yearbook Archives - Faulkner's Fast Five

Planning the First Week of Yearbook Class

You’ve just been assigned the yearbook, or last year didn’t go so well, and you want your first days plans to be solid, effective, and fun! Does this sound like you? I’ve been there. The first week of school is a whirlwind, but in yearbook class, the first week back to school is even more topsy turvy, to say the least. You might have looked through my Tips for New Advisers post or How to Have a Picture-Perfect Start to the Year posts for adviser-facing suggestions, and you feel good-to-go from that side of things. However, now it’s time to decide what to do when students are walking through the door — AKA planning the first week of yearbook class! When I think about what to do the first week of school in my yearbook class, I try to think of it like one my English classes in some ways, and in other ways, it is completely different! In this blog post, I’ll share my student-facing plans for the first week of yearbook class.

Day One: Icebreakers and Team Building

This first day is all about you getting to know the staff, them getting to know each other, and setting the tone for the environment you want your class to have. Depending on how much time you have in a class period (I have 75 minutes) is what will determine how many of the following activities you would get done on Day One. I do feel they are all necessary “first days” activities, so if you can’t get them all scheduled for the first day, do some the second day.

I love to start with some sort of team-building exercise: break-out box game, simple ice breaker, building something with crazy supplies.

Give out a small gift.

Hand out parent permission forms and equipment contracts and do a strengths/struggles assessment. You can find these materials in my Back-to-School Yearbook Survival Pack.

Day Two: Photo Assignments

It is never too early to start assigning student beats (also known as specialised reporting where journalists focus on a particular idea, topic, subject, sport, or area over time). We will look at sports schedules and start making calendars and to-do lists to get events and games covered. I will also have students email teachers of their assigned subjects to ask for best times to come in and take pics and ask if the teachers will even be willing to send some. We also begin discussing ladder if there is time. You can read more about Planning a Yearbook Ladder at this post. Materials for planning photo assignments and the ladder are included in my Yearbook Adviser Starter Kit.

Day Three: Advertising

If your program earns money by selling ads to businesses or to seniors for senior tributes, go ahead and make ad assignments during the first week. I try to assign past ads and distribute them evenly among staffers. They collect needed info to make calls, and we role play how to actually sell the ads. All the materials for selling ads are in my Yearbook Advertising Complete Teaching Pack.

Day Four and Five: Theme

Developing the theme of the yearbook is one of the best parts but also one of the most challenging parts! So many people have so many good ideas, so you really have to be prepared with a plan and process to find the best one for your book each year. I discuss more about developing a yearbook theme in this video on Instagram. You can also find tools for theme developing in my Yearbook Adviser Starter Kit.

Day Six: Coverage Assignments & Photo Project

Begin daily bell ringers. The bell ringers bring a new level of organization and structure to your class. I have developed two sets of yearbook bell ringers, and you can grab them here. Next, I assign staffers their “families” or groups of students. You can read more about how I do that on my Yearbook Coverage Post. It’s a game changer! Last, it’s time for students to start working on a back-to-school photo project, so they can start getting to know their “families.” All my photo projects can be found in my Yearbook Curriculum.

Day Seven: Work Day

At this time, students have several things going: ads, getting to know their “families,” and their photo project. Once they’ve done their bell ringers, they will be working independently. Be sure to set deadlines for each of these and plan time for students to share their project. This is what yearbook is all about – management multiple projects at once to get it all done!

Interested in trying my Yearbook Bell Ringers? Sign up for my email list here, and I’ll send you the first week free!

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Written by: Julie Faulkner

Everything You Need to Know about Planning a Yearbook Ladder

When it comes to creating a yearbook, one of the most important steps in planning is the sequence in which the content will appear, and in the yearbook world, we call that the yearbook ladder. The ladder is the page-by-page list of what will be appearing where in your yearbook. Without a ladder to plan your yearbook pages up front, it is likely that areas of content could be missed, pages would be left unplanned/blank, or your book won’t feel cohesive when it’s all said and done. However, the process of deciding how to tell the story of the year can be challenging because there are several things to decide and account for when planning a yearbook ladder. Here I’m sharing everything you need to know about planning a yearbook ladder so that process can go from challenging to rewarding in a few steps.

1 – Set Total Page Count for the Yearbook

Before you can plan your yearbook ladder, you need to know how many pages your will book have. That is a matter of budget. Typically, you will meet with your yearbook representative from the company publishing your book as well as your school’s bookkeeper. Another thing to consider with your page count and budget is if you will be selling any ads: business advertisements and/or senior tribute advertisements. Those bring money into your account, but at the same time, they affect page count. Your yearbook rep and bookkeeper can help you make those decisions. You can click over to my Tips for New Yearbook Advisers post to read about planning the budget.

