The Yearbook World of Scott Geesey

from Jostens Yearbooks of central/northern Pennsylvania

ARCHIVE - OCTOBER 27, 2019
 

YEARBOOK AVENUE'S BEST KEPT SECRETS: Have You Checked These Out?

Hello! And here comes November this week! It's interesting, I normally hear the word "snow" by now but except for a couple of frosts, it's been all quiet. How long will THAT last?

I wonder how many schools will have some kind of dress-up day for Halloween on Thursday. An opinion - Halloween takes a bit of a bad rap. Students just want to dress up as superheroes or ghosts or witches or something else fun. Why not let them for a day?

I won't be dressed up as anything but on Halloween Thursday I'll be honored to attend and present at the PSPA regional journalism day at Juniata College in Huntingdon. The winners go to the state journalism competition at Penn State University Park in March. If somehow you've missed these PSPA events there are still two more coming up in early November, in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Check the PSPA website at www.paschoolpress.org.

Need to learn YBA? Or good yearbook journalism? Want great advice from top advisers across America? Then check the Digital Classroom...

The Jostens Yearbook Avenue Digital Classroom is simply fantastic. Nowhere else can you find so many terrific educational materials, do-it-yourself activities, experienced advice and all at your fingertips 24/7. Yet many yearbook advisers still haven't taken the time to check out those great materials - if that's you, why not start now?

Included there is our revolutionary Seven Minute Starters curriculum series, complete with lesson plans with exact tie-ins for Common Core, 21st Century Skills and ISTE standards, which has received rave reviews from thousands of yearbook advisers across America. Now at around 200 individual lessons and still growing, the Starters have offered some great training and lessons for yearbook and journalism students.

With that, we also have selected materials available from our Grow Your Know curriculum series - great classroom materials to improve your staff photography and marketing effort. There's also a curriculum for InDesign and Monarch users, and a separate one for new advisers and leaders of middle school and small school programs.

In the Digital Classroom just scroll down to find the Grow Your Know link. Inside you'll find selected lessons and items from each of the different curricula that you can download and use right away.

And there's another feature in the YBA Digital Classroom which I think is just as good but doesn't get as much attention. If you still haven't discovered the terrific instructional video series there, it's time to introduce you.

I'm particularly proud of the video series because I was one of several Jostens representatives who urged the company to start this series several years ago, and our pleas were heard. But have YOU discovered all of the great material there for you and your yearbook class or club? Just click on the video you need, sit back and let our hosts do the teaching for you!

For Jostens advisers, click on the Digital Classroom link, then enter "videos" in the search bar. There you will find the current LARGE collection of videos covering these areas...

JOURNALISM: Suitable for both yearbook and newspaper students, this series teaches the nuances of good journalism from proper use of typography and color to good page design and theme development and headline writing. Check out the video on using social media to help your cause as well as what good storytelling is like. Want to improve your photography? Watch that video. Need some help with your staff recruitment? Watch that video as well. There's a ton of great material for your viewing, all in videos that are five minutes or less.

PAGE CREATION: Here you can learn many of the facets of Yearbook Avenue, from great page design to all of the cool text and image tools on YBA, just sit back and learn. How does the Image Library work, or indexing, or easily creating your portrait pages? It's all there. Want to know more about the awesome Coverage Report? It's all there.

SALES AND PROMOTION: Here's an area that many other yearbook companies almost ignore yet it's a crucial part of your yearbook effort. Watch our series of videos to learn how to run your book sale, how to make ReplayIt a valuable part of your promotional campaign, and take a tour of our state of the art Jostens printing plants. And check out the cool Own Your Story video and show your students the value of the yearbook they are creating with the stories of four former high school students looking at the yearbook for the first time in 10 years.

ADVISER TO ADVISER: Here's a great series of videos with valuable advice from top yearbook advisers from across the country. From selling more books and more ads to meeting deadlines and getting more kids pictured in the book, sit back and hear what some the best have to say. Advising a middle school yearbook? Want better page creation? It's there. And if you're a brand new adviser this year, be sure to watch that video to get some great tips and ideas.

And whenever in doubt in the Digital Classroom, use that enhanced search bar. Enter in any keyword and see what ideas, materials and services pop up on the screen.

No one else can offer what Jostens offers when it comes to educating your students - and advisers too! And it's all right there on your Yearbook Avenue website, literally at your fingertips. Please be sure to check out all the great resources in your YBA Digital Classroom to improve your entire yearbooking effort.

And don't forget MY exclusive series of online instructional videos - check the link here in the left column for my entire list. It's more great learning on every facet of yearbooking. No doubt - we have you covered better than anyone else.