Yearbook curriculum
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National School Yearbook Week 2025: ideas to celebrate
With Proclamation 5703, former President Ronald Reagan made yearbooks even more celebration-worthy by setting apart the first week of October for “appropriate ceremonies and activities” to recognize the creators and the power of a yearbook program. Treering intends to do just that during National School Yearbook Week, October 6-10, 2025.
Yearbook Confidential: your briefing
Yearbook creators will have declassified access to live training, photo contests, and giveaways. (If you’re super in love with the vibe, check out the Top Secret theme that just dropped for your yearbook.)
Yearbook contests
There are six ways to win: one week-long yearbook Bingo game and five daily Facebook giveaways.
Monday, October 6
Bingo begins. Download your unique bingo card and play along. We’ll “call” words via Meta stories (see them on Facebook and Instagram). The first verified Bingo winner will receive a Canon EOS Rebel T7 DSLR camera with an 18-55mm lens. Get the full Bingo rules here.
Additionally, yearbook creators can share their favorite fall photo to our “Operation Autumn Aesthetic” Facebook photo contest. The strongest storytelling photo will win a $50 gift card.
Tuesday, October 7
Share your insider ideas for photo organization on our daily Facebook giveaway post. HQ (aka Treering’s marketing department) will reward one adviser at random with a $50 gift card.
Meta stories for our week-long Bingo game will continue.
Wednesday, October 8
Another $50 gift card is up for grabs. We want to see your yearbook squad. The most creative team photo wins the daily Facebook post challenge.
If a verified Bingo winner has not come forward, we will increase the calls.
Thursday, October 9
Share your yearbook space, class, or desk on our daily Facebook post for the chance to win. The type-A, TikTok-inspired, and completely unhinged–we want to see them all.
Friday, October 10
Close National School Yearbook Week 2025 with your best sales tips or ideas for a chance to score a $50 gift card on our Facebook post.
Live training
Treering Live (TRL) is Treering’s flagship event. During National School Yearbook Week, TRL will have all the design training, coveted prizes, and organization inspiration that yearbook advisers have come to expect.
What to expect at Treering Live: not-so-top-secret training
With your free registration, Treering Live: Yearbook Confidential features 19 sessions over two days. The programming spans from adviser basics to an interactive photography session. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to join HQ for intel, ideas, and a little undercover fun.
The schedule, like Treering, is fully customizable.
Tuesday Sessions
1:00 pm PT: Opening session
1:10 pm PT: Session 1 - choose one session to attend
- Top 10 questions new advisers ask
- Yearbook design trends
- Teaching yearbook: curriculum overview
1:50 pm PT: Session 2 - choose one breakout session to attend
- Live demo: portraits
- Adviser roundtable
2:30 pm PT: Session 3 - choose one breakout session to attend
- Photo tips
- Live demo: yearbook style guides
- Getting more students in the book
3:10 pm PT: Session 4 - choose one breakout session to attend
- Anatomy of a yearbook
- Teaching yearbook: theme
3:45 pm PT: Closing session
Wednesday Sessions
1:00 pm PT: Opening session
1:10 pm PT: Session 1 - choose one breakout session to attend
- Building your team: yearbook jobs and recruitment
- Treering design tools
- Photo journalism (interactive session)
1:50 pm PT: Session 2 - choose one breakout session to attend
- Yearbook mistakes to avoid
- Live demo: upgrading portrait pages
2:30 pm PT: Session 3 - choose one breakout session to attend
- Top 10 questions parents ask
- Live demo: from good to great
3:10 pm PT: Session 4 - choose one breakout session to attend
- Live demo: page templates
- Teaching yearbook: writing
3:45 pm PT: Closing session
All sessions will be available on the Yearbook Club Replay, so you can re-watch those a-ha moments and catch any sessions you missed through May 2026.
Mission parameters: Bingo rules and FAQs
The National School Yearbook Week 2025 Bingo winner must be 18 or older and a Primary Chief Editor or Chief Editor at a US Treering school for the 2025-2026 school year. No purchase is necessary to participate.
By participating, you approve Treering to use your name, write-up, and school name for any marketing purposes, including but not limited to treering.com, social media, and mass media.
1. How do I get my Bingo card?
On Monday, October 6, each player will receive an email to download a card. Each one is a unique card with a number. Save your card—you’ll need it to claim a win.
2. How will clues be called?
A third-party Bingo randomizer will randomly select words, which will be announced via Meta stories (Facebook and Instagram) and in the Zoom Events lobby during Treering Live.
3. How do I mark my card?
Print your card or track digitally. Mark off words as they are called.
4. What counts as a Bingo?
We are playing classic Bingo: a straight line of five words (horizontal, vertical, or diagonal).
5. How do I claim a win?
Email marketing@treering.com immediately with your name, Treering school, and card number. The first valid email received is the winner.
