Carmel (IN) HS
JEA ANNOUNCED ITS ADVISER AWARDS IN EARLY JANUARY AND SEVEN HERFF JONES ADVISERS WILL BE AMONG THOSE RECOGNIZED AT THE SPRING JEA/NSPA NATIONAL HS JOURNALISM CONVENTION IN SAN DIEGO IN APRIL. Brenda Gorsuch will be honored as JEA’s National Yearbook Adviser of the Year. Gorsuch, who’s in year 31 advising at West Henderson HS in Hendersonville, NC, was first honored on campus on Jan. 6 when JEA Executive Director Kelly Furnas and H.L. Hall, for whom the award is named, announced the award at an afterschool faculty meeting. Following the announcement on campus, Furnas and Hall revealed the names of seven others who will be honored in the 19th annual Yearbook Adviser of the Year competition.
RISING STARS JEA’s Rising Star award, for advisers with less than five years involvement, will also be presented at the Saturday Advisers’ Luncheon sponsored by Herff Jones in San Diego. Herff Jones advisers Melissa Larson (Mesa MS, Castle Rock, CO; left) and Natalie Niemeyer (East HS, Des Moines, IA; right) are among 14 advisers being honored as Rising Stars.
- Brenda Gorsuch National Yearbook Adviser of the Year West Henderson HS, Hendersonville, NC
“It’s truly the only course that teaches every 21st century skill. We use them all and then produce a permanent, public product.”
As staffs everywhere returned from winter break, these advisers got some
CONGRATS ARE IN ORDER! VOLUME EIGHTEEN ISSUE TWO YEARBOOKDISCOVERIES.COM
05
CHRONOLOGICAL
by Lynn Strause
This plan is nothing new. After all, it makes sense to present readers with the story of the year as it naturally progresses. IN RECENT YEARS, WE’VE SEEN A RENEWED USE OF THE CHRONOLOGICAL BOOK PLAN. WHAT’S DIFFERENT THIS TIME AROUND IS THE VARIETY OF FORMATS USED TO PRESENT THE YEAR’S STORY. Before we take a look at the varied formats, we need to realize some truths about chronological organization. First, it works best with themes that deal with some aspect of time or progression. Themes like Where Once in a Lifetime Happens Every Day, YEARbook and Meanwhile are all good examples. In other words, this type of organization is highest in impact when it makes sense thematically.
06
YEARBOOKDISCOVERIES.COM VOLUME EIGHTEEN ISSUE TWO
Second, readers need to be able to find things easily. That means the table of contents needs to be more complete than just listing the months and providing the page numbers found on monthly dividers. Because fall sports teams typically start practice in August and compete for three months with championships in November, it would be hard to guess which fall month contained coverage of each squad without this helpful detail.
1
1
Rampages, Casa Roble HS, Orangevale, CA With their theme One School, 1519 Moments, Casa Roble High School relied on time stamps on selected photos to clue the reader. The one-section book included lots of interrupters, and four different copy formats allowed readers to know whether the spread focused on student life, sports, academic or clubs coverage.
2
Aerie, Brentwood School, Los Angeles, CA Brentwood School listed only the months in the table of contents, but then provided strong reader aid by including a mini table of contents on each of the monthly dividers.
3
Above & Beyond, Robinson Secondary School, Fairfax, VA Robinson Secondary School used colored tabs along the right margin to mark months, dividing their coverage up into weeks within each month.
2
3 4 4
The Journey, Heritage HS, Leesburg, VA Heritage High School also used weekly coverage but with no dividers. Their theme, Let It Unfold, made perfect chronological sense. They used umbrella coverage on each spread to present multiple coverage packages highlighting what happened during each week, breaking up the weekly coverage with interrupters. Their folio tabs included a complete listing of everything on the spread.
4
Third, coverage needs to be complete. A yearbook needs to include everybody and everything that happened during the year. The most popular chronological format in years gone by was probably seasonal. Some recent books using this method have raised the bar by providing a complete table of contents, listing every topic included in each season right on the endsheet. Also, because seasons (like winter), can get pretty long, interrupter spreads drop in among other spreads to change up the pacing of the content and provide some visual variety. Frequently, staffs use monthly organization, breaking the year up into smaller segments. Others group two or three months
together, saving on divider spreads. Using monthly coverage within larger divisions of academic quarters is yet another option. Beyond the sectional plan, there’s the consideration of content on each spread. While some staffs continue to produce a spread on a single topic (like volleyball, student council or holiday celebrations), others highlight unrelated topics which occurred in the same week. According to Meghan Percival, adviser of McLean (VA) HS’s The Clan, the greatest advantage to chronological organization is improved coverage. The most active clubs and most important events naturally get more coverage. What makes more sense than to let the year unfold naturally?
VOLUME EIGHTEEN ISSUE TWO YEARBOOKDISCOVERIES.COM
07
Wingspan, James Enochs HS, Modesto, CA A traditional all-coverage device runs through the book, allowing students a link to the theme and including more than 20 mentions per spread (and 2,310 in all).
Scenario, Orinda (CA) MS The bar of 13 closely cropped candid shots running down the right side of each content spread guaranteed that most students were in their book at least twice. In fact, of 894 students, just 11 were only in the yearbook once.
