Summertime
And the livin’ is
YEARBOOK!

I am in my fourth decade of advising yearbook. That is not to say that I have completed every year in every decade, but, well, it has been a long run.

Summer is that blessed time when we do not have classes or yearbook deadlines. However, yearbook is still alive and well in the summertime.

You want it to be.

Since you cover the history of your school’s year, summer has to be part of it. Who doesn’t love summer? And a good way for advisers to keep staffers connected is to assign a summer ideas file. To stay on their game, staffers need to find good examples of layout/design, use of color, first person alt copies, headlines, and “got my attentions.” When August rolls around and classes begin, this is the perfect entrée into brainstorming and sharing ideas for the upcoming yearbook. Ideally, many have been to yearbook camp and garnered some fresh ideas, and what I did last year was to write down the best idea and the best story idea from each presentation and put it on a piece of paper and taped it to the yearbook door. It helps us all to remember. We also get to talk about how to make a presentation because, after all, the printed yearbook is the ultimate presentation. We get to talk about details and coverage and ethics and style because until second semester, students are learning these things as they go, especially first-year staffers.

Students will complain that you have “ruined them,” because they can never look at a magazine again without looking for its eyeline, correct captioning, verbal/visual connection, and dominant element. It is the best thing that you can do. Here is the “recipe” for a perfect summer:

Summer Ideas File

Over the summer, look through magazines or any other type of publication and find these ideas that could be applied in the 2014-2015 yearbook. These are all due back the first week of school.

10 Design Elements (ex: drop shadow, white borders, cool paint splatter, etc.)
10 Clever Headlines
5 Full Spread Layouts
5 Graphs or charts
3 People Profiles
1 Interview
1 Question and Answer
Enjoy summering!

Mary Inglis, adviser
Wellington Community High School
Mary.inglis *(at)* palmbeachschools.org

Mary Inglis advises Precedent at Wellington High School where life is always an adventure. She is a native of Palm Beach County where she lives with her husband John and three cats.