6. What happens after I email my win?
We’ll verify your card against our called words. The first valid email received is the winner.
7. Can more than one person win?
No, only the first verified winner counts.
8. What if I lose my card?
No problem, just download your card again. You may have missed some words; jump on our socials to get caught up.
9. How many rounds will we play?
There will be one round of Bingo from October 6-10, 2025.
10. What are the prizes?
The winner will receive a Canon EOS Rebel T7 DSLR camera with an 18-55mm lens. Treering will ship the camera directly to the school address associated with the winner’s Treering account.
11. Do I have to shout, “Bingo?”
We aren’t going to stand in your way if you want to do the Bingo Boogie. Just remember to be the first to send an email marketing@treering.com with your name, Treering school, and card number to claim the prize.
12. Can I play if I join late?
Yes! All of the words announced via Meta stories will remain for 24 hours. You’ll just start marking from the current clue onward.
13. I’m a content creator. How can I share what I’m doing for National School Yearbook Week on social media?
Tag Treering Yearbooks (@treering on Facebook, @treeringcorp on Instagram and TikTok) and use the hashtags #NationalSchoolYearbookWeek, #NationalYearbookWeek, #YearbookWeek, #YearbookBingo
Social Contest Rules
The National School Yearbook Week 2025 photo contest winners must be 18 or older and a member of a Treering school for the 2025-2026 school year. No purchase is necessary to participate.
Valid posts must include an original photo. No AI images allowed. By participating, you have verified the approval of others pictured, and you approve Treering to use your name, write-up, and school name for any marketing purposes, including but not limited to showcasing on www.treering.com, sharing on social media, and sharing with media.
The photo criteria will be based on its creativity, relevant emotional impact (humor is more than acceptable), and overall aesthetic appeal.
If you have any questions, contact us at marketing@treering.com.
Nearly 30 years later, National School Yearbook Week remains a time to reminisce and a time to look forward, hopefully with a few wins for you and your yearbook program.
Teaching yearbook: 11 resources to bookmark
We created a master list for practical, tested strategies that work in a real yearbook classroom. If you didn’t volunteer to take on yearbook class (we are few, but mighty), you either showed up late to the meeting, or you’re a new teacher. Then what? Traditional teacher prep programs trained us for classroom management and subject-specific pedagogy. Teaching yearbook is a hybrid of design, photography, marketing, and event planning. It’s a prep that requires skills from multiple careers, and most of us learn them as we go, under deadline pressure, and with a room full of students watching. Major aura points loading.
Professional development resources
A stronger you means a stronger program. Here are some resources to help you take a recess from yearbook stress.
Webinars
Tuesday “Lunch and Learn” sessions are twenty minutes of focus to equip you and your team throughout the year. Just pick your time zone, log in, and leave with something you can use today.
Thursday sessions are one-hour overviews to help you plan, design, and publish with purpose. These synchronous training series start with the same line, “Hi, we’re Cassie and Erika, and we are here to join your yearbook team.”
They mean it.
Dealing with complaints
Two customer care experts, Treering’s Abby Oxendine and Chris Frost, a former Disney guest services agent, shared their proactive approach to working with teachers, parents, and students with yearbook complaints.
- Listen to the complaint
- Ask for specific details
- Offer a solution
- Follow up, follow up, follow up
Adviser burnout
We’d rather you have this one and not need it.
Some preventative burnout measures include workflow adjustments, such as
- Reusing layouts from previous years as templates
- Creating repeatable workflows, such as setting up photo and text styles
- Taking advantage of built-in design automations, such as portrait autoflow
If you’re already there and need a yearbook mindshift, build gratitude and celebration into your program… then call your publisher!
Planning resources for yearbook
Start the year with a clear plan so you run the yearbook, not the other way around.
Job descriptions
Clear expectations help guide student and volunteer yearbook teams. When the proverbial ball gets dropped, it’s easy to point the finger; being proactive with your yearbook team early in the school year will improve your workflow. It will develop ownership. It will reveal leaders.
Staff manual template
Another way to develop proactive communication is through a staff manual. A yearbook staff manual outlines policies and procedures for class time and crisis time. It includes how you will handle:
- Confidentiality
- Photos
- Superlatives and senior quotes
- Journalistic integrity
- Grading
- Style guide
- Content approval
- Equipment
- Complaints and refunds
Agenda slides for yearbook class
Agenda slides provide accountability for your yearbook team. They can be project-based or have a time-management focus. Either way, you should include these five things on your agenda slide:
- Date and class information
- Learning objectives or goals for the day's lesson
- Class agenda
- Deliverables
- Announcements and reminders
Grading checklists
Use checklists to help students prep for submission and grading.
Younger students and emerging designers use checklists to have a structured framework, to help them remember the essential elements of a spread. Returning yearbook students use checklists as a tool for quality control and peer review.