IT'S NEVER
by Brenda Gorsuch
to make sure that your book includes as many students as possible — and avoids over-covering those students who are already in the book a lot. 08
YEARBOOKDISCOVERIES.COM VOLUME EIGHTEEN ISSUE TWO
MONITORING COVERAGE FROM START TO FINISH HAS LONG ALLOWED STAFFS TO ENSURE THAT AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE SHARE THE SPOTLIGHT OF INCLUSION IN THE YEARBOOK. WISE STAFFS BEGIN THEIR PLANNING BY DESIGNING OPPORTUNITIES TO INCLUDE LOTS OF STUDENTS THROUGH ALL TYPES OF INCLUSIONARY DEVICES. It will often be easier to sell your yearbook if the staff has worked hard to include everyone in the book as many times as possible. Right now is an excellent time for your editors to evaluate whether their “total coverage” efforts made a difference. More staffs than ever are designing bars of quotes or photos (or both!) into their spreads with the specific intent of including as many students as possible.
To get the maximum impact from your inclusionary device, have a coverage editor create a list of all students who were in the previous book fewer than three times. That probably means they are not active in sports and clubs, so you will have to work a little harder to include them. As you begin selecting quotes or images, work to choose more of those who appeared less than others. Are there specific individuals who have already appeared on your theme pages and early-deadline spreads that you should avoid using again? Think homecoming queen, star quarterback or student body president. You can track the number of times anyone appears by running your index after each deadline and having your coverage editor post a list of all students who can only be included in the book again by making news. In other words, if it’s a spread that’s not about specific students, those pictured and quoted should be students who are not going to be included on lots of other spreads. It’s also important for those editors who manage your coverage to have both that list of students who staffers may need to seek out for coverage and that roster of those who are likely to already be covered. Checking both lists early and often will allow your editors to develop a plan for continuing to balance coverage on the spreads you have left to finish. Now is the time to invest more energy on inclusionary coverage. Making the time to come up with a plan — and taking the time to follow through — will serve your book’s reputation (and your sales efforts) well.
Legend, Atlee HS, Mechanicsville, VA Including a quote to introduce each letter of the alphabet in the index showcases another 26 students.
Clan, McLean (VA) HS Content mods on organizations and sports reference pages break up the posed group shots and make these spreads more visually appealing.
VOLUME EIGHTEEN ISSUE TWO YEARBOOKDISCOVERIES.COM
09
Knock. Knock. Who’s there? Caption. Caption who?
NOT JUST
Techniques, Thomas Jefferson HS for Science & Technology, Alexandria, VA Storytelling captions containing all necessary components identify every photo on every spread. One of the keys to this extra reporting is designing the spreads for the entire book with ample space for lengthy captions.
by Linda Puntney
but also caption what, when, where, why and how. OK. SO IT MAY BE A BAD JOKE BUT THE POINT IS RIGHT ON. CAPTIONS DON’T HAVE TO START WITH A NAME. IT ISN’T ALWAYS ABOUT THE “WHO” OF THE PHOTO OR THE STORY, AND — FRANKLY — BEGINNING EVERY CAPTION WITH A NAME QUICKLY BECOMES MONOTONOUS AND BORING. THAT’S THE LAST THING WE WANT TO OFFER OUR READERS ON WHAT IS ARGUABLY THE MOST-READ PART OF THE YEARBOOK. Eye track studies conducted since 1990 by the Poynter Institute for Media Studies show readers of print media typically enter a document through a large visual element like a photo, then they read the headline and caption. Reading the story may or may not happen depending on the length and interest level of the reader. If we want the reader to know something, we should include it in the caption, because that is where the story starts and it may be where the reader stops on the first read. Caption monotony is simply not an option. In fact, time should be spent writing captions so they are not only the first-read text in the book but also the best written. Everything we do should be a reader service and creating captions that connect easily to the photo while telling the story surrounding the action is essential.
10
YEARBOOKDISCOVERIES.COM VOLUME EIGHTEEN ISSUE TWO
Captions are either simple identifications or they should be storytelling. Both types are important. The ID caption helps us connect faces and names. The storytelling caption reports what happened during the year and requires more time to create. Make each caption on the spread begin differently. One might start with the “who” of the photo, the next might begin with the “where.” Using the angles of all pertinent questions (who, what, when, where, why and how) as starters on each spread will help the reader stay engaged. McLean High School used a “where” beginning for the photo caption “Outside a Soho café, freshmen Nora Hashem, Lauren Hillenbrand and Elizabeth Maness…” On the same spread they also used a “how” starter. “With a scarf over her face, sophomore Tori Poncy …” Storytelling captions with varied beginnings compel the reader to keep analyzing the spread to learn more about the event, the topic or the individual. Information included in the caption should not be repeated elsewhere on the spread. To keep interest high, keep giving the reader another part of the story and to give your book credibility, keep your opinion out of the caption. Remaining objective and captioning every picture in the book will result in yearbook journalism, not just scrapbooking.
Storytelling captions will be 3-5 sentences long and have five distinctive parts.
PART ONE First comes a device to connect the caption to the photo. Ideally that will be done so clearly that numbering the photo and the caption might not be necessary. The most direct way is to have a caption lead-in — a mini headline connecting the photo and the words. If the photo is of a boy and his dog the lead-in might be “Man’s best friend.” The lead-in could be a small headline above the caption or it could be the first few words of the caption but set in bold face, all caps or color. Another alternative is starting the caption with a pull color from the photo as Thomas Jefferson High School did. The staff has made it easy for the reader to know which caption goes with which photo. All five components are there. From lead-in to photo credit, this detail shot allows for more careful examination of a complete caption. Because many believe that captions are the first-read copy in the yearbook, some staffs invest lots of energy in writing complete, interesting captions.
PART TWO The next part of the storytelling caption is the first sentence explaining the action in the photo. Written in present tense, this sentence describes the action in the photo, which is frozen in time forever.
PART THREE The Clan, McLean HS, McLean, VA This sectional design plan included a consistent column of lengthy, numbered captions stacked atop one another to create the illusion of traditional long-form narrative copy.
A sentence or two explaining the reaction to the photo’s content follows. Written in past tense, it would tell what happened after the shutter clicked or offer some background info for the photo.