2 – Inventory Enrollment, Clubs, Sports, and Academics

In order to adequately begin positioning content on your yearbook ladder, you need to take inventory of some important data! How many students are enrolled, how many clubs, sports, and classes you have will affect the ladder because it determines how many pages you need for each of these pieces that you will want to cover in your yearbook. For example, if you have 300 seniors, you will need to figure out how many pictures you can (want to) put on the senior spread pages and then multiple that by how many total you will need to fit all your seniors’ portraits in the book. You’ll do the same for the underclassmen. The other content areas can be a little tricky depending on how you set up your timeline (more on that below) and depending on how much “attention” each one will get. With sports, for example, we decided to give each sport its own double page spread whether or not it was a “big” sport. We’ve done the same for academics and clubs in the past, but then decided to change that up for those coverage areas because of the lack of truly solid content. These are decisions you and your staff will need to make as early in the year as possible so your ladder is as solid from the get go. You can grab tons of planning guides in my Yearbook Adviser Starter Kit.

3 – Choose the Timeline Style for the Yearbook Ladder

The timeline you choose might be one of the most debatable aspects of planning your yearbook ladder. The timeline is the sequence in which the events and content will appear, and there are basically three options: traditional, chronological, blended.

Traditional: When I look through the old yearbooks from the 1930s, ’40s, ’50s, and so on stored in my classroom for how they are organized, I find a traditional layout with like content grouped in sections: student life, sports, academics, people, clubs/advertisements. There is no overlapping or merging of content among sections. This is a traditional timeline.

Pros: If you have a traditional audience, they will like the familiarity of this sequence. Also, you aren’t confined to covering events on specific days of the year since you are just grouping content. Deadlines might be easier since you will have huge “chunks” of content done at one time. For example, if you have your advertisements done first in the year, that might be enough pages you make the first deadline. Read more about how to make your deadlines in my Everything You Need to Know about Meeting Deadlines post here.
Cons: This sequence forces you to cover a topic on a spread that might not have very much material, or it could feel repetitive. For example, in the academics section, you might have several pages in a row with student seated at desks. Or, one sport might not have as many games or matches as another, so the pages don’t look balanced. Also, if something new pops up, it might be hard to find a place for it in you pre-determined sections.

Chronological: As yearbooks have evolved, organic coverage by seasons, months, weeks, or days even has started to emerge. The chronological coverage approach organizes the book by events of the year as they happen.

Pros: This approach showcases the way students live their lives: day-to-day. It is flexible in terms of coverage. Chronological coverage allows you to mix types of coverage on one spread. For example, you might cover a Beta Club community service event, a science experience in biology, and a football game that happen during a specific week all on the same spread.
Cons: There is a lot of pressure to be organized with this method. Staffs cannot procrastinate because if a day or week goes by without any pictures being taken or notes being made, you can’t go back in time and get that coverage. Also, since coverage is being mixed, it might be hard to measure/equalize coverage of all your groups, academics, etc. Last, it may be hard for readers to “locate” specific events or sports since they aren’t grouped.

Blended: The first school year we came back-to-school from being closed due to COVID was 2021, and we still weren’t sure how much would be “normal,” so that ,of course, affected coverage and our ladder. We knew we would have to do something different. We decided a blended approach would work best in case we weren’t able to fill all the pages of our traditional sequence –looking back, we wouldn’t have been able to; things weren’t “normal” at all. The overall structure of a blended book is chronological, but we kept traditional sections throughout the book, too. For example, along with the month-by-month coverage to start the book and include academics, clubs, and student life, we did separate sports and people sections in chronological order. Last, we created a groups section that housed the sports groups and club groups, and our ads went in the back like always.

Pros: This method is super flexible and “hides” issues like not enough content for whatever reason. This approach allows you to cover more topics in more creative ways. You can find topics for coverage that normally would never get any coverage. It’s the best of both worlds, in my opinion, to keep please a traditional audience but move toward something more modern as well!
Cons: Similar to the cons of a chronological book, staffs have to plan early and be sure to catch stories for your monthly/seasonal sections, or when it’s gone, it’s gone.

