On Tuesday July 20 at 11pm EDT/PT, MTV will premiere a new weekly series called “If You Really Knew Me” based on the Challenge Day program. Each episode will be shown on MTV multiple times during the week and streamed on MTV’s website.
“‘If You Really Knew Me’ is an incredibly authentic and compelling docu-series that takes us on a 24 hour journey through a high school’s social transformation. It shows us what happens when kids from various cliques decide to break down the walls that divide them and commit to change,” said Tony DiSanto, President of Programming from MTV. “It’s an intense and dramatic experience, but ultimately uplifting and universally relatable for all of us who have gone through high school or are about to.”
Each episode takes place at a different high school with its own set of issues and its own unique set of cliques. In the series premiere, viewers go inside a Northern California school divided by race and cliques, a symptom of a newly-diverse student body that has grown from 500 to 2,400 students in just 10 years. As the season progresses; the show profiles a variety of schools struggling with everything from cyberbullying to small town rumor mills.
Discussion Guides (sponsored by Herff Jones) can be downloaded from the Challenge Day website at: http://www.challengeday.org/mtv/.
What’s this got to do with yearbooks?
We all know that yearbook sales are directly related to school spirit. If your school is not participating in Challenge Day, maybe Yearbook could sponsor it! Visit the Challenge Day website for more info: http://www.challengeday.org/how-challenge-day-works.php
Teambuilding is key to an efficient yearbook staff. Try watching the episodes together as a group, and downloading the discussion guides. Download the discussion guides here: http://www.challengeday.org/mtv/
If your school is already participating, don’t forget to cover it in your yearbook! Make sure to interview the participants for their point-of-view!
Angela’s side note: I participated in a Challenge Day as a high school student (A LONG TIME AGO), and it was definitely worth it. Let’s just say a lot of tears and hugging were involved. I highly recommend it!
You know ESPN hosts both Summer and Winter games of Extreme Sports with events like skateboarding, BMX biking, street luge, snowboarding and snowmobiling. Well, what about the Yearbook X-games? Once the book is done, have an X-Game Celebration after school. Have staffers sign up ahead of time for events like these:
Big Wheel Slalom
Skateboard Paddling
3-legged Cross Country Skipping
Nerf Skeet (Frizbee) Shooting
It’s a great way to burn off all that built up stress, and it’s a great prelude to a nice Yearbook banquet where winners receive their medals along with the other staff awards. Or, be really X-treme, and ask ASB if you can host the Yearbook X-Games for the whole school over a couple of lunch periods and have students pay a dollar or two to participate. Instead of gold medals, give away golden tickets to your yearbook signing party!
*This entry is part of “The Yearbook Ladies’ A to Zs of Yearbook”
project. If you’d like to download the “X” card, go to the “Adviser
Resources” section of www.theyearbookladies.com
We’d love to hear from you! Share your questions, comments, and ideas below…
Pop Quiz! Can you name the 5 W’s? Do you know how to use them in copy and captions?
Who is it about? Include first and last names and grade.
What took place? For Captions, include what they were doing before, during and after the photo.
When did this take place? Don’t include the year–we already know that!
Where did it happen? Was it on campus/off campus? Although, you never have to say at “HJ High….” We know that, too!
hoW did the events come about?
Remember that you use some, but not all, in the opening sentence of your copy and captions. Then, cover the rest in the remaining copy or in other captions on the spread.
*This entry is part of “The Yearbook Ladies’ A to Zs of Yearbook”
project. If you’d like to download the “W” card, go to the “Adviser
Resources” section of www.theyearbookladies.com
We’d love to hear from you! Share your questions, comments, and ideas below…
Thank you, Mr. Moran of Woodrow High School in Dallas, TX, for posting this assignment on his blog, and then “tweet”ing about it, so we could find it! And now, we can share it with you! To view the original post, click here.
Creating a Spread in InDesign
1. Open Adobe InDesign
2. Choose “From Template”
3. Click on “Desktop”
4. Double-click the “Yearbook Folder“
5. Double-click “Desktop Templates”
6. Double-click “HJ Template Size 7 CS4.indt”
7. It will give you a “missing fonts” error. Click “OK.”
8. Click “View,” “Grids and Guides,” and “Show Document Grid.”
9. Create any one of the design samples below. (You may create one with a partner).
10. Save to your Thaw Space folder and Print before the end of class.
* Input sample pictures and fill text boxes (copy and caption) with placeholder text.
Between setting up your classroom, staff meetings, planning lessons for all the other classes you teach, and just general denial that summer is over, it may be hard to get back into yearbook mode again. If that sounds like you, or if you’re new to this whole yearbook thing, here are 15 ideas for the first week of school that will get the ball rolling:
Expectations - Review your class requirements, grading policies, any planned staff work nights/weekends and the importance of making deadlines.
Information - Complete a staff directory that includes phone numbers, other contact numbers (i.e. email, cell phones, work numbers), class schedules, birthdays, parent’s names, etc…
Theme - If it isn’t already decided or in the works, discuss theme and cover ideas
Critique - Go through last year’s book and have students list and discuss things they liked best and the things they would change
Deadlines - Finalize and post the ladder. Color code it by deadline and list specific spread assignments, which pages will be sent with each deadline, etc. Indicate which pages are going to be printed in color and/or spot color.