The checklist becomes an educational resource in itself. As students engage with it, they absorb design principles and develop a keen eye for what works in terms of design and theme development.
Instructional resources to build out your curriculum
Give students the tools, skills, and confidence to create their best work without you having to reinvent the wheel.
Free yearbook curriculum
When you have classroom teachers create the curriculum and classroom teachers vet the curriculum, it’s A+ material. The eight modules each include five days of instruction:
- Daily learning target
- Bell ringer
- Interactive lesson with guided student practice
- Exit ticket
Clubs with limited instructional time can scale using the first day’s lesson from each module. These standalone lessons are designed to give yearbook club sponsors the foundation for teambuilding, theme, design, writing, photography, marketing, and proofing.
5 Photo mini lessons
Mini means focused. (No pun intended.) Each of the five lessons works on one area of photojournalism to help students capture action and reaction. These lessons include ideas to strengthen students’ understanding of
- Rule of thirds
- Photo angles
- Cell phone photography
- Depth of field
The final lesson is a cumulative assessment in the form of photography bingo.
Bell ringers
Start each meeting or class period with the yearbook top of mind by using one of the 60 curated bell ringers. Focusing on design, photography, theme, and yearbook critiques, these five-minute warm-ups provide a launch point for instruction, work sessions, or discussion.
Proofing tools
Last on the list, but not last priority, proofing your yearbook should be accomplished weekly and monthly plus a cumulative review. Treering's proofing tools include 99 PDF proofs plus a complete copy of your printed book (workd in progress welcome).
When including proofing in your teaching routine, yearbook advisers may want to involve campus personnel outside of the yearbook team: the school secretary, PTO/PTA leaders, and maybe an English teacher.
While teaching yearbook may not have come with a roadmap, you don’t have to figure it out alone. Using professional development resources, planning tools, and instructional, you can create a structure that makes the work manageable and meaningful for you and your students. Choose one of the above to put into practice this week, and use it as the starting point for building a program that grows stronger each school year.
A yearbook curriculum you'll love teaching
New for the 2025-2026 school year, Treering’s free yearbook curriculum has expanded. From a new adviser handbook to 40 standalone lessons, you can take a recess from yearbook planning stress and put effort into yearbook production.
What’s new?
Teachers updated Treering’s previous curriculum. Another group of teachers tested it. We can confidently say it is teacher-authored and teacher-approved.
Each of the eight student-facing modules has a pacing guide and instructional slides. The pacing guides give you an overview of each module’s five grab-and-go lessons, including teaching resources, should you choose to expand instructional time. If it’s your first time teaching yearbook, the pacing guide also breaks down terminology used and shows connections between lessons.
Each lesson also includes Google Slides with
- Learning target
- Bell ringer
- Interactive lesson with guided student practice
- Exit ticket
You do enough. However, Treering knows no two schools/classes/clubs are alike, so we made our free curriculum 100% editable.
Curriculum FAQs
What’s free?
Everything. Charging extra for resources and support isn’t our thing.
How can I use the curriculum if I only have a club?
The first lesson in each module is a standalone one designed to give you the foundation for teambuilding, theme, design, writing, photography, marketing, and proofing. We recommend club groups do these eight lessons throughout the year.
Is Treering’s curriculum only for new yearbook students?
No, it is for yearbook creators of all backgrounds.
If you have mixed abilities in your class, we suggest:
- Using leaders to teach the first lesson in each module
- Flipping instruction: ask students to go through the slides on their own and be prepared to do the practice session in class
- Use mentor pairs for hands-on activities
Do I have to use Treering to use your yearbook curriculum?
Some theme, design, marketing, and editing lessons involve Treering tools.
Get Treering’s free yearbook curriculum
Module 0: Adviser Handbook
This handbook also contains all your yearbook prep templates: a student application, syllabus, grading rubrics, and staff manuals. It’s formatted vertically for printing.
Access the Adviser Handbook
Module 1: Yearbook 101
Building a yearbook culture on campus starts with your club or class. Each lesson in Module 1 focuses on team building, establishing clear expectations, and how students can use their individual strengths to build a unified product. This module builds a foundation for the following seven.
Module 1 learning targets:
- Understand the yearbook advisor’s expectations and the class structure
- Locate key information in the syllabus related to grading, expectations, deadlines, and responsibilities.
- Reflect on their personal strengths and interests related to team roles
- Identify and define core yearbook design terms by analyzing real spreads.
- Write specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals for the school year.
Access the Module 1 slides / Module 1 pacing guide
Module 2: Kicking off the Year(book)
Because yearbooks are part history book and part narrative, Module 2 helps students understand how and why the book they will create will stand the test of time. They will spend time creating a structure for their book and sharing their own stories through an “About Me” yearbook spread.
Module 2 learning targets
- Explain how yearbooks act as historical documents and cultural artifacts.