PART FOUR A direct quote from the main subject in the photo or about the center of interest concludes the story. The quote should be followed with attribution and date the event took place.
PART FIVE The last step is the photo credit. The pull-out caption (above left) does a good job of including the five parts and provides information about the event the reader may not otherwise have.
VOLUME EIGHTEEN ISSUE TWO YEARBOOKDISCOVERIES.COM
011
If you do it right, yearbook is one of those classes
WHERE YOU CAN FIND
12
YEARBOOKDISCOVERIES.COM VOLUME EIGHTEEN ISSUE TWO
by Natalie Niemeyer
IF YOU WERE TO WALK INTO THE EAST HS YEARBOOK LAB, YOU’D SEE A LOT. A LOT OF NOISY, FOCUSED (MOST OF THE TIME) STUDENTS, WHO ACT DIFFERENT, LOOK DIFFERENT AND HAVE DIFFERENT INTERESTS AND ABILITIES. AND THAT’S HOW A YEARBOOK LAB SHOULD LOOK. As journalism teachers, we have the opportunity to welcome a new, diverse group of students into our intro classes each semester. By the end of the course, some of these students are writers, some are designers, a few are photographers, very few are editors, but the largest majority are none of the above. Don’t count out the kids who don’t fit the traditional yerd (yearbook nerd) template. There is plenty of room on your staff for role players. If you have 30 of the same type of kid, your coverage suffers and the opportunity for new partnerships is non-existent. Let me explain.
We all know the kid who struggled to meet deadlines. When his assignments were finally turned in, they were some of the cleanest, most concise student work you’d seen all year. Yeah, there’s a place for him as well. Make him a copy editor. Have him provide feedback so other students can have precise work like his. Not every student on staff needs a page assigned to them each deadline. Some students will never physically work on the yearbook software — and that’s fine. There’s so much more to it than just the assembling of the book. Yearbook is one of the most practical classes around. The needed tasks require different skills and talents which align with every educational philosophy out there. Performance portfolios? Definitely! Authentic assessment? Continuously. And Skills for 21st Century Learning and the Common Core? Communication, critical thinking, collaboration, creativity and technology have always been important in yearbook. Yes, the abilities of the staffers — and their interests — are different. The mix is necessary to produce a book that appeals to all students. Your staff should be a representation of that.
PHOTOS BY BRIAN CHANG, EAST HS, DES MOINES, IA
Remember that kid in your intro class who plays three sports and knows the activities and athletic directors on a personal level? He met every deadline, even though his writing skills were below average. There’s a place for him on your staff. Give him the task of managing athletic schedules to ensure coverage. Let him set up team photos and make sure scoreboards are complete. That’s a huge responsibility and an enormous contribution.
The bubbly girl who couldn’t stop chatting, who wanted to argue about due dates? There’s a place for her, too. Let her manage the ad accounts. This will allow her personality to shine through and give her real-world experience. And her tenacity can benefit the entire staff.
for every job that needs to be done. VOLUME EIGHTEEN ISSUE TWO YEARBOOKDISCOVERIES.COM
13
Assessing students in media publications courses may be the most difficult of all disciplines (yes, I’m biased). During my first couple of years advising, I often struggled with how to do
STUDENT ASSESSMENTS
ALL PHOTOS BY MARK TAGUE, CARMEL (IN) HS
by Nicole Wilson Laughrey
AS INDIANA, AND MY SCHOOL DISTRICT, FORGED AHEAD WITH TEACHER ACCOUNTABILITY MEASURES, THE PRESSURE BECAME EVEN GREATER — NOW THE CENTRAL OFFICE WANTED TO SEE NOT JUST HOW I ASSESSED MY YEARBOOK KIDS, BUT THEY WANTED TO SEE IT ALIGNED TO STATE STANDARDS IN THE FORM OF A SUMMATIVE PROJECT OR EXAM. I WANTED TO SCREAM, “ISN’T THE YEARBOOK ENOUGH?! LOOK AT ALL THE WORK THEY DO!” BUT I KNEW IT WOULD BE USELESS. INSTEAD, I DECIDED TO PUT MY FOCUS INTO STREAMLINING WHAT THE STUDENTS ALREADY DO INTO SOMETHING THAT WOULD WORK ON PAPER FOR THE SCHOOL OFFICES. WAS IT A HEADACHE AND HOURS OF EXTRA WORK? YES. BUT HAS IT PAID OFF NOW THAT IT’S IN YEAR TWO OF IMPLEMENTATION? ABSOLUTELY! 14
YEARBOOKDISCOVERIES.COM VOLUME EIGHTEEN ISSUE TWO
When I sat down to consider everything that my yearbook staffers do in class each day, I came up with an exhausting list of what looked like (organized) chaos. With 60 kids on staff, there is rarely a day when everyone sits down and works on an identical assignment. Instead, there are photographers dispatched throughout the building, maestro teams working on spread designs, editors coaching younger staffers and reporters out trying to get interviews. From the surface, there seemed to be no good way to give each student a comparable assessment of their efforts. Don’t get me wrong, even before this push, I always assessed my students on their work — one rubric for photo assignments, one for spreads and so forth. The problem, though, was that when it came time to give a final exam, the only thing I knew to do was a staff evaluation of how we’d worked together that semester and how we could improve moving forward — helpful, yes, but totally subjective and not necessarily as beneficial to the students as to me. It also didn’t showcase anything they had learned so far, at least not in any sort of a concrete way, and certainly not in a way that aligned to the Indiana journalism or publications standards. Ultimately, I decided a portfolio project would be best, as it would allow staffers to both showcase their work (organized by standard, of course) and also leave their staff experience with something that further solidified the individual effort they put in to their time on staff. This would also allow me to finally evaluate them on a common, standards-based rubric for the summative final exam. Because the school district wanted all assessments to increase in rigor as students progressed through the levels of curriculum, an advancing level of difficulty can be seen in what finally became their summative portfolio evaluation. Some of the contents overlap, but as an educator, I don’t believe it’s unreasonable to hold my second year “veteran” staffers to meeting higher expectations than the first year “newbs.” In fact, I think it’s just good teaching to hold students accountable for continued growth in our programs. Further, while many of the components of the portfolios are pieces of work that they should have already done in their regular staff duties, I also added some extra expectations that would allow them to showcase their own levels of skill — this led to reporters taking photos, photographers designing packages and editors taking critiques from younger staffers. From the onset, this project that had just started was already starting to look like something to be excited about. As we entered year two of the portfolio process, the students knew what to expect and so did I. I anticipate better time management from my veteran staffers, as some of them learned the hard way that the portfolio won’t just put itself together in a day. They anticipate a project that will require some effort but eventually will become something all their own to show off at their graduation open house in a couple of years. Despite my frustrations at having to create a new way to assess my students, I have officially become a believer in the power of rethinking what we do. From this experience alone, I have seen my students evolve for the better, and that’s growth that, to me, is worth it.