Sell - Discuss and plan your book sales campaign. Have students brainstorm ideas to increase book sales.
Ads - Discuss and plan your community, parent, and friendship ad campaigns. Decide whether every student must sell a certain number of ads, if they get bonuses/commissions, how to organize, etc…
Team Building - Start each day with 10 or 15 minutes of icebreakers/team building activities. This will help students get acquainted and get over any fears, shyness, etc. and begin to become a cohesive team.
Ideas - Have each staff member bring in 5 ideas from magazines that could be used in the yearbook. Or, have each student bring several magazines and have a “look for ideas” class.
Practice - Have students refresh and reinforce their design skills by drawing layouts and pasting up photos and type from magazines.
Photograph - Buy disposable cameras, have students shoot photos around campus and “discover” who your best photographers are.
Improve - Have students rewrite 5 captions and headlines from last year’s book. They should try to make them more informative and adhere to the caption writing formula.
Brainstorm - Have students come up with and discuss ideas for feature stories, profiles, polls, and side-bars
Delegate - Ask what special contributions/talents each staffer plans to give to the yearbook. From this conversation, decide each staffer’s strengths and what each student’s responsibilities will be.
Bond - Try to plan one outside of class activity. You could go for pizza, go bowling, go roller-skating — anything that will allow staffers to get to know each other and just have fun.
So, it’s May, your books done, and all you’ve got left is distribution. What are you going to do with all this time? Well, there are 3 ways you can take advantage of the yearbook “down time”:
Bring in some movies for the kids, call this your extra prep, and catch up on all the stuff you didn’t do all year because you were busy with yearbook
Have the kids put all the skills they’ve learned this year into other areas: creating a magazine, website, etc…
Start next year’s book now, and be ahead of the game in the Fall!
If Option #3 sounds appealing to you, here are 11 specific things you can do to make sure your staff is ready to roll on the first day of school:
Recruit your staff now - Ask your Herff Jones rep for a “Staff Recruiting Packet” if you haven’t done so already. It’s filled with posters, application packets, and everything else you need to recruit a quality staff. If your school won’t let you recruit, ask if you can simply recruit your editors.
Decide your theme and cover - The underclassmen on your staff have been waiting all year to have a real say in the book. It’s time to let them strut their stuff. Start brainstorming theme and cover ideas. Write down ones that have potential. Have the staff start collecting magazine lay-outs, brochures, etc… with design inspirations. This is also a good way for you to start choosing your editors for next year.
Write down what went well and what didn’t - Do this on your own, with your editors, or with the whole class. Don’t count on remembering everything. Make sure you write it down. (Although you’re calm and relaxed now, remember how rushed you are in the beginning of the year.)
Re-do any forms that didn’t work well this year - Sales letters, camera sign up sheets, etc… If there are any forms you use that need improving, now’s the time to do it. Remember to save the new version with a date or version number, in case you run across the old file again.
Register for yearbook camp - Most camps have registration deadlines or early bird discounts. Make sure you have all the information you need to register your staff for camp.
Train your staff - Now is a great time to work on photography, design, and copywriting skills for your staff that will be returning next year. Bring in some professionals in the community, if you can. Or use this time to beef up your technology skills. Learn some InDesign or Photoshop tricks that you might want to use in next year’s book.
Review this year’s budget and make plans for next year - Make sure you know what your final invoice is going to be, or at least a good estimate. Make sure you’ll have enough to cover it. If not, what adjustments do you need to make for next year. If you’ve got money left over, think about how you might want to spend it!
Plan your book marketing and sales for next year - Start planning next year’s sales now! Plan a Yearbook Sales Kick-Off event toward the beginning of the year. Come up with a sales slogan. Create video advertisements for morning annoucements. Get all the details taken care of now so that information can be ready to send home as soon as school begins! (TIP: If you sell enough books at the beginning of the year, you might be eligible for an early payment discount with your printer. You can also better estimate how many books you’ll need, so you don’t end up buying more than you can sell!)
Sell Senior and Business Ads over the summer - Just because they go in the back of the book doesn’t mean you have to do them last! In fact, if you sell your ads over the summer, your staff can already begin working on pages as soon as school starts (without having to wait for events to happen). This means you will have your first set of pages ready for that first deadline! And if you’re a Herff Jones customer and you send in pages early, you can get credit for future late days! (ask your rep for more details)
Open next year’s kit and toss out this year’s out - Your publisher kits should be arriving about now. Go through all the new stuff, and toss the old stuff out. There is no reason to keep old kit materials lying around! Take time to learn what’s new for next year, so you don’t get caught by surprise the day before a deadline, or miss out on an exciting new feature!
Clean out your photographs and file cabinets - Start next school year on a clean slate, archive all your photographs and then delete them off your harddrives. You don’t want them getting mixed up with next year’s photos! Also, have editors clean out section/editor cubbies, mailboxes, etc…
If you have any end-if-the-year tips, we’d love to hear them! You can add your comments below…
What a great idea! First of all, if you’re not using the power of YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Texting, etc… to promote your book, you’re missing out on a lot of FREE publicity. Check out the video North Forsyth High School created using Adobe After Effects:
Wondering what to do with the kids after the final deadline? Have them create video commercials for next year’s book!
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