- Collaborate with peers to build a cohesive and well-organized ladder.
- Understand where and how to store content throughout the school year.
- Use yearbook vocabulary in context while giving and receiving peer feedback.
- Determine the central theme or message being communicated through advertisements.
Access the Module 2 slides / Module 2 pacing guide
Module 3: Theme
Theme is more than just a visual concept, and Module 3 will help you and your yearbook team create one that looks, sounds, and feels like the story of their year.
Module 3 learning targets
- Understand the purpose and components of a yearbook theme.
- Collaboratively brainstorm relevant and original theme ideas.
- Connect theme ideas to the student body and school year.
- Explore the tone, personality, and voice of themes in a creative way.
- Create a plan to apply the theme across content areas.
Access the Module 3 slides / Module 3 pacing guide
Module 4: Design
Building upon the theme developed in Module 3, Module 4 is all about bringing that theme to life and learning how to design yearbook pages that guide the reader on a visual journey. Intentional design is the core of this module.
Module 4 learning targets
- Identify the building blocks of design.
- Use Treering’s design tools to create a yearbook spread.
- Create a color palette to express the yearbook theme’s tone and personality.
- Explain the impact of font family, size, weight, and contrast in yearbook design.
- Create text styles to support the visual theme.
- Identify and apply principles of design hierarchy by organizing visual elements (text, images, and white space) on a yearbook spread to guide the reader’s attention effectively and create visual flow.
Access the Module 4 slides / Module 4 pacing guide
Coming September 2025
Trust us when we quote a cliché: good things come to those who wait.
Module 5: Writing
Learning targets:
- Identify the different forms of captions: ident, summary, and expanded.
- Examine photographs to identify key information to craft summary and expanded captions.
- Define the five common topics.
- Structure an interview.
- Synthesize and interview by writing body copy and captions.
Module 6: Photography
Learning targets:
- Identify the composition elements of a photo and evaluate.
- Photograph a subject using six angles.
- Compose an image using natural and artificial light sources.
- Recall the three parts of the exposure triangle and how they work together.
- Use Treering tools to present a photograph to its advantage in a layout.
Module 7: Marketing
Learning targets:
- Identify the components of a marketing campaign.
- Identify, classify, and rank yearbook value props.
- Differentiate marketing messaging based on audience.
- Initiate community participation in yearbook creation.
- Plan milestone celebrations for reaching yearbook creation goals.
Module 8: Proofing
Learning targets:
- Discuss and develop a consistent framework for all copy elements and community-submitted content.
- Review editing guidelines to help catch errors and maintain consistency by reviewing content early and often.
- Identify tools and methods to carefully proof both visual and written elements for accuracy and clarity.
- Use checklists and tools to ensure every page aligns with your yearbook’s design standards.
- Learn to use Treering’s editing tools to establish and maintain clean lines and a polished, professional look.
Virtual PD: Camp Yearbook 2025
We always say we will get started on yearbook planning over the summer. Raise your hand if you follow through. (My hand is down too.) Camp Yearbook, Treering's two-day virtual yearbook planning course, is back. It's part large-group training, part small-group mentoring and idea sharing. And it's 100% live.
The goal: have the first six weeks of yearbooking planned.
What to Expect
Treering's Camp Yearbook is a cameras-on, all-in yearbook planning experience.
Event Structure
Both days are three hours of large-group training and smaller breakouts designed for you to get all your questions answered.
We'll provide the goal-setting worksheets, ladders, idea decks, and resources because we want you to finish Camp Yearbook with your first six weeks of yearbooking planned.
Based on your feedback, Camp Yearbook’s sessions are even more specialized:
- Getting Rooted: designed for yearbook creators with fewer than three years with Treering, this session is focused on time-saving tips, design basics, what to do in class, and all the must-know info to create and market your yearbook.
- Branching Out: for experienced advisers looking to level up their yearbook design or classroom pedagogy, this session is all about intermediate and advanced features such as creating styles, adding content to portrait pages, yearbook staff structure, and problem-solving.
Register via the Yearbook Club webinars page.
Treering Mentors
All attendees will be in a small group led by a Treering staff member who served—or currently serves—as a yearbook adviser. In groups specific to school style and yearbook team structure, you can ask questions about grading, crowdsourcing, club structure, page count, and whatever else you need answered. (Your camp counselors aren't Treering life coaches, but close.)
Grow Together
Breakout groups for parent volunteers, solo yearbook coordinators, educators, and club leaders mean you get meaningful support and specific-to-you resources.
Camp Yearbook 2025 FAQs
Your questions deserve answers!
How is Camp Yearbook different from Treering Live (TRL)?
TRL is Treering’s flagship event. During National Yearbook Week, TRL will have all the design training, coveted prizes, and organization inspiration yearbook advisers have come to expect. We look forward to it as much as you do!
