The Yearbook World of Scott Geesey
from Jostens Yearbooks of central/northern Pennsylvania
ARCHIVE - April 2, 2022
YES, Your Yearbook Effort Could Be The Solution Your School Needs
Hello! Happy Easter break wishes to you. These last two years have changed a lot of things but apparently snow days are now extinct. That means longer Easter breaks for seemingly every school. At least one school in the neighborhood has a week long break, almost unheard of when REAL snow days were still around.
Advisers, the best summer event for yearbook advisers is BACK in person this July 13-16 in sunny Orlando. It's Jostens Adviser University - for ANY adviser no matter who you work with, THIS is the event with top experts and award winning advisers teaching and leading for folks from rookies to veterans.
Virtual is cool but in-person is still the best. Get more information at www.jostens.com/jau and signup now to save some $$ later. Don't miss this! #epic
Education and schools are in crisis. Students are in crisis. Your Yearbook can help...
FREE PLUG ALERT: I hope you take the time to check out the April episodes of The Yearbooking Report in the right column here.Click on the latest episode, then look for the April episodes.
The video is only 10 minutes long but watch especially for the feature interview. The podcast is nearly an hour but it's good listening from end to end.
At the end of March the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) released a report that perhaps told us what we already knew: these last two plus years have done some definite damage to teens and schools.
Do a web search for the story and you'll find many versions. Here's the story from the Washington Post.
I was floored when I saw that percentage - over 40% of teens are struggling with mental health concerns. And things like that don't just melt away, they linger.
Education "experts" are studying this as you read this post. I'll guess that in the coming months they'll come out with multiple programs filled with several steps each that will be pedigogical or inclusive or other education buzzwords.
How about a much easier solution where you and your yearbook staff can help their classmates?
So many teens experienced extended periods of disconnection or loneliness in the past two years. Being back in-person at school has helped but too many students went unrecognized for far too long. In many cases they still are.
Your yearbook effort can change that. It's simply - tell the stories.
Everyone in every school (teachers included) have some story to tell. And down deep they really want their stories told, to be recognized.
This is where your yearbooking effort comes in, on your book pages but also in other ways. Social media, school video boards, broadcasting, posters - or all of the above.
I hope you take the time to watch and/or listen to the TYR episodes. My friend Sara Sausker, a former teacher who is now one of our Jostens Yearbook and Renaissance leaders, goes over the situation and offers some solutions.
During our interview Sara echoed our friend Dr. Phil Campbell of Renaissance who has a regular line that is so true: students in school just want to be seen, heard and loved.
Mental health challenges take that away. But making sure kids at school are seen, heard and loved is an ultimate key to getting our schools back where they need to be - or actually even better.
For yearbooks that means - tell the stories. And you can tell someone's story with just a picture and a caption, shared in many different ways.
As we look ahead to next year - and still with weeks to go THIS school year, your staff can start the school turnaround. Check out the episodes to see what we mean.