PORTFOLIOS MUST STAY Students must leave their portfolios in the classroom. Because this is an assessment, my fear was that they would take home the binders and lose them. I don’t want that to happen, so I provide the binders and they have to leave them on a bookshelf in the classroom. They’re welcome to take home the assignment sheet and check out a class laptop to work from home if they like, but the actual portfolio binder cannot leave with them.
GO DIGITAL The intent is that the portfolio will grow as the student progresses throughout his or her staff career. After year one, I realized that the original assignment sheet needed to be thinned a little. (Their binders were totally full!) I’m sure it will continue to evolve as we grow in the process. I’ve considered doing the portfolios digitally because there are so many great options out there for creating free websites. We haven’t gone that direction yet, but I imagine we eventually will.
POSITIVE RESULTS For the most part, the students have given me positive feedback on the portfolio process. They have commented that they enjoy having the chance to house some of their own work. Although the yearbook essentially does that as well, this has become a more personal opportunity for them to showcase what they are able to do.
KEEP ’EM BUSY I think the portfolio is a great way to keep students engaged in the staff experience. When they have down-time from a spread or a photo assignment, they have this ongoing assignment as a back-up to work on. It’s really motivated them to focus their time in class and, because of that, productivity has improved across the board.
GRADING CAN BE FUN Grading is designed to be simple (see rubric in the extra content for this article) but I have found it sometimes takes longer than I anticipated because I truly enjoy sitting down and looking/reading through all of their content. Because of that, I tend to collect portfolios a couple of weeks prior to the school’s official final exam date so I have plenty of time.
VOLUME EIGHTEEN ISSUE TWO YEARBOOKDISCOVERIES.COM
015
Five powerful lessons I’ve learned from my students and their
VIRTUAL
by Rebecca Chai
PLAYGROUND TWO YEARS AGO, I WATCHED SOME STUDENTS DO AN EXTRAORDINARY THING. THEY STARTED A FACEBOOK PAGE FOR OUR YEARBOOK STAFF. THIS YEAR, I WITNESSED ANOTHER AMAZING CHANGE WHEN OTHERS CREATED AN INSTAGRAM AND YEARBOOK THEME HASHTAG FOR OUR STAFF.
16
YEARBOOKDISCOVERIES.COM VOLUME EIGHTEEN ISSUE TWO
Here’s why these two actions were significant to not only our staff, but also our school:
ACCESSIBILITY
The Facebook page allows us to share our work and our accomplishments with the school community. The page was created because the photographers felt frustrated that their photos would not be shared. The pages of a yearbook limited
#TWC, Social Media Challenge Staffs from coast to coast engaged on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest to share the yerdy things they did. The Herff Jones Social Media Challenge asked staffs to reveal their traditions, thoughts and creativity in different ways each week. These entries from the Challenge’s first phase show individuals, staffs and, sometimes, entire student bodies both working and playing together. It’s not too late to get involved; check out the info on the back cover. Cayuse, Walnut HS, Walnut, CA When Chai’s yearbook leadership team embraced the idea that they could easily reach the student body at Walnut online, the staff benefitted from higher visibility and generous student feedback from their readers. Their initiative encouraged readers to become more involved in the process of recording the history of the year.
EXPANSION
the number of photos they could display, and that year, they realized there was so much more they could share with an unlimited digital canvas.
AUTHENTICITY
The school community response was overwhelmingly positive. One of our first successful posts was a rally photo that gained more than 80 likes in less than an hour. Then, a student wrote a comment suggesting we use that photo on the cover of that year’s book. And that’s exactly what we did.
ACCOUNTABILITY
Unexpectedly, the creation of the Facebook page changed the mentality of our yearbook staff. While the staff loves the feedback from the students, they also realize that, now, they have a standard to uphold. On the Facebook page, athletes would ask for photos from yesterday’s game. This media outlet has kept the photographers accountable to producing quality work. With their openness came an opportunity to improve, to get better photos. And that’s exactly what happened.
Starting the Instagram account and hashtag for our theme this year was one of the simplest yet most monumental actions of the leadership board. Photos published on our Facebook page are posted to the Instagram account as well. In September, we watched as the hearts on Instagram outpaced the likes of the same post on Facebook. We once again met the students where they were once again. As I listened to my students shout out the updated responses, I realized the ever-expanding field they had to adapt to in order to reach the school. And instead of becoming a chore, these changes are welcomed as they invigorate the staff.