4 – Include Deadlines with the Yearbook Ladder

Whether we like it or not, deadlines rule yearbook. If we don’t submit the book on time, it doesn’t arrive on time! So, when you are planning a yearbook ladder, you need to consider when your deadlines will be. Check with your yearbook representative early, so you know how many pages are due when. Then, you can decide what you will put where so you and your staff can get the pages done on time! Consider also when events, sports, etc. occur in the year when placing them in your book as well. Additionally, you can used a well-crafted and planned ladder to mark pages that needed to be proofed and even for marking when pages are submitted. Whether it’s color-coding, marking, stickers, highlighting, etc., select a procedure that works for your staff and get the most out of your yearbook ladder!

5 – Select a Format for Your Yearbook Ladder

While it’s important to plan ahead to eliminate sudden changes, the yearbook ladder — like yearbook in general — is fluid. The planning stage alone is super fluid until it is somewhat pinned down, so a format where you can write and wipe and move things around is key. I’ve used wall posters, printed pages, and digital versions of my yearbook ladder throughout the years, and honestly, I feel like it takes all of them to keep everyone on track. If you are doing a printable version or wall version, then someone needs to be in charge of keeping it updated when there are changes made, especially if you are using two versions like a shared digital version and a wall version. I used Google Sheets for our digital version, and that makes it easy to share. There are several versions of a printable ladder in my yearbook starter kit that you can grab here. A fellow high school yearbook adviser from got creative and made an interactive ladder for her white board with magnetic write and wipe pieces. She bought magnets in business card size and dry erase business cards on Amazon. She put the magnet on the back and used washi to split it, so it represents a spread. Using a dry erase marker on her white board, she wrote page numbers, and then on the movable cards, she wrote the subject of the pages. She has the kids put a yellow check when they are ready for the editors to look at it, a red one when they have made the editors suggested corrections and they are ready for her to look at it, and then it will get a green one when it’s done. Whatever format you have, be sure it’s shareable and accessible to students. Students really should be involved in the process of planning the yearbook ladder, and they certainly need to be informed. That creates so much more ownership and an environment of collaboration.

“Before anything else, preparation is the key to success.” – Alexander Graham Bell

Definitely add planning your yearbook ladder to your to-do list for the first week of school, if not before. The priority is to choose the best plan to tell the amazing story of your school’s year and to showcase your students in the best light possible. Planning your yearbook ladder early on ensures that classroom success story!

Watch and listen to a version of this post here.

Interested in trying my Yearbook Bell Ringers? Sign up for my email list here, and I’ll send you the first week free!

written by Julie Faulkner

Everything You Need To Know About Meeting Yearbook Deadlines

One of the most daunting tasks of being a yearbook adviser is meeting deadlines. However, it is super important — always being front of mind. In fact, when I discuss the top five things a new yearbook adviser needs to do, finding out those deadlines makes the cut. Honestly, you can’t share the book with the world if you don’t meet the print deadlines! Making deadlines, though, is certainly more than just knowing when the deadlines are. It’s a process, and one that must be started on week one, or before. In this post, I’m sharing everything you need to know about meeting yearbook deadlines with my no-fail, step-by-step process!

Set Big and Little Yearbook Deadlines During the First Week

After you close your current year’s book, set up a date to meet with your publisher to determine dates for the upcoming year’s publication. It is really never too early to set deadlines. They are that big of a deal. Everything in the production of a yearbook hinges on meeting deadlines. Once you’ve decided if you are a spring, summer, or fall delivery book along with how many pages your book is, your publisher can tell you how many deadlines you will have throughout the year and how many pages per deadline you will need to submit. I take those deadlines and break them up even more for my staff. We have checkpoints along the way to each deadline with rubrics (included in my full yearbook curriculum), so that we never get to the last minute and have pages that aren’t done waiting on final proofs. For example, if the publisher says the hard deadline is Nov 20, then I might have two deadlines prior: Pre-Check on Nov 1; Mid-Check on Nov 10; and Final Check on Nov 18.

These mini deadlines are so important. I tell the students, “In the yearbook process, you can’t be in creation mode right up to the deadline. You have to leave time for proofing and revising.” If you don’t build in time for multiple checks, in my experience, you miss so much that could have been caught and corrected. Plus, deadlines offer a plan, and without a plan, a plethora of problems ensue. Creating a yearbook is hard enough without making it harder because you aren’t working with specific goals in mind.

