yearbook Archives - Faulkner's Fast Five

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!

Love this content? Join a group! There are already tons of ideas, freebies, and fabulous teachers in my new groups, and joining is simple. Just click over to the following links, answer a few questions, and voila! Thanks again for following along my classroom stories and small-business journey. I really do hope you to see you over in my new “backyards” where we can chat and share all things English and Yearbook.

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!

Written by: Julie Faulkner, 2021

End of Year Reflection: Best of the Best 2016

Last year at this time I did my first ever “Greatest Hits” linky as a reflection of the moments from 2015 that stuck out to me the most, and I kept track all year waiting to do it again! Needless to say, I am super excited to share these ideas with you – and this year they happen to all be things I tried for the first time. And… they are all things I fell in love with and will most definitely do again! So yes, even after 13 years in the classroom, I am still adding, tweaking, and trying new things! I hope these ideas inspire you to try something new in 2017!

1) The Green Light – Sometimes when I teach Gatsby, I get to teach the entire book, and other times I’m crunched for time and only show the movie and do close readings. Either way, I get my Gatsby fix and the kids love it! This year I just did the movie because our town was ravaged by an F3 tornado, so we missed several days at the end of the year. I knew I wanted to amp it up just a little and bring something special – as a little highlight – to the end of the year since our students had been through so much this month. I have to say I am IN LOVE my Gatsby green light display. Here’s how to DIY:
a) I projected a picture of the light on the dock that I found on Google images onto a piece of butcher paper taped on my Activboard. Once I traced it onto the paper, I just painted it with acrylic paint. It’s cheap and dries fast. I used black and gold to make it Gatsby-glam, of course. I painted the bulb inside green and added green glitter. The dock was even easier to make. I just drew lines with a Sharpie and painted in between with brown acrylic paint. I laminated the light and dock. Next, print the quotation “Gatsby believed in the green light” on green paper. Make the display and hang it up before the beginning of the movie/unit so students are curious and aware the entire time. For the “rays of green light” I just trifolded pieces of green construction paper and cut them.
b) As we neared the end of the movie, I gave students a sheet of excerpts to close read from the novel with all the green light passages. (This sheet and lesson, along with several American Dream exercises, can be found in my Gatsby movie guide.) I sent the sheet home with the QR code to a video link, which is a compilation of scenes with the green light from the “new Gatsby” movie. Students had to complete that assignment and be ready to discuss the next day. Boy, were they ready…. I had been talking up the green light the entire time and had my wall display ready all along, so they were itching to discuss!!
c) After the discussion, students completed the American dream prompt, and then I gave them the ray to write their own “hopes and dreams” on. Some wrote what they wanted to do after high school, and others wrote how they wanted to bring light to others’ lives. They did an amazing job.
d) Hang up the green rays and stand back and enjoy!

2) Yearbook Light Bulbs – Every year my yearbook staff does some sort of holiday event for everyone to enjoy. Last year we had a Halloween YearBOOk celebration with fun games. This year we made Christmas light bulbs for everyone in school: students, faculty, and staff. Each yearbook staffer has a list of students (so every student in the school is personally tracked for coverage), and they personalized every bulb by hand-writing the names. I scored a sale at Family Dollar on mini candy canes, so we stapled one to each bulb, too. We stayed for an hour after school one day and taped them to the correct lockers (our AP gave us the locker list), and teachers’ classroom doors. The next morning when the students came in, they were really surprised and thankful! It was a small way to say, “Hey, we are thinking of YOU, and we wanted to brighten your day!” Here’s how to DIY:
a) Get a list of everyone in your school and divide them up. Also, get the locker and room numbers!
b) Find a cute light bulb clip art and place them two on a page. Write in a cute note, and copy and copy and copy.
c) Find candy on sale!!
c) Cut, cut, cut and sign, sign, sign and staple, staple, staple! Another tip is to write the locker numbers of the back of each bulb before hanging them.
d) Organize a day to tape up the bulbs!

3) Lord of the Flies Crowns – This year I taught Flies for the first time with my regular track seniors. I wasn’t sure how they would like it, but as we got into it, we all realized how perfect the timing was to make text-self and text-world connections. I’m sharing about one of the final projects we did because, honestly, it give me cold chills. I wanted them to truly get the theme and title connection juxtaposed with their own lives, so I came up with this crown idea. (Everything can be found in my NEW Lord of the Flies unit plan!!) Here’s how you can DIY:
a) After reading Chapter 8, we did a paired info text reading to get some background on the Beelzebub allusion. (paired reading and notes included in my plan)
b) I gave students a crown (template included in my plan). They wrote/drew things on the crown that are “lording over” their lives. I told them to be honest – even knowing they are 17-18 year olds and being aware of what I could get. However, I did tell them they could be anonymous. Then they cut out the crowns, and we hung them up in the room for the remainder of the book.
c) On the day – or next day – you finish the book, get a paper shredder in your classroom. Once the boys are rescued, they are not only physically rescued from the island, but also they are symbolically rescued from those demons in their lives. Students take their own crowns and we had a shredding ceremony to symbolically indicate that they can be rescued from those demons in their lives, too. — Cue cold chills here. —