Camp Yearbook is a summer PD program for yearbook coordinators and advisers who want to get more from their program through professional mentoring and collaborative idea-sharing. It’s a cameras-on, all-in yearbook planning experience.
How do I know which session to attend?
Camp Yearbook is structured differently this year: based on your feedback, we have the yearbook overview to support newer advisers and a second session to challenge the veterans.
BOTH have sneak peeks, specialized group training, and breakouts with Treering mentors.
What do I need to prepare for Camp Yearbook?
Make sure Zoom is up-to-date. This helps with breakout sessions and sound quality.
If possible, have previous copies of your yearbook and the 25-26 school calendar.
How much is it?
Free ninety free. Charging extra for support and training is not our thing.
Will I get CE/PD hours for attending?
Yes! Upon request, attendees will receive a certificate for six hours of yearbook production and classroom planning.
Can students attend?
Nope. Consider this a break… a working break.
Will Camp Yearbook be recorded?
Camp Yearbook is an interactive, experiential event. Recordings will not be made public.
The 5 game-changing blog posts you’ve (somehow) been missing
You might be missing these favorite yearbook ideas. If any part of your yearbook process feels stuck, scattered, or stale, one of these posts is probably the solution you didn’t know you needed. Read them. Share them. Build them into your curriculum or club routine and watch your yearbook program transform.
1. Easy +1: A Guide To Leveling Up Your Yearbook
This comprehensive guide outlines five key ways to elevate your yearbook beyond collage pages. It provides practical steps to add something new to next year’s book: a focus on storytelling, expanded coverage, better photography, or modular design.
Use the five focus areas to create
- Rotating workshop stations early in the year to build foundational skills.
- A self-assessment rubric for your team.
- A “Level Up” day where each leader identifies one area to improve in their section.
Treering Yearbook Ideas
2. How to Choose a Yearbook Theme
This piece walks you through the theme process without relying on chaotic verbal brainstorms. (Some yearbook creators even find its anti-brainstorming angle a little divisive. And we liked it.) It provides teaching support to non-designers and new advisers with practical, flexible guidance.
It includes prompts, real-world examples, and tips for involving students at all grade levels.
3. 10 People To Thank
Yearbook creation doesn’t happen in a vacuum. This gratitude-focused post highlights the unsung yearbook heroes, including the front office staff, IT teams, principals, coaches, and more. Yearbooks are a high-stress, deadline-driven project; injecting gratitude is a reminder that the yearbook extends beyond your class or club.
Make gratitude part of your yearbook culture:
- Include a recurring “Who Helped You This Week?” check-in during staff meetings.
- In the yearbook, you can include a “Behind the Book” thank-you spread.
4. Adviser Advice: Keep, Change, Stop
One of the few tools that seamlessly transferred from student teaching to the newsroom is “Keep, Change, Stop,” a structured reflection tool. It helps teams evaluate the yearbook process with three simple prompts: what to keep, what to change, and what to stop doing. (Clever name, eh?)
It’s an adaptable debrief for editors, staff, and advisers alike.
In this blog post, four yearbook advisers share their POV. Based on their real-life examples, we have a framework to drop what’s not working and preserve beneficial habits each school year.
Doing this exercise with middle and high school yearbook creators encourages student voice and leadership in shaping the next year’s book. “Keep, Change, Stop” promotes a healthy, intentional yearbook culture.
5. Yearbook Debriefing: A Summer Reflection
This five-minute read outlines a strategic, low-stress way to reflect on the yearbook process over the summer. It offers questions and prompts to help advisers and returning staff capture what worked and what needs to shift before the next yearbook creation cycle begins.
This post helps you process what happened while it’s still fresh, and with a little distance.
To use it now, assign editors a summer reflection form based on the post’s questions and use their input to build your back-to-school agenda.
We all want our yearbooks to stand out, and sometimes the best yearbook ideas (wink, wink) are hiding in plain sight. We hope these five blog posts deliver the clarity, creativity, and strategy you and your staff need.
Teaching yearbook: design inspiration from anywhere
Treering’s click, drag, drop, and done tools aren’t for every design team. In an age of visual search, Pinterest, and AI, we advisers are refining strategies for guiding students in visual theme development. For those who take a more hands-on approach, there are generally two blockers:
Where Do I Find Fresh Design Inspiration?
Look at the graphic design on visual media as a springboard for ideas, not as a rigid template to follow. These real-world examples can provide valuable insights into current trends, color palettes, typography, and overall composition.
Here’s how you do it with your yearbook class or club:
Two Real-World Examples and Applications
Look at the Mendocino Farms' website: its layout, color scheme, and font choices. In the video below, yearbook creator Liz Thompson shows how to recreate similar elements within the yearbook page in fewer than four minutes.
Through practical demonstration, Thompson translates real-world inspiration into tangible yearbook designs.