Photo Dates and Ad Collections Need to Happen Early

The portrait pages and advertisement pages are two staple sections of a yearbook. Some may not have an advertisement section, but if you do, that section is usually at the end of the book; therefore, it is an easy first deadline because submitting pages at the end of the book first is safe as it won’t lock down other pages in the book that need to be more fluid throughout the creative process. Also, for a high school book especially, there are usually anywhere from 30-50 pages of business advertisements and senior tribute pages. That is typically enough to meet a publisher’s first deadline. If you are able to use your ad pages for your first deadline, that means you’ll need to assign business ads to staffers and advertise for senior tributes to families starting the first week of school. Another benefit of having students work on business ads first is that they are learning your company’s software, and it gives flexibility for you to teach crucial skills like photography and interviewing before the year really kicks off to full start.

The other section of the yearbook that can be simple to design and submit is the portrait section. However, deadlines are tricky with this section because you are likely depending on an outside photography company to take the photos, do make ups, and then get them to you. Also, you often have to send the yearbook-specific files (yes, that’s a thing) to your publisher. That’s an added step and more time you have to plan for. Again, in May or during the summer at the latest, you need to get your photo dates on the calendar. That will include multiple people in addition to the company and you: admin, counselors, coaches, and club sponsors. Consider these appointments, and schedule them within the first two (three at the latest) months of school:

Senior Pictures
Underclassmen Fall Pictures
Senior Retake/Make Ups
Underclassmen Retake/Make Ups
Senior Cap/Gown
Sports Groups and Individual (if your company does this) for fall and spring
Superlatives
Club Group Photos

Set Up the Ladder and Assign Pages Early

First, a ladder is the list of pages your book will have and what will be on each page. You can build a ladder on a poster, piece of paper, shared Google sheet, or with sticky notes. Tools to make a ladder are included in my full Yearbook Curriculum. However you build the ladder, it is imperative that you do so early and communicate it out to students.

The next step after getting the ladder as set as possible is to assign students their “beats.” Beat reporting is specialized reporting in a specific area, topic or subject. Below is an example of a handout that I use to assign the pages and sections. This one is for a book organized by sections, but if your book is chronological, you could tweak it enough to compensate for that. Assigning students their “beats” early prevents any “sneak up” moments when an event happens but doesn’t get the coverage it needs. This also helps staffers plan their own calendars, as yearbook students are often involved and busy outside of yearbook class.

It’s not always possible to foresee and plan every event, sports game, classroom experiment, etc; however, you can prevent a lot of stress and oversight by planning up front. With meeting yearbook deadlines, that’s the name of the game.

Develop a Process for Proofing Yearbook Pages

Since I am also an English teacher, proofing and revising is in my wheel house. However, there are a quite a few more moving parts in meeting a yearbook deadline with 40-something pages with captions, photos, tags, graphic elements, etc. than there are in a typical 1,000 word paper. That said, students also need an easy and effective process. I share my process in this Instagram video:

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A post shared by Julie – English Teacher (@juliesclassroomstories)

Leave Yourself Enough Time for Final Submission

Did you notice above in my deadline dates example that I don’t give students the final deadline as the publisher’s hard deadline? It is critical to leave yourself, as the adviser, time to make the final submissions. By the time we’ve gotten to the final deadline, I’ve seen the pages multiple times, but that doesn’t mean that the pages are perfect, unfortunately. I like to have one final look before I hit the submit button. Also, turning pages into the publisher on your software/website is likely not a one-click process either. In the Jostens program that we use, it is actually about three steps before you actually release the pages. That takes time. Several hours, in fact. Therefore, it’s basically impossible to meet the yearbook deadline (especially a hard deadline) if you allow your students to work on pages in creation mode until 3 pm. You’ll be proofing, spell-checking, replacing pictures, adding captions, and anything else your publisher’s software requires before you are done — and with 40+ pages for your deadline, midnight approaches quickly. Being a yearbook adviser is stressful enough without the added stress of not planning ahead to have extra days for submitting pages on final deadline days. Been there. Done that. And it isn’t fun, but more importantly, it doesn’t have to be that way. The old adage, “Work Smarter – Not Harder” most definitely applies to meeting those yearbook deadlines!

If you are a new yearbook adviser, check out my blog post here: Tips for New Yearbook Advisers. I also have a video for tips for getting your yearbook going over on my Facebook page. You can also get more great tips, freebies, and access to webinars for yearbook/journalism by joining my Yearbook Advisers Facebook Group. It’s free to join!

Interested in trying my Yearbook Bell Ringers? Sign up for my email list here, and I’ll send you the first week free!

written by Julie Faulkner

5 Ways to Use Class Time After the Yearbook is Complete

The yearbook is complete, submitted, done. Now what? You have several months of school left, and you aren’t sure how to keep your students on task for the remaining days. Does this sound familiar? With spring delivery or even summer delivery books where students take yearbook/journalism as a class, it’s often difficult — and even daunting — to come up with creative and constructive ways to use that time. As we all know, doing nothing is not an option! In this blog post, I’ll share 5 ways to use class time after the yearbook is complete.