INFLUENCE
The most amazing factor in the creation of the Instagram account was the results created by #whswhoweare. Now, instead of responding to our staff posts, students have the ability to take initiative to show us who they are and what defines them. Students’ brave posts of their last football game, their first dance production and their awkward classroom moments allow our staff to increase coverage. #whswhoweare creates a platform for students to be proud in sharing the positive influences in their lives.
17
GO PLACES AND KEEP LEARNING. When you take your students to workshops and conventions, have them split up to attend sessions and then prepare to teach what they learned to the class! Because I often judge or present at these events, I don’t get to see many presentations myself. Declare a “learning” workshop every so often so you can maintain a fresh perspective.
GO OFF THE GRID. Plan a vacation each summer during which you do not check your emails or use your cell phone. You are not obliged to be on call 24/7. Those summer senior portraits that you planned for in advance? Nobody needs to call you to check every little detail one more time. Your school and your students can (and should) be able to live without you for a few weeks.
018
YEARBOOKDISCOVERIES.COM VOLUME EIGHTEEN ISSUE TWO
SCHEDULE DOWNTIME FOR YOURSELF. For me, this used to be the hour every day when I watched my soap opera which I’d recorded when I was at school. When I came home, I would literally flop down on the couch and nobody was allowed to speak to me until I was done. Now, it means getting out in a kayak as often as possible. Select a “guilty pleasure” and fulfill it regularly.
NETWORK! NETWORK! NETWORK! Nobody at your school does what you do. Therefore, nobody at your school can understand it. Get out and meet some other yearbook advisers. The community of yearbook advisers is made up of generous and caring mentors from coast to coast. Develop a share and care system. Share what works and be there when others face tough issues.
Want the key to adviser satisfaction? It’s easy.
MAKE SURE YOU
by Julie Mancini
I HAVE JUST COMPLETED MY 15TH YEARBOOK. AND NO, I AM NOT CRAZY (DEPENDING ON WHO YOU ASK). ANY GRAY HAIRS THAT I HAVE, I REALLY CAN’T BLAME ON YEARBOOK. IN FACT, YEARBOOK HAS BECOME MY LIFE, AND I WOULD NOT HAVE IT ANY OTHER WAY. IT IS ONE OF THE MOST REWARDING ASPECTS OF MY LIFE, AND I AM PROUD TO SAY THAT MANY OF MY STUDENTS HAVE GONE ON TO BE JOURNALISTS OR TO HAVE CAREERS THAT ARE RELATED TO JOURNALISM. A PAIR OF MY FORMER YERDS HAS EVEN TIED THE KNOT. ON MY BIRTHDAY! AND ANOTHER WROTE FOR THE COLLEGE LITERARY MAGAZINE AS SHE ATTENDED MED SCHOOL. Advising the yearbook is a big job, and it can be stressful. A lot of people are counting on the yearbook adviser to take a bunch of dramatic teens and lead them to create a fantastic book of stories about the whole school. And every year they expect the yearbook to be even more epic than the year before.
But that doesn’t mean your life needs to get crazier than it already is. Plan now to make yourself a better adviser by considering some of the ways I stay sane and adapting these to fit your own needs/interests.
PUT THE STUDENTS IN THE DRIVER’S SEAT. Not literally, mind you, but the students can make design and content decisions — and they should. As adviser, you can be the GPS, but let them do the work. It took me years before I stopped finishing up spreads that students had not completed before deadline. Now I just warn my editors of the impending doom and let them handle it!
SET BIGGER GOALS EACH YEAR. There is always room for improvement, and the goals do not always have to be about the yearbook design or coverage or meeting deadlines. Currently, we have a financial goal to establish a little nest egg in our account to provide workshop scholarships for deserving students.
HAVE A PLAN AND WRITE IT DOWN. The earlier you know you’re going to be the adviser and the earlier you can get your students involved in the planning of your yearbook, the more smoothly things will run during the year. One of my colleagues has a “yearbook camp” over the summer, sort of like band camp. Have a big staff? What about planning an editor’s retreat?
ADVISING THE YEARBOOK WILL AFFORD YOU SOME OF YOUR GREATEST TEACHING PLEASURES IF YOU REMEMBER THAT YOU’RE A BETTER TEACHER AND ADVISER WHEN YOU’RE HAPPY AND HEALTHY. VOLUME EIGHTEEN ISSUE TWO YEARBOOKDISCOVERIES.COM
019
FROM SMARTPHONE TO DESKTOP, THERE ARE HUNDREDS OF APPS OUT THERE THAT COULD FIND A HOME WITH YOUR STAFF. HERE ARE FIVE PROVEN WINNERS USED BY ADVISER MIKE SIMONS, CJE, AND THE STAFFS OF SKJÖLD (WEST HS) AND LOGOS (EAST HS) IN UPSTATE NEW YORK.
GOOGLE DRIVE AND CALENDAR Platform: Android/iOS/WindowsMobile/Mac/PC/Web app Cost: Free (5GB); paid options available Perfect for: Advisers, editors and staff who need cloud storage, online editing, collaboration tools and time machines. Most users are likely familiar with Google Drive’s phenomenally popular document apps for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, forms (surveys and drawings). Drive (formerly ‘Docs’) also provides a simple drag & drop cloud storage and file-sharing interface. We’ve been fans of the apps for years, especially our business manager, who uses the spreadsheet for developing our budget, maintaining our ledger, tracking business and senior ad sales, and managing the ad design team’s workflow. Additionally, our editors maintain a spreadsheet-based ladder and edit and comment on reporters’ copy in the document app. We use the forms app to generate numerous surveys each year, and the embedded summary responses tool makes number crunching a breeze. We’ve also set up a calendar shared to our entire staff where we list events, games and photo assignments. One neat hack that we discovered is that we can use the “where” field on an event as the place for photographers to sign up for the event, and then when we click on the “Agenda” view of the calendar, we can see at a glance which events do and don’t have photo coverage. It’s a snap!