4) Macbeth “Witch-Inspired” Tasting Party – Who isn’t always looking for a way to bring snacks to class, right??!!? This year I decided I would surprise my seniors with a few little snacks one day! In fact, my students actually inspired my choices with their creativity during the first part of Act 1 when they were making their text-based Witches’ Party Invitation (included in my Macbeth unit plan). Here’s how you can DIY:
a) After reading the opening scenes of the play where Macbeth and Banquo meet the witches, I have students complete the Party Invitation activity. They are always so intrigued by the weird sisters anyway, and this gives them a chance to close read and be creative! They have use the text to inspire the food, games, decor, and more!
b) Shop for Mountain Dew (Witches’ Brew), Bugles (Witches’ Fingernails), and thumbprint cookies (Pilot’s Thumbs). Local bakeries usually have these you can order. BTW: Only followers of my monthly email newsletter got the cute food labels for free couple of months back! You’ll want to sign up HERE so you don’t miss anymore goodies!
c) After reading Act 1 and 2, I always pause to show a on-screen adaptation of the play. When students came to class that day, they were surprised, delighted, and thankful to see I had brought their ideas to life!

5) Writers’ Notebooks – I’ve actually tried the writing portfolio thing a couple times a couple of ways. This time around, I’ve improved my process, and it worked wonderfully. It’s kinda of a morph between a portfolio, data tracker, and interactive notebook. The premise is simple: Students keep all their writing in one place so they can keep up with it, and we can all see growth. Here’s how to DIY (the new and improved way):
a) Students buy – or you can provide – a one subject spiral notebook. I took a piece of ribbon and a large plastic coated paper clip to make a bookmark. I needed a bookmark because each time they wrote an essay or paragraph in it, I wanted to be able to flip right to what I needed to grade without flipping forever. I had them put their name in Sharpie right on the front.
b) Here’s where the “interactive notebook” piece comes into play, but not really. It’s just some cutting and gluing! On the first day, I gave them some key sheets I wanted them to keep up with: the data tracker (sold in my TpT store and pictured below), my marking codes annotation sheets, state writing rubrics, self-evaluation sheets, and graphic organizers. That way they always had them in one place. Throughout the semester, we added notes here and there. Even when it was a bigger task and I used the rubrics I make to give points based on state rubrics (pictured below), they just stapled those at the end of the essay, so it was all in one place.
c) As students wrote essays and constructed responses, I left marks right on the pages. One tip is to have them write on the fronts only if you are going to be giving feedback. It made it so easy for me to flip back to previous writing to see if they were gaining and taking my advice from previous tasks.

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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!

Written by: Julie Faulkner, updated 2020

Friday Flashback: April 2015 Edition

The last Friday of every month comes really quickly. We still have one more week to go in April, but it’s unbelievable that it’s already the end. I thought my April was busy, but when I stop and look at my May calendar, phew, swamped is going to be an understatement. Since this is a linky, I post my “Friday Flashback” a few days early so other bloggers have time to write and link up. Here goes… a look back at my April.

1) Easter – I wrote about Easter mini sessions that were a big part of my March on my March Flashback, but Easter Sunday was really special at the beginning of April. Our church service was moving and beautiful, and my family spent time afterwards eating a big Easter lunch, hunting eggs, and feeding Chase – that’s what my niece named the calf that was born this spring that needed to be bottle fed.

2) 2,000 Followers Milestone – When I think about how many teachers and students are reached on daily basis through the creativity and collaboration that TPT inspires, it is incredible. I’m only one fish in big sea, but just knowing that this many teachers are finding and using my classroom creations fuels me to keep going.

3) The Crucible – We just have one more week left in our Crucible unit. It never ceases to amaze me how much my juniors LOVE reading this play. We often say that teens need constant up-to-date connections or that we shouldn’t teach such old literature because it just won’t speak to this generation. I do see validity in those concerns on some levels, but I have also seen 21st century juniors beg for time to keep reading this play. I would like to think it’s in part because of the creative activities I plan or the interesting way we pause the audio and discuss ;), but mostly I just think that sometimes a great text will do all the work! One my football boys in my first period this week said as we started Act 3, “This play never slows down! There is always something going on.” Well, I couldn’t have said it better myself. What a perfect teachable moment. No matter what is going in my schedule, I always carve out a little time during this unit for the students to do some acting. What’s a play without live actors/actresses, right? I have a box of costumes, and I wrote abridged readers’ theater scripts for scenes out of each act. Here’s a couple of pictures from my class acting this week. They absolutely have a blast, and when they go out in the hallway talking about it and can’t make it in the door the next day without asking if we are going to read and act more… now that’s a good day.

4) Niece Turned One – My little Isabella is one this month. She is a busy, busy little wad, always on the move. So my mom and sister came up with the idea of doing a “Oh, the places you’ll go” themed birthday party. It turned out to be just adorable, and I loved staging the set for her pics!

5) The Yearbooks Arrived – This is the 8th book I’ve sponsored and the excitement has yet to wear off when that big rig rolls in the school driveway each April. It’s a nervous excitement when we crack open that first box, even though I’ve already checked the cover 10 times and proofread every page. Right now they are stored away for safe keeping until Distribution Day in May when we have a big celebration! More on that at the end of May!

Here’s how to link up:

– Grab my button from above. (Just copy and paste it to the top of your blog post.)

– Write about some highlights from your month. It can be events, accomplishments, or a new product. It can be anything you want to share. I write in groups of 5 – for my Fast Five.

– Once you have your post done, come back to my blog and link it up via the linky below!

– If you want to link up next month, just watch for my post near the end of the month!

Don’t have a blog, but want to get in on the fun? Just comment below with something to share from your March!

An InLinkz Link-up

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.