1) Listen

Podcasts are super popular right now, and I think they are here to stay! The trick with using podcasts in yearbook or journalism class after your big publication is off to the presses is in choosing a series. Another tip is to choose a podcast show or series that has its roots in journalism. We also enjoy podcasts because they are mobile. I grab a Bluetooth speaker with my phone, the kids bring chairs and Enos, and we head outside on a pretty day!

Here are several podcasts I have used in class after the yearbook has been submitted that I think work wonderfully in the yearbook classroom. Also hop over to my free podcast catalog for even more. Search “yearbook.”

This American Life, Serial Season 1: This podcast series was done by journalist Sarah Koenig. It is a true crime series about a student who goes missing. Grab my free Podcast Series True Crime Listening guide here, and your students will be set. Rated for older students.
Up and Vanished, Season 1: Another in the true crime family, this podcast is a series as well. In this one, a teacher goes missing. Rated for older students. *Tip: Consider sending a permission slip home for parents/guardians to sign for anything that might be questionable.
Dolly Parton’s America, Season 1: Whether you are a Dolly fan or not, this podcast is perfect for notable interview techniques, storytelling, and just feel-good fun. As students listen, have them complete a double entry notebook for each episode. This listening strategy allows them to decide what’s unique, interesting, and special as they listen and note their reactions as well. A no-prep double entry notebook sheet is included in my Podcast Analysis Pack for Print and Digital. Rated for older students.
It’s All Journalism, Beyond the Ivory Tower, Picture This, Grammar Girl, or Stuff You Should Know. These are all content-specific podcasts where students could pick and choose something they are interested in learning about. The task: Write three interesting things from the podcast, two questions, and one other thing you wonder.

2) Read

Engaging students with something to read is never a bad idea! (You have to know I’m an English teacher, too!) However, you don’t have to be an English teacher to embark on a reading journey with your yearbook students after the yearbook is submitted. Novel selections abound and articles are endless online. Plus, to make your job easier, select a novel or article with a pre-made guide and/questions. Here are a few suggestions:

Columbine by Dave Cullen- This is a nonfiction piece that reads like fiction. It was ten years in development and researched by journalist Dave Cullen. In it, he dispels the myths that surrounded the tragedy with facts, evidence, and quotes – all while maintaining a safe distance from giving Eric and Dylan the credit and accolades they craved. Its detailed characterization draws readers in from page one, and its complex structure challenges them while keeping students engaged from beginning to end. You can get a complete unit guide here or just a set of questions/answers for each chapter here. Rated for older students.
Peeled by Joan Bauer – This fictional novel is perfect for piquing student journalists’ interested in mystery, and it ties in nicely with a journalism class. A reporter for her high school newspaper, Hildy Biddle is just waiting for a chance to prove herself as a real journalist. Not content just covering school issues, Hildy’s drawn to the town’s big story–the haunted old Ludlow house. It’s a fun, quick tale that you won’t have to beg your students to read. Rated for any age. A unit guide for this is on my to-do list.
Legacy versus Likes by Mike Smith – If you’ve never met or heard of Mike Smith, then now is your chance. Mike is full of energy and life and passion. This book, published via his work with Jostens, challenges readers to make a difference in the world. Along with engaging anecdotes and real-life tales of challenges and lessons learned, this book asks tough questions. My students were captivated and convicted by this quick read. The best thing about it for you is that it comes with built-in questions and tasks!
Article of the Week for Journalism – Reading pedagogy suggests that students are most successful with a text when they revisit it more than once with a different and meaningful purpose each time. The “article of the week” approach does that. With this resource, I’ve designed daily tasks unique to the articles linked in that give students a meaningful and skills-based reason to revisit the article of the week again each day. It’s no prep, and students learn vocabulary and figurative language in addition to the interesting weekly challenges that ask them to look beyond the article. Answers are included. Grab a set of 9 or the entire bundle!
Article of the Week for High School (General)
The New York Times also offers daily current events and self-guided lessons of the day. You could mix these up a bit and use their picture of the day as well.

3) Watch

You just can’t wrong with a movie (or two) every now and then. Movies really do provide numerous opportunities for learning, and I am an advocate of using them as a text. I either have movie guides made for specific movies, or I grab one of my movie guides that go with any movie. I like to use movies that in some form or fashion relate to journalism, yearbook, photography, or media. If I have a group of mostly seniors, I’ve sometimes used that to inspire my choice. Along those same lines, it does not have to be a movie; you can also use documentaries. Amazon, iTunes, and Youtube have numerous documentaries that students find interesting. Below are a few that I have on hand for using in my yearbook class after the book is complete. These are all for older students.

