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.
Middle School Moment
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.
The challenge for a middle school adviser trying to implement yearbook best practices is a balance of giving students an opportunity to explore a new, enriching possibility while enlisting responsible individuals to produce a high-quality product. This all begins with the selection process.
Yearbook students have an opportunity to explore digital photography and photo enhancements, then show off their work in the annual ARTstravaganza.
Students readily understand the power of having a camera in hand. They see that it can make people do one of three things: hide, mug, or go on with their business but direct their activity to the camera. I teach my students that with power comes a responsibility to be above reproach at all times. To this end, my students are given lessons in manners and protocol when out of the class and on assignment.
Keeping the yearbook price down so that it is universally affordable can be a challenge. For my school, this required consideration of viable revenue sources beyond advertisements. The winning source for us has been buddy photos.
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.
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.
Middle school students are scary, to put it mildly. Turning them loose with digital cameras, computers and the internet could turn into something from a bad horror film. Beyond all that could and did go wrong during the fifth period communications class, the staff did publish a yearbook last year. We made a ton of mistakes, left in a few too many typos, but ensured that everyone’s picture showed up in the book at least one time. For a 72-page book with a first-year adviser, things went well.
The words “middle school yearbook” initially conjure up an image of a soft cover with crude artwork of the school mascot, perhaps with a bubble out of the mouth of the lion, bear or panther saying something cute like, “Another year has gone by!” Inside the book are pages replete with posed snapshots.