20
YEARBOOKDISCOVERIES.COM VOLUME EIGHTEEN ISSUE TWO
TRELLO Platform: iOS/Android/Windows tablet/Web app Cost: Free (you don’t need the paid options) Perfect for: Editors and advisers who want to provide workflow organization, collaboration and accountability. We discovered Trello part way through our 2013 production, and it changed everything about how we organized our work and staff communication. Admittedly, we used a pretty old-fashioned, paper-based system to plan our spreads and coverage; any implementation of technology would have been an improvement. Trello, though, was a quantum leap forward for our staff. Its intuitive, hierarchical structure of organizations, boards, lists and cards is perfect for yearbook staffs; your book is the organization, each spread gets a board, lists correspond to phases of your workflow, and cards — a single mod, angle or story on each — move across lists from left to right as they near completion. Users can import photos and documents from Google Drive and Dropbox, create to-do lists, comment and provide feedback, and tag each other with the “@” to trigger notifications. Trello’s available-everywhere web interface is its most efficient, but the smartphone app is perfect for advisers and editors who want to receive push notifications that allow them to monitor staff progress in realtime.
GROUPME Platform: SMS text/Android/iOS/Web app Cost: Free Perfect for: Groups who need multi-platform chat; advisers who want a virtual paper trail while communicating with students via text/phones. While more phones are supporting group texting, I haven’t found anything better than GroupMe for keeping in touch with
Looking for some apps that make life easier for yearbook staffs and advisers?
by Mike Simons
our editors. With iPhones, Blackberries and Droids all in the mix, GroupMe keeps everyone on our leadership team in the loop, and given concerns and potential pitfalls with studentteacher communication via cell phones, I can rely on GroupMe’s transcript archive as a backup, should I ever need to share it with parents or administrators. Many of our editors and team leaders use the service with their coverage teams, too. Two notes: every reply is a ‘reply to all,’ so there can be a bit of a learning curve as staffs establish GroupMe etiquette, and users who don’t want to use the SMS text interface can download the app, which uses a data plan or wifi.
NOTABILITY Platform: iOS Cost: $2.99 Perfect for: The staff member who needs an all-in-one notes and audio recorder interview tool. This outstanding note-taking app is a new favorite, and blew away our staff from the first time we opened it — all for one particular feature: you can synchronize an audio recording with typed notes. Reporters can scrub through interview notes and the associated audio simultaneously as they search back for that ‘gold nugget’ quote. It’s chock full of other features — a dead simple divider and lists organization structure; type, pencil, eraser, highlighter and cut & move inputs; the ability to import and annotate images and PDFs; and powerful sharing, collaboration and backup options. For an Android option, check out Audio Note ($4.99 at Google Play).
FOR THE LAB INSTAGRAM Platform: iOS/Android/Windows Phone Cost: Free Perfect for: Yearbook staffs who realize publishing once a year isn’t enough. This one is easy: if your staff isn’t on Instagram, it’s time to take the plunge. It’s a safe bet that a large portion of your student body already uses the photo-sharing social network and is using Facebook less and less. If you want to engage your audience — and all those prospective buyers — you should share content on Instagram. Today’s students are a ‘we-want-it-now’ crowd, and that runs counter to most staffs’ long-standing policies of not sharing the merest hint of a photo or spread before the book’s release. It’s time, then, to leave those super-secret days behind and carve out a name for yourselves on the social network by providing weekly or even daily content. Put an editor or two in charge of the feed, set some baseline standards for journalistic captioning and hashtagging of the photos, and get posting! You’ll develop trust and a relationship with your student body; those photos will say, “See that? We were there — for YOU — now buy a book and get even more of these great stories and photos!” For excellent examples you can model your content on, check out @whspublications, @skjoldyearbook and @logosyearbook at Instagram.com or via the app.
HERFF JONES STITCH Create a secure, online community for your school. Share images that don’t make it into the yearbook and expand coverage when others share their shots with the staff. Plus, Storylines lets you ”publish” verbal content in realtime! Learn more at hjstitch.com.
WHEN I’M THE LAST STUDENT TO LEAVE SCHOOL ON ALMOST EVERY FRIDAY NIGHT, SOMETIMES I WONDER WHY I PUT SUCH A LEVEL OF EFFORT INTO YEARBOOK. AFTER ALL, IT IS VERY DIFFICULT TO BE RELEVANT WHEN YOU’RE PRODUCING SOMETHING WITH LARGELY THE SAME KIND OF CONTENT YEAR AFTER YEAR. Going into my fourth year of repeating the process, it would get tiring without something new, something to look forward to and something to improve. My desire to be innovative stems directly from the fact that I will not settle with the monotony that many see in yearbooks. I know what our staff is capable of producing, and I see every reason to aim as high as possible in our pursuits. For the past few years, we’ve maintained a YouTube channel, Twitter account and Facebook page, so an online news site seemed like a natural progression. In November
22
YEARBOOKDISCOVERIES.COM VOLUME EIGHTEEN ISSUE TWO
by Ryan Demo
THERE’S MORE TO LIFE
PHOTO BY NICK LONGONI, BELLARMINE COLLEGE PREPARATORY, SAN JOSE, CA
Giving new meaning to the phrase
2012, we launched thecarillon.org as a complement to the yearbook. After all, why can’t yearbooks go online? The staff produces content daily, with most of that content never making it into the book. With a tech-savvy population at Bellarmine, creating an online repository for news and a platform to inform the student body was not difficult to set up. Getting students to follow was even easier. We have many resources at our fingertips, and I feel that it would have been a shame not to take advantage of them. We prefer quality to timeliness. Our fall-delivery yearbook includes commencement, spring sports, proms and the like, but on top of that, the summer gives us an incredible opportunity for post-production. In 2011, we were one of the first schools to have professional-level anaglyph 3D photography, and for 2013 and 2014, we’ve been prototyping animated layouts through Adobe After Effects and augmented reality software, though we will only release it once we’ve perfected the process and the final product. Plus, when the books came out last fall, we included a flyer for thecarillon.org with all of them, which boosted views tremendously during the school year. By going beyond solely print media, we reach media convergence, bridging that divide between paper and online. With a high standard set at the Carillon, we naturally desire recognition. Competition on the national level quenches that thirst, but the focus on collaboration instead of competition during the year holds greater meaning for me. We work together toward a common goal: to find everyone’s story, and present it with acute attention to detail. It increases our reach and promulgates relevant information. After all, isn’t that the point of journalism?