Age of Adeline (Fiction), Photography connection
Memory Keeper’s Daughter (Fiction), Photography connection grab my free movie guide
Campus Confidential (Fiction), Journalism connection
Cyberbully (Fiction), Media connection, grab my no-prep guide here
The Pursuit of Happyness (Fiction), Connection for senior students
Searching (Fiction), Media connection
Ivory Tower (Docudrama), Connection for senior students
The Social Dilemma (Docudrama), Media connection
Just Mercy (Based on a true story), Journalism connection
WACO (iTunes docudrama series by CMT/Paramount), Journalism connection
Columbine 20/20 Interview Documentary with Sue Klebold, Journalism connection, grab my free guide here
Any TED Talk
Mean Girls 2, Journalism connection

4) Sell Books

When the yearbook is done, you can’t ignore the second biggest task of the year: selling books! Whether you have been hosting sales campaigns throughout the year or not, now you have time to focus on it specifically. Be sure to reach out to all students. Develop a plan to contact each one. I like to assign my staffers groups of students to reach out to during our last big sales push. We also do an “adopt-a-student” promo, where we ask for community members to donate money for our lower-socioeconomic senior students to receive a book for free. I tell those students they were given a “book scholarship.” We usually have in the neighborhood of 15-20 books donated. Get the student body “bought in” with these ideas:

Funny sales flyers in the hall or on student cars and lockers
Yard signs
Social media posts (Canva is free for making eye-catching designs)
Videos
Ice cream party for all buyers
Countdown wall displays
Cover reveal

5) Plan Distribution

Hopefully, distribution day is a huge event at your school, too! And if not, now might be the perfect time to plan for one. I have an entire blog post on distribution, so I’m going to link it here. Definitely hop over and give it a read. This is certainly an important way to use class time after the yearbook is complete; you want students to be excited about picking up the book you’ve worked so hard to create!

Hopefully, these 5 ways to use class time after the yearbook is complete will help you and your staff make the most of the last few days at the end of the year. If you have clever ways you use class time after the yearbook is submitted, drop a comment below!

Interested in trying my Yearbook Bell Ringers? Sign up for my email list here, and I’ll send you the first week free!

Written by: Julie Faulkner, 2021

Tips for New Yearbook Advisers

When I was asked/told I would be the yearbook adviser over ten years ago, I said what any good new hire would say: “Sure!” I had never been on the yearbook or newspaper staff before, and my degree wasn’t in journalism. I stepped into a situation where the previous adviser had left on bad terms, so the staffers hated me – that is an understatement. So, through much blood, sweet, and tears, I eventually learned everything the hard way and on my own – again, another understatement. Now, I am still learning, but along the way, I learned to love it. I have a supportive administration, faculty and community, good vibes from our student body, great publishing company, and an amazing yearbook rep. Hopefully, with that bit of good vibes going, I can share with you the things that have worked for me. So here we have the first five things that you need to do NOW if you are just starting out.

Deadlines and Ladder– Yearbook class is almost like a company. It operates with one foot in the school world and one foot in the business world. The first thing you need to do is sit down with your yearbook rep or company and find out when your deadlines are. Once I have those deadlines, I handle them a couple of ways. First, I make the ladder and set every page that needs to be created. Second, I NEVER give my students the drop-dead deadline. In fact, they get a couple of deadlines from me: a preliminary and a final. Often, there is one in between that one, too. I chunk my pages based on content and what I know we can get done first. For example, my business ads are always submitted on the first deadline, student portraits usually go next, and so on. Also, I give students at least two deadlines to work on a time – the closest one and the next one. In fact, my students are basically assigned every page/topic they will be completing for the year the first or second week of school! That way there are no surprises, and we can make our deadlines!

Budget – Again, this is something you will need to sit down and talk to your company rep about the first week of school or before. Once you know what the overall bill will be, you can work backwards to begin collecting money. We sell business advertisements and senior tribute advertisements to help lower the cost of the book for our students. I teach in a very rural school district, and I wanted as many students to have the opportunity to purchase a book as possible, so the ad sales help. It’s important to know the end goal up front, so you don’t overspend on book design extras, etc. My full yearbook curriculum has an entire teaching pack included for business sales, etc.

