For high school students, their yearbooks are the documents that will eventually bridge the gap between what they remember of their secondary education and what recollections will inevitably be lost to time.
They remind former students what they were wearing, who their best friends were and who they were as a person during a four-year time frame that is undoubtedly a period of much transition and development.
Barb Page and her yearbook students understand the book’s role as a window into the past, and have turned Aberdeen High School’s Quinault into a nationally recognized publication that focuses on more than just student pictures.
The Quinault has received Pacemaker and Columbia Scholastic Press Association Crown awards for the yearbook’s design, writing and photography, and is a finalist for both awards this year.
Page says the book’s success is based largely upon students taking matters into their own hands in a classroom environment that isn’t typical for high school students.
Yearbook students oversee the book’s production by themselves, with Page handing leadership roles to student editors and contributors, forcing them to be proactive rather than relying on someone else to do the work for them.
“I think it’s putting these kids in charge and letting them take ownership of their work,” said Page. “It’s not me, it’s them. I give them the guidance, but it’s them taking the bull by the horns and really making it work.”
Those who are interested in joining Yearbook have to apply for the class. New students will be writers unless they apply to be a photographer, which requires completion of two photography classes as a pre-requisite.
Page said she also recruits for new students, asking English teachers if they have someone who they would recommend for the course. Page said she looks for students who are hard workers and willing to work as a team.
Editors, who make sure students get their assignments in on time and shoulder a good majority of the workload, are selected separately by Page, who says she tries to recruit students “with strong leadership attributes.”
The editors act as quasi bosses in the yearbook room, communicating with students and making sure they meet deadlines. Editors attend yearbook development seminars at California State University, Long Beach, taught by some of the best instructors in the nation each August, where they develop the selected theme of the yearbook.
“I like the structure (of the class),” said Daniel Sipe, who works for the yearbook as a design editor. “Normal classes are kind of all the same. You’re not on your own. Here, you’re your own editor. You’re kind of the teacher.”
Putting the yearbook together is a year-long process, with students beginning to brainstorm ideas for the coming year’s book in April after final deadlines have been met for the current edition.
At this time, students start to put together physical Pinterest boards that showcase their ideas for the yearbook and propose a theme, which is decided on in June when students go through the boards and decide which one they think is the best.
Each year’s book is defined by its theme, and bases its photography, copy and design around a certain topic. Last year’s book, which is a finalist for the Crown and Pacemaker awards, was themed, “Little Big Town.”
Once a theme has been chosen and the editors have developed it at the seminar in Long Beach, work among students and Page begins. There are five deadlines each year that students have to meet throughout the year. The first two cover senior tribute pages and are finished with Page’s help, while the subsequent due dates, which deal with student life and sports stories, are taken on by the students.
Page estimates there are around 75 student life-centered stories in The Quinault each year. Yearbook editors are required to take an advanced journalism class along with Yearbook to hone their writing skills.
“I try to focus on having (The Quinault) being a journalistically sound book. It’s not just a picture book; it’s telling stories about people,” said Page.
Senior Copy Editor Christina Rosché said the pressure Yearbook puts on students to meet deadlines sets it apart from other high school classes.
“It makes it a more life-like environment. They (students) have to manage time more effectively and figure out what they have to do before the deadline, and the deadline is pretty final,” said Rosché.
Rosché said the student-run dynamic in the classroom requires Yearbook staff to step out of their comfort zone. “Freshman coming in here are so nervous to give an interview. Once they overcome that, it’s so much easier for them. It’s so much easier for me now than it was when I just started to just go up to someone and ask the effective questions.”
Sarah McCauley is editor-in-chief of the Quinault this year and acknowledges that the job can be difficult one, but says seeing a final product at the end of the year is well worth it.
“It’s one deadline after another. It’s a lot of stress, but it’s fun. It’s always really rewarding at the end of the year to open up the book you created and see all the stuff you’ve contributed to,” she said.
Students who contributed to last year’s book will travel to New York City in March in recognition of their Crown Award nomination.
No comments:
Post a Comment