Carillon, Bellarmine College Preparatory, San Jose, CA While the print yearbook has chronicled stories of the school for decades, there’s now another source for content generated by the staff. Photo galleries lure the school community to the Carillon site where timely news, student profiles and other up-todate content keep the yearbook relevant and visible.
AS PART OF THE PRESENTATION I GAVE AT JEA/NSPA SAN FRANCISCO 2013 AND BOSTON 2013, HERE ARE SOME TIPS TO TIE YOUR YEARBOOK INTO CONVERGENT MEDIA AND BRING ALL OF YOUR EFFORTS FULL CIRCLE. THERE IS A BASIC FOUR-STEP PROCESS: START WITH PHOTO GALLERIES, SET UP AN ONLINE VIDEO CHANNEL, CREATE A NEWS WEBSITE THEN TIE EVERYTHING TOGETHER WITH INTERACTIVE PRINT. START A PHOTO GALLERY Photographers take hundreds of photos at events, but only a few go on a spread. Set up an online photo gallery (such as zenfolio.com) your peers can enjoy. Sell your photos to raise money for your yearbook and advertise them by posting links to your social media pages, your school’s website, on posters or through email.
SET UP A VIDEO CHANNEL Chances are you already have a video camera (if you have an iPhone, you do). Invest in a good microphone and tripod and start recording. Bring life to your yearbook by recording at school assemblies, interviewing players after games or profiling an individual. This footage can later be used to create an interactive experience with your book.
CENTRALIZE YOUR CONTENT WITH AN ONLINE NEWS SITE Bring everything together in one space by hosting an online news site for your school. Like the yearbook, a website requires a team of individuals to manage all the content placed on the site — photos, videos, articles and the social channels to drive traffic to your site. But it’s easy to integrate with the team and process you already have in place. For detailed instructions on how, scan this spread with your smartphone.
MAKE YOUR BOOK INTERACTIVE Wish you could fit everything in your yearbook? Bring your book to life through interactive printing methods such as QR codes, digital watermarks and augmented reality. These methods allow you to give your school the entire story when reading their yearbooks by overlaying the print content with a virtual experience.
VOLUME EIGHTEEN ISSUE TWO YEARBOOKDISCOVERIES.COM
23
ETC.
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
In addition to the yearbooks they create to record the history of the year, many staffs have spring-time traditions that allow them another way to Ann Akers, MJE
LAYOUT EDITOR Nichole Mango Smith
DESIGNER
Katherine Morgan
JOURNEYS LEAVE THEIR
PHOTO BY NICK LONGONI, BELLARMINE COLLEGE PREP
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
OFTEN, IT STARTS SIMPLY. THE EDITORS Some yerds originally gravitated to yearbook because MIGHT SUGGEST THAT EVERYONE SIGNthey were looking for an outlet for their photos, they SOMETHING AS THEY FINISH THE FINALwanted to learn more about design or because they DEADLINE OR FRAME THE COVER OF loved to write. Others ended up there because a teacher recommended them or a sibling had been involved. THEIR MASTERPIECE TO PRESERVE THEIR PLACE IN STAFFROOM HISTORY. But for Ryan Demo, it was kind of a fluke. As a
Rebecca Chai, adviser Walnut (CA) HS
Ryan Demo, Class of 2014 Bellarmine College Prep, San Jose, CA Carrie Faust, MJE, adviser Smoky Hill HS, Aurora, CO Brenda Gorsuch, MJE, adviser West Henderson HS, Hendersonville, NC Nicole Wilson Laughrey, MJE, adviser Carmel (IN) HS Julie Mancini, CJE, adviser Dunnellon (FL) HS
freshman at Bellarmine College Preparatory in San Jose, Natalie Niemeyer, adviser CA, Ryan ran cross country. While he was at practice East HS, Des Moines, IA after school, the friend who drove him to school worked on the yearbook... and sometimes Ryan Linda Puntney, MJE These tributes from the staffs vary as much as the Herff Jones Special Consultant “I loved collaboration, had to wait for a ride. yearbooks they created. Full copies of Calumet covers run in date order atop walls of the room (and flanking Michael Simons, CJE, adviser leadership and East HS | West HS Then, he ventured into the yearbook office and plaques and trophies) at Arapahoe HS in Centennial, Corning-Painted Post, NY CO whilemanagement… the Cavalier staff at George Washington and I HS in was interested in the work that was being done. Lynn Strause His friend worked on the design staff and that Danville, VA has expanded their tradition from seniors Herff Jones Special Consultant meshed with Ryan’s interests as he had already could see all of signing the desk to designing ceiling kinds tiles. taught himself Photoshop and Illustrator. Second CONTRIBUTING semester, Ryan joined the staff. PHOTOGRAPHERS “The deskpossibilities.” was covered,” explained adviser Deborah Student photographers from Bellarmine Slayton, “so they decided the ceiling would be next.” College Preparatory, San Jose, CA; Carmel And now, younger staffs start imagining their tiles — and Fast forward from a crash course in design (IN) HS; East HS, Des Moines, IA; George Washington HS, Danville, VA; McLean (VA) principles and completing histime. first That spread through conventions, summer workshops and which location they’ll decorate way ahead of HS; Mesa MS, Castle Rock, CO; Pleasant doesn’t happenincreasing until after responsibility the book delivers. on staff. He’d only been a design editor for a couple of months when Grove HS, Texarkana, TX; Sierra MS, LESS THAN