Equipment Organization and Photography – Whether you have a small staff or a large staff with a lot of equipment or a little, there has to be a system to keep up with everything so it’s all protected. My staff has several cameras, lens, etc. and each staff has a laptop as well. Before they can even use the equipment, they must sign a release form. My principal approved my form, and I hand it out on the first day. Next, I have system for check outs. Anything checked out must be signed out and signed back in. For the computers and other materials, each student has a bucket and a cubby. Last, one of the most important things you can do to protect images and keep them organized is to require each student to have his/her own memory card. In the past, I’ve supplied those cards and they get lost, stolen, broken, and/or erased. Once I started requiring staffers to have their own cards, those problems were almost nonexistent.

Teamwork and School Spirit – The dynamic of yearbook staff can be really tough for a couple of reasons: large personalities and the pressure of getting things done. I start on the first day building the concept of teamwork and collaboration. We do team-building activities, and we talk about what each person has to offer. We also take a look at our own struggles, so that we know everybody has room to grow and we can learn from each other. The other component of keeping a positive attitude going is making sure the student body feels connected and supported by us. Each of my staffer gets a list of students (I divide the entire student body up) that he/she keeps track of all year. They get to know the people on their list through projects I assign, and they make sure those people are being covered in an authentic way. I have several of these projects in my store, or you can let your students brainstorm some! Also, I always have a small gift for my staffers on the first day to let them know how much I appreciate them! Our theme this year is related to the idea of authenticity – so I went with Coke’s real thing slogan! Plus, my staffers know how much I love my real, RED coke!

Grading – If your yearbook class is for credit, grading can be a sticky issue, so it must be consistent and formulated. My staffers get grades several ways: selling ads, selling my books, meeting deadlines, projects, and pages. I use rubrics to grade their pages with. Projects include photo challenges, interview challenges, presentations, etc. They also do grammar worksheets and sometimes we read info texts on hot topics and answer questions. All of these items can be found in my full yearbook curriculum that is ready to go for you.

In all, I realize there is a lot of turnover in the yearbook adviser world, and rightfully so. It’s not an easy job for many reasons: deadline stress, money worries, drama from staffers, un-supportive admin and/or faculty, nosy or apathetic community members, subpar publishing companies, and the list goes on and on. So, if you are a new or newish yearbook adviser, I hope I can share something from my struggles along the way that can help you. If you have a little bit of extra time, stop over by my FB page and watch my webinar on “Getting Started as a Yearbook Adviser.”

So…..my #1 tip for new yearbook advisers? Eat the elephant one bite at a time. You can’t change the world — or a yearbook program — in a day! Be sure to stop over to my other post: Kicking Off Back-to-School in Yearbook Class for some other fun tips!

Interested in trying my Yearbook Bell Ringers? Sign up for my email list here, and I’ll send you the first week free!

Written by: Julie Faulkner, updated 2020

Increasing Yearbook Coverage: 5 Ways to Include More Students

In a previous post, I mentioned some challenges I had as a first year as a yearbook adviser regarding coverage (the number of times each student appears in the yearbook), so I wanted to elaborate and provide some ways I eventually worked through increasing yearbook coverage. Unfortunately, when I became the yearbook adviser, the publication was exclusive for big sports and seniors. That saddened and worried me all at the same time. If a book is to document the year that everyone enjoyed and was a part of, how can this time capsule I am helping to create only reflect a portion of those events, memories, and people? So, with gnashing of teeth and some tears, we forged ahead and began to reshape our purpose. Ultimately, we increased our yearbook coverage to represent our entire school — all students at least 3 times. Here are 5 ways that any staff can maximize coverage in your yearbook.

1) Creative Projects Yield More Diverse Pictures

Most of the time students stick to one group or set of friends because that is easy and safe. Yearbook students are no exception. One way to ensure diverse coverage and to increase yearbook coverage is to assign staffers projects that reach out to different students throughout the school. If staffers have a task (attached to a grade), that pushes them out of their comfort zone, then they can reach out to more students. Not only does this begin to build more opportunities for coverage, but it also begins to build trust bridges between the staff and the student body. If the students see that we are reaching out to all students, no matter what group, then they begin to see value in what we are doing. And that, well, that affects our bottom line. Over the years, I’ve done several projects that promote coverage. The projects always have a theme, require an interview and picture, and must be presented in class. That ensures my staffers are reaching out to a variety of other students, we are collecting good pictures, and I have a grade for my grade book. Check out a few of the projects I’ve done in the past that really ignite some great discussion and images. Find several ready-to-go projects in my Yearbook Curriculum.