Our second example features a magazine layout. White space, typography, and image placement could easily be adapted for a yearbook page.
Notice how Thompson uses the design's overall flow and visual hierarchy to draw the viewer's eye to specific areas of the page.
Treering-Specific Tricks
Bringing outside inspiration into your yearbook doesn’t have to be a manual process. Treering engineers incorporated tools to simplify the DIY design process. Our top three include:
Using the Color Picker Eyedropper
Extract colors from an image and apply them to the yearbook design. This technique allows for a more cohesive and visually appealing color palette.
Create and Apply Text Styles
Adjust font sizes, line spacing, and text alignment, then save it as a headline, subheadline, accent—wherever you want to name it—a style you can apply with a click.
Add Editable Shapes
Incorporating various graphic elements—lines, boxes, and illustrations—can serve as an accent for emphasis or visual separation if you’re using modular design.
How to Use This at Your Next Yearbook Class or Club Meeting
As a group, watch the two instructional videos above. Follow Thompson's instructions to create a similar look.
Then, have students bring in an object with a design they enjoy. Discuss which principles of design are used. Pick one element you can re-create and add it to a yearbook spread. This can be a group or individual activity. The goal is to embrace a spirit of inspiration and collaboration as you breathe new life into your yearbook design.
This blog is adapted from Liz Thompson’s Design 201 session from TRL 24 POV: I’m on the Yearbook Team. Thompson, a former classroom teacher and yearbook adviser, serves on the Customer Success Team at Treering Yearbooks.
How to build a yearbook staff manual
If I could return to year one of advising, I’d draft a staff manual. Yearbooking (yes, it’s a verb) would have been much simpler. I’m not talking about contract negotiation so much as how to deal with sports editors who cannot get a ride to a game or reporters who only interview their friends. Or the “finished” spread with “Lorem ispum dolor” still filling the caption boxes. Or how to tell a senior parent you cannot legally publish a screenshot from a mall photographer’s online proof system. Phew.
Tenets of Your Program
A tenet is a doctrine you hold to be true. The first section of your staff manual should define your non-negotiables. These could be class culture and coverage goals. They could also include specific ways your yearbook program aligns with your school’s mission. Or, you could take a different approach and schedule workdays to create your book in chunks.
It’s your call. You determine what is valuable to your community. Here's what's in mine.
Coverage is a non-negotiable because our school claims to be a “People-first” learning community. If a student is excluded from the historical record of our campus, the yearbook team undermines the mission. That said, we’ve never had 3x coverage for 100% of the 423-person student body; on average, it’s 94-96%. And because Treering’s three-week turnaround allows us to add the students who transferred in through mid-April, hardly anyone is ever a zero.
Considerations for Elementary Schools
Middle and high schools use yearbook policies to govern student roles, responsibilities, procedures, and behavior; adult teams might need to establish guidelines for
If your group is parent-led, there may be turnover. These policies will help the next adviser.
Yearbook Team Policies
By taking time to craft some policies for your staff manual, you will also codify what your program looks like. For example, if you have a large class (or two) completing the yearbook, you will want to have procedures for group and editorial board communication, chain of command, and the like. A team of five will not.
For a smaller yearbook team, it helps to establish boundaries to prevent burnout. Use your policies to protect one another such as how you will prioritize coverage when you can’t be everywhere.
Parent groups, yearbook classes, and clubs of any size also need job descriptions (see the next section).
Organizing Your Staff Manual
Try to keep this under five pages, including the rubrics and/or checklists. Admin needs to sign off on these. Physically. That signature will go a long way when a parent or student challenges you.
Here are ten policies to include in your yearbook staff manual:
1. Confidentiality
Use this section to outline what you keep quiet and what you share pre-distribution.
2. Photos
What guides the bulk of your content?
3. Obituary Policy
This is the toughest policy to craft while grieving. I learned the hard way. A group text from the vice principal requested an emergency staff meeting before school. Two students died in an automobile accident. One was racing without a license. The other was walking home.
Momentarily putting aside the denial, anger, and bargaining, we had to decide how to honor two lives. Thus, the following became our policy:
If within press time, Warrior Yearbook will provide a ¼ page space with the following:
No additional information will be included. All student ads will feature a family-submitted photo and will have parent approval. Next of kin will provide the photo and approval for staff memorials.
Here are more examples of obituary policies.
4. Superlatives and Senior Quotes
These are two of the most controversial areas between your yearbook covers. Add relevant dates, submission guidelines, crowdsourcing avenues, etc., to your policies.
Part of your yearbook superlative policy should include:
Personal opinion: Instead of senior quotes that focus on one group on your campus, why don’t you improve your journalism by building expanded captions into your designs? This way, you have quotes on every page from every grade. Now that’s people first.
