A new slogan for this year and the future...
Over a lot of years I've seen far too many yearbook kids - and advisers - gradually get worn down by their yearbook work.
Instead of the excitement of creating a one of a kind item, it turns into drudgery. A boring chore. Not that much fun and it just gets worse as the school year progresses.
Everything turns into just making pages in a book. Dull, and perhaps feeling like any other class at school. Same old same old.
But yearbooking should NEVER feel like that. Because you're not just making pages - you're remembering the entire school year like no one else can.
What you're doing is so much more - MORE than just a book. There's a new slogan for your effort.
How? Let's run down the proof...
You're the storytellers. That's a big responsibility. Always remind your students of how important this task is. Every week. No one at school is doing anything like this, creating something that will be kept by people forever. Yes, forever.
Doing cool cutting edge work. Using Yearbook Avenue to create the book? Other publishers wish page creation was this easy yet robust. And doing creative things with cameras because photojournalism is the key element of any yearbook.
It's a chance to use different mobile apps or websites for notetaking, planning, editing, researching. And apps or sites that students will probably use many times in the future makes this a chance to gain good experience.
Preparing for life after high school. That's the whole goal of school, right? Educating young people to be ready for college, trade or tech school, the military or just the working world.
All the skills that are part of a good yearbook effort are ones that also prepare kids for forever. Do they even know that? Do YOU realize that?
We're a little biased of course but we will always say that yearbook, whether class or club, is the most valuable activity in any school. Students can learn more there, pick up more skills, than any other school group.
Ask your Jostens representative for the listing of 40 (yes FORTY) different skills that yearbook students can learn as part of your staff. We have it in poster or flyer form. Worth putting up in your class or club room.
Making classmates into celebrities. Yes, really. Everyone wants to be remembered and it's your staff that does the remembering. The images they place on pages and spreads will be there forever. Long after the sports scores and the Homecoming Queen have been forgotten, people's pictures in the yearbook will be remembered.
And they get business experience. This is the great forgotten aspect of yearbooking. Creating the book, selling copies, selling ads, maybe doing a fundraiser, balancing a budget. It's all part of the effort.
How many students really don't get much experience with money, sales and promotion in school? We say most. By involving kids with the business side of yearbook, they learn financial basics that they will absolutely use in the future, at work and/or at school or just at home.
So what we call yearbooking, all the aspects of the work, is way WAY more than just a book. It's a good life building experience that students will learn from and draw from for the rest of their lives.
Constantly remind your charges of that. When yearbook gets a bit boring, which perhaps is inevitable, tell them again about the importance of what they're doing.
And perhaps the final element which often goes missing...
Always keep it fun. Work just becomes too routine sometimes, any type of work. When that happens we lose our desire to try hard, learn new things, strive to excel.
Every week of the school year, take a little time to have fun with the group. Games, videos, music, or our favorite - FOOD. It's a reward to be part of this group, and every team member deserves this regular reward.
THANK YOU for being a part of such a valuable endeavor. What we're doing - it's MORE THAN JUST A BOOK.
