Much teaching time in photography – especially on the high school level – is spent on looking for the right moment to shoot. But examining the fl ip side of that concept – what not to shoot – may be just as helpful in pursing good images, so that photographers understand what does not work, what has been overused or what may put us on shaky ground legally or ethically.
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You can get your staff to cheer about yearbook. Trevor Johnson, the yearbook adviser at Sherando High School in Stephens City, Va., gets his staff to cheer and play games, all in the interest of motivating students to a new level of dedication to the yearbook.
Yearbook staff members need to feel as important to the production of the publication as the editor is. I did this by empowerment, which enabled my small staff to produce the 2006 Spartonian yearbook for Hempfield Area High School in Greensburg, Pa.
It does not behoove the modern yearbook adviser to exercise extreme control over the middle school photographer. Granting permission to shoot the scenes as they see them can afford fantastic results. Better still, encouraging artistic license will ensure a yearbook that is thoughtful and exciting for the consumer.
One of my students’ favorite activities is a yearbook theme design contest. Instead of waiting until September to come up with a concept, we have a contest every spring. The winning theme is usually the yearbook theme for the next school year. Here are the rules and advantages.
It is registration time and we’ve put up posters saying, “Yearbook wants you.” We’ve run announcements advertising the yearbook class and distributed applications to interested students. Registration finishes and my principal calls me up to pick up the preliminary list. In addition to those students that my staff and I worked hard to recruit are students I don’t know.
A staff manual should answer any question a yearbook staff member may have if they were to find themselves working alone in the yearbook room – not that that should happen. But the point is, the manual needs to be inclusive and easy to navigate and access information. Place your mission statement and purpose at the beginning with the table of contents and, at minimum, put these items in the manual. This contents list comes from Deborah Garner, yearbook adviser at Central High School in Springfi eld, Mo.
Expanding the classroom walls.
As a teacher of photography and journalism, and a publications adviser, I was always looking for ways to make my classroom bigger, more up-to-date and more interesting. Computers certainly helped, especially when photo CDs became available that could reinforce my lessons.
My students cringe when they see paperback publications with posed photos, talking captions and weak copy in other yearbooks. They have come to expect more when it comes to producing a middle school yearbook.
There is no reason why a middle school yearbook can’t have lots of pages with great photos and strong copy.
Anyone who has been on the yearbook staff probably knows that it is not all fun and games. It is highly unlikely that any staff has not endured those long days – and sometimes nights – filled with coffee, food, the occasional tear and, of course, utter chaos. Therefore, in addition to overseeing the publication of a however-many-page chronicle of the year, it is the responsibility of the editor to make sure yearbook includes activities to lighten the experience and unify the staff.