If senior quotes are a golden calf, craft a policy that outlines
- Character or word limits
- Requirements for originality
- Vetting process (yes, we will look up that timestamp)
5. Journalistic Integrity
Use this section to define how you will legally license and attribute outside content, and the role of AI in your newsroom. (Chances are, your district already has a written policy you can cite.)
This is also a great spot to explain the characteristics of reporting: it’s free of editorializing, defamation, or discriminatory content. What safeguards will you include?
6. Grading
Yearbook is the hardest “easy A” my students ever earned. (Wait for it…) Because of that misconception, include spread checklists and grading rubrics in this section so there is no question come progress report time. This is also a great area to outline your workflow and deadline schedule.
7. Style Guide
This section provides clear instructions on theme elements to ensure consistency across the yearbook. With these decisions made early on, your team can focus on what truly matters: content.
Many advisers stop there. I would push you to expand your yearbook style policy to include writing.
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8. Content Approval Process
Who approves layouts, photos, and written content, and what is the order of approval? If you have mini-deadlines for reviews and revision, include them here. Treering advisers, allow yourself time to order and review your printed proof.
There may be some overlap with your grading section, and that’s OK.
9. Camera/Equipment Checkout Procedure
This section of your yearbook policy manual should clearly outline the rules and expectations for borrowing, using, and returning yearbook equipment. Here's what you might include:
Bottom line: this should complement your district policy on technology usage.
10. Complaint Policy and Refunds
Yearbook Staff Job Descriptions
After a disastrous first year where everyone created their own editor title, an experienced adviser sat me down and said, “You need to spell it out.”
That nugget provided the missing piece to my yearbook classroom management.
If you’re a teacher, yearbook is another class. It requires scaffolding and instructional time. It’s also a business: you’re creating a project that requires financial resources. Use the job descriptions below to organize your team, create a chain of command, and align your grading expectations.
If you’re a parent volunteer working with other volunteers, use these job descriptions to provide role clarity for your team. (And if all else fails, we have a blog for that too.)
Use these as a framework to structure your team and responsibilities.
Admin Approval
Close your staff manual with an acknowledgment page: your signature and your principal’s should appear on every printout. Students and their parents should also sign it. Keep an acknowledgment page for your records.
Using the "five common topics" for yearbook copy
The inverted pyramid is the go-to launch point for budding journalists. (Anyone else hear a journalism teacher’s voice: “Don’t bury the lede!”) For these emerging writers, filling each level equates to squeezing the five Ws into its ranks. This could lead to repetitive or restricted writing. The “easy” fix: asking better questions.
Integrating the five common topics with the inverted pyramid structure helps students create engaging yearbook copy because it models inquiry. They move beyond “What was your favorite…?” They create questions with analytical depth. They craft stories worth reading.
What Are the Five Common Topics?
How would the ancient Greek and Roman orators write a yearbook story? (That might as well be under “Adviser questions I’ll never ask for 1000, Alex.”) The five common topics are definition, comparison, relationship, circumstance, and testimony. The early scholars used this method of inquiry to discuss, persuade, and analyze. Developing yearbook interview questions based on the five common topics can be a structured way to gather information and insights.
Definition
The five Ws fall here: the topic of definition breaks down your subject into key components. What it is and who does it. Where it takes place. Why it’s important. When it occurs.
What is a clear definition of [the subject]?
This is extremely helpful for students when they craft copy on an unfamiliar topic. For example, most people use “bump, set, spike” somewhere on a volleyball spread. We don’t bump. We pass.
How would you characterize the key features that distinguish [the subject] from other similar concepts?
Each game, dance, movie night, and fun run is unique. So are labs, presentations, debates, and study sessions. Find out what sets this event or activity apart. By defining what it is holistically, you are also defining what it is not: just another day. (Remember, there is a reason for this story beyond an opening in your page template.)
What are the essential elements that makeup [the subject]?
Sports and arts copy can always be improved by understanding the technique. Start with your photos and ask the stakeholders to explain what they are doing step by step. Define tools, from cleat spikes to microscopes, and their use.
Back to our volleyball example: She’s aligning her feet to the setter and positioning her body so her belly button is behind the ball. Straight arms and little-to-no movement are key for her to give a high pass the setter can push to the outside hitters or run a quick hit from the middle. She starts each practice by passing 50 free balls as an offense-defense transition drill.
No bumping is involved.
Comparison
The next step is to expand upon the basics by drawing parallels or highlighting differences. Using analogies, journalism students can make complex ideas understandable. Sometimes, it helps to take the opposite approach and point out key differences.
In what ways is [the subject] similar to [another relevant entity], and how are they different?
Familiarity is comfortable. By relating new topics to known ones, you can ease your reader in.
Are there instances where lessons from [a related concept] can be applied to [the subject]?
Again, even though chemistry class repeats the gummy bear lab annually, it is not the same year after year. The same can be said about an AP class preparing their art portfolios or a Link Crew orientation.
