A yearbook’s success depends a great deal on the students selected for the job. The adviser’s job is to help guide students and teach them what is right and wrong, but all students selected should be self-motivated and willing to work.
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In my progression from beginning journalist to editor-in-chief, I have attended three JEA/NSPA fall national conventions: 2008 in St. Louis, 2009 in Washington, D.C. and 2010 in Kansas City. All have provided invaluable opportunities to me personally and to our entire Cambia staff at Oak Park High School in Kansas City, Mo.
Copy editing and fact checking are crucial to the production of a strong yearbook. Responsibility for keeping details accurate belongs to the copy editor.
Adviser Jim Jordan thought it would be fun to see how many of his former Del Campo High School editors and staffers he could get in touch with and help them stay in touch with each other. To do so, he turned to Facebook.
The occasional offbeat request from a parent is a reality for yearbook staffs. It helps to have a ready explanation – namely, that the yearbook is about what the kids in their school experience.
Few high school journalists have a keen understanding of libel law, but not knowing may put your publication and reputation at risk. Do study up on libel, but you can also use these five tips to remember the main points of how to avoid libel.
Every fall, our annual trip to the Michigan Interscholastic Press Association (MIPA) Middle School Journalism Conference proves to be a memorable experience. Everyone involved – the students, their parents, our school and me – benefits in numerous ways.
Some staffs are devoid of dedicated writers and have regulated copy to languish in mediocrity. Even if your staff loathes the written word and your copy editor jumped ship, it is still possible for your publication to have wonderful writing.
One of the biggest challenges of putting together the middle school yearbook is getting photo coverage of every school event. Read how one staff tackles this by using a couple of effective strategies.
At our school, yearbook is not a mandatory activity, but one that requires staffers to dedicate their own free time. It always proves to be a challenge to finish our 308-page book with an extracurricular staff of only 16 members who don’t get a grade. Encouraging them to work is not an easy task, but we have learned some surefire methods needed to meet our deadlines.