OBVIOUS Parker, CO; Thomas Jefferson HS for his adviser asked whether he’d consider stepping “It upused as an editor-in-chief as a junior. “I liked to be that they left messages on the insides of the drawers they ‘inhabit’ as editors, but VA Science and Technology, Alexandria, If your staff doesn’t already have a way to say goodbye, the idea,” explained Ryan, “especially when he told mewe that mostrooms, guys wished end the of drawers with us,” adviser Charla Harris from when changed we didn’tat getthe to bring Mancini &ofMike maybe some of their theseyear examples up year to usePleasant as EICwill thathelp theyyou hadcome another everything learned.”TX explains. “So now, they sign theJulie Grove they’d HS in Texarkana, underside theSimmons computer desks...” Only those in the know would look there for a message from previous staffers! with a twist on the tradition that you can call your own. Cover photo by Ryan Selewicz, Adobe In his new role, he found aspects of yearbook he liked even more than design. The staff had HJ LOCATIONS long hosted a gallery where they shared and sold photos, but he imagined additional ways Gettysburg, PENNSYLVANIA they could interact with readers and the school community. Within months, they’d launched a gettysburg@herffjones.com full site online where they hosted the photos and provided timely release of news and student Kansas City, KANSAS profiles. Last spring, it was one of NSPA’s Online Pacemaker Finalists. kansascity@herffjones.com Because he thought the opportunity to provide additional coverage would interest other editors and staffs, he proposed a session for the April JEA/NSPA convention in San Francisco. (See his story on pages 22-23 where he shares the info from the session that he’s now presented at two national conventions.) And opportunities continued to arise. Last summer, he expanded on his craft by serving as an intern at Adobe. He designed digital signs, worked on their intranet and was involved with a project centered around company history. For now, he’s back for a second year at the helm of the 2014 Carillon, coordinating a team of staffersOF and editors that creates a 400-page award-winning book without the “luxury” of having OVERT TRADITIONS RECOGNITION At Woburn (MA) HS,a it’s the staffers thatto getdo “decorated.” When the senior class gathers for class in which it. the reveal and presentation of the yearbook, a yearbook alum returns to “pin” the current staff, inducting them into No the club Woburnwhere yearbook alums. Staff (clockwise from top oneofknows yearbook androom thetributes skills he has honed will take him next. left) Arapahoe HS, George Washington HS and Western HS in Davie, FL.
24
YEARBOOKDISCOVERIES.COM VOLUME EIGHTEEN ISSUE TWO
Logan, UTAH logan@herffjones.com Montgomery, ALABAMA montgomery@herffjones.com Winnipeg, CANADA winnipeg@herffjones.com Herff Jones Yearbook Discoveries Volume Eighteen Issue Two was produced electronically using Adobe® InDesign CC, Adobe Illustrator® CC and Adobe Photoshop® CC. This magazine was created on a Mac Pro, 2.66 GHz with 6 GB of RAM and printed by Herff Jones, Inc., at its Logan, UT printing facility. The cover was printed on White Vibracolor Endsheet stock using four-color process. The magazine itself was printed on 80# Matte stock using four-color process inks. The fonts used in this issue were AHJ News Gothic, AHJ Letter Gothic EB and AHJ University Oldstyle. Herff Jones and the Herff Jones logo are registered trademarks of Herff Jones, Inc. Apple and Macintosh are registered trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc. Adobe and Photoshop are registered trademarks of Adobe Systems, Inc.
DON’T FORGET TO FOLLOW US! We invite you to follow HERFF JONES YEARBOOKS on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Instagram as all challenges will be delivered via these channels. You must follow us in order to be eligible to be considered for the monthly and grand prize awards.
USE THE HASHTAG! To be considered eligible, your submission must use our hashtag #HJTogether.
GAME ON!
FOLLOW US. ENGAGE. WIN BIG. JAN 27 - MAY 2 • 14 CHALLENGES
Participate in Herff Jones Yearbooks’ Together We Can social media challenge and you could win monthly prizes of $25 and a grand prize of $250. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Instagram where we will present you with weekly challenges. Post your submissions using #HJTogether and be entered for a chance to win! The more you engage, the better your chances.
For details and rules, visit http://bit.ly/twcchallenge
Be sure to check out the challenge on the back of the outer cover of this issue. During the week of Mar. 24-28, Herff Jones will be challenging you to give a teacher shoutout. Post as often as you like using #HJTogether. The more unique entries you submit, the more chances you will have to win. Good luck!
BE A PART OF SOMETHING BIGGER.
TELL MORE STORIES. Stitch moves as fast as life at your school does. It gives everyone on campus a new way to connect as they access, share and preserve the very best of their common school experiences. Imagine the power of the student body coming together to tell the story of the year, from their many, varied perspectives — and the ability to archive their digital memories forever. A safe, online community exclusive to your school is the perfect digital complement to the printed yearbook.
IT'S FREE. IT'S FUN. IT'S FROM HERFF JONES. Learn more at HJStitch.com