2) Offer Incentives to the Student Body

Whether you are having to repair the relationship between your yearbook staff and student body or not, there is always a struggle to get student buy in. Issues include student shyness, teenage angst, rival groups, and even more. Knowing how to reach out is a struggle because we don’t want to embarrass anybody, but we also know we have a task to do. We want everyone, and we really want them at least three times. That is a tall order, I know, but it makes for a much more meaningful book. Here are a few ways we get kids involved, which makes their participation seem more like it was on their terms than ours and increases coverage.

Social media is your friend when it comes to yearbook. Kids are always taking a selfie or posing with their friends before a game, but they would never feel comfortable letting a staffer take their picture. Set up a Dropbox, email, Facebook group, or Instagram where students can submit their own pictures.
Everything doesn’t have to be a secret! Feature images and spread sneak peeks in the hallway.
Another idea to get stellar images from students is to host a photo contest. I set up 5 or so categories (school spirit, landscape, illustration, etc.) and let students submit their images. We get our yearbook representative to help us judge (sans names), and those students win a small prize. Plus those images with the photographers’ names are featured in the book and in a hallway display, and you can use all the other images, too!
Post the index or write individual notes to place on students’ lockers telling them a few pages they are featured on.
No one can resist a sweet treat! Invest in some candy to give students who are willing to pose, and you will have line.

3) Redesign Spreads to Get in More Coverage

Thoughtful design and layout plays a big role in how many students you can cover in a book. My book is about 180-190 pages, the smallest trim size available, and we have about 550-600 students. Some pages you may have not thought of to use for coverage include business advertisements and index. If a business has affiliations with a student, maybe they would like to give a shout out on their ad. Another type of ad that generates both coverage and money is the Senior Memory Ad paid for by the family of the senior. Also, you can include sidebars or photo bars on the portrait pages or club group pictures in the reference section. Just get crafty, shrink those mugs, and move in some cute packages with tons of interesting pictures and coverage. Most kids don’t love their school picture anyway. Use that space to cover them in a more natural, fun way.

4) Think Beyond Pictures for Coverage Opportunities

Words and numbers “count” as coverage, too. Plus, this strategy really helps with increasing yearbook coverage of those super shy students I mentioned above.

Include authentic quotes from students in all body copy and captions.
Use charts and graphs that relate to your theme to showcase survey results that include entire classes or groups of students. Tag all the names of students surveyed, and add a picture/quote/response from one or two of the students (depending on how much room you have).
Scoreboards for sports seasons reflect entire teams. With a quick quote or image carefully placed, those stats have extra meaning.
For students without a portrait in the picture section, be sure to create a list of “not pictured” students at the end. They need to be documented as part of the class even though they didn’t have their picture made for whatever reason. Tag those names to another picture on the page, so it populates to the index flow (if your publisher has that feature.)

5) Maintain a Diverse Staff

Birds of a feather flock together, right? Yearbook can definitely be its own little tribe (and that’s ok), but staffers must be open-minded and invested in the goal. I think part of the problem I had when I first started was that yearbook class was only for seniors. It was an exclusive ~~entity~~ clique, and the privilege was there to be taken advantage of. Only certain people were able to join, and everything was a secret. I want my staff to think of themselves as working for the school, not the other way around. We are creating a gift for everyone. If possible, take applications to see what qualifications students have and how diverse they are with their interests, activities, and skills. Accept applications from sophomores, juniors, and seniors, so that it is easier to reach out more. Once you have an established staff, be sure to keep it mixed up to avoid cliques forming inside the staff. Randomly assign projects and keep page assignments thoughtful and purposeful. I also assign each of my staffers “families” from the student body. Basically, I get every student in the school and divide the names among my staffers. They are responsible for making sure every person in their “family” gets covered. This one strategy (aside from the mindset shift) has made the biggest impact over the years in increasing coverage. Find a printable and digital application in my Yearbook Starter Kit for Advisers.

Covering each student at least three times is a huge task, but one very
worthy of our time and attention. We’ve never had 100% coverage of every
student three times, but we’ve gotten close — upwards of 80% for several consecutive years. Increasing yearbook coverage is something we start focusing our energies on from the first week of school. Be organized, keep lists, and make sure it’s everybody’s task. Challenge your staff to see how many different people they can cover on a page and offer incentives to them. It is a struggle, but it’s a productive one. Everybody wants to be part of a group — part of something — and the yearbook is for sure the ONE THING of which ALL students can be a part.

Interested in trying my Yearbook Bell Ringers? Sign up for my email list here, and I’ll send you the first week free!