Using the topic of comparison, student reporters have a reason to cover recurring events–they are digging into the differences.
How does the comparison to [another relevant entity] enhance our understanding of [the subject]?
Keyword: enhance. Comparison is valuable if it adds value. And before you flinch at the intended redundancy, remember new writers need to evaluate their notes as part of their process. Listing related and opposing concepts will also strengthen the topic of definition.
Relationship and Circumstance (This is a Twofer)
I’m combining topics three and four. Event sequences, cause-and-effect relationships, and the outcome of the event all have a place at the proverbial table. Understanding circumstance helps in tailoring yearbook copy to be more relevant and effective because we use it to examine the context of each story. It’s the here and now. These details help readers understand why the event is significant at this moment.
What current events or trends are influencing [the subject]?
More than the water bottle du jour, the timeliness of a yearbook story gives its place in your school’s historical record. You give campus events context by relating them to the community or even the world.
Are there specific challenges or opportunities related to [the subject] that are particularly relevant now?
In the example above, a student gave a speech. This is a daily occurrence around the globe. The author used the subject’s reported challenges and testimony (spoiler alert: that’s topic #5) to illustrate what led to the moment.
Chances are, this story wouldn’t have been printed in your mom’s yearbook. The circumstance was different.
Can you identify any cause-and-effect relationships associated with [the subject]?
Part of contextualizing your yearbook stories is adding what resulted from the story. Did the fundraiser set a new record? Athlete return for her final game of the season? AP Language class win the literary food festival? Wrap up your story.
Testimony
“Give me a quote for the yearbook.” Next to definition, testimony is the most commonly used of the five common topics. It’s the human element. Including testimonies from different sources helps balance the story, gives authority to student writing, and showcases varied perspectives.
While it’s the fifth topic, when students write, they should incorporate the questions below.
What diverse perspectives contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of [the subject]?
Scores, stats, fundraising figures, and meaningful quotes enhance credibility and give voice to yearbook copy.
How do you navigate conflicting testimony or opinions from authoritative sources regarding [the subject]?
The short answer: ask more questions. How do you find out what is true and who do you ask? (This could be more common with sporting events over bio labs.)
Testimony: Add relevant quotes from participants or spectators to illustrate.
Relationship and Circumstance: Explain what factors led to the event and how it impacted the school community.
Testimony: End the story by adding additional quotes or data to add depth and credibility.
Example Structure for the Inverted Pyramid and Five Common Topics
Let’s start with this photograph of four students on the green.
To come up with the copy, students identified:
- Names of students and their grades
- Location of photo
- What is going on
- Background on Xilam
- What aspect of Xilam is shown in the image
- Relationships between Mexican martial arts and Spanish for native speakers class
- How many languages–and which ones–are spoken on campus
This structure delivers both the essential information layered with insights. It moves beyond a listing of the 5Ws because it begins with inquiry.
Two ways to improve your yearbook photography
By improving the composition and lighting of your photos, you’ll be able to use any device with confidence. While drool-worthy mirrorless cameras are all the rage and DSLRs “look the part,” cellphones, tablets, and point-and-shoots can also produce great photos. The key is your perspective and awareness of the action.
Composition Basics
Composition creates compelling photos. When composing a shot, think about elements like background, framing, balance, leading lines, depth of field, and viewpoint. Even at sporting events or the school musical—when you’re limited on where you can stand—take some time to go through this list in your head to intentionally get the strongest photos.
In the digital age (did you read that in my grandma voice?), just clicking away and hoping for a usable image can be a waste of time. Being intentional for five to ten moments will help you anticipate action and yield more authentic images.
Background
If it’s not drawing the eye to your subject, you might want to get rid of it. Take time to assess what is behind your subject:
- If possible, remove distractions like garbage cans, signs, or other people
- At sporting events, stand on the opponent’s side so you get your fans’ reactions
- Position a photographer backstage or in the sound booth to capture behind-the-scenes action
Simple camera fixes such as adjusting the aperture (see “Depth of Field” below) or environmental ones (see “Leading Lines”) can help improve your photos’ backgrounds.
If it’s not drawing the eye to your subject, you might want to get rid of it. Take time to assess what is behind your subject:
Simple camera fixes such as adjusting the aperture (see “Depth of Field” below) or environmental ones (see “Leading Lines”) can help improve your photos’ backgrounds.
Framing
Your photos should focus on key interactions. For example, a tight frame on a student meeting their teacher on the first day of school captures a meaningful moment.
Alternatively, a wider frame might show the atmosphere of an event. Consider how close you want to be and what details you want in the shot.
If the event and space allow, move around to add diversity to how you frame your subjects. My yearbook adviser used to say, “Zoom with your feet.” It’s the second-best piece of photo advice I’ve received. (Lighting takes first billing for those of you playing along at home.)
Balance
While symmetry works well in group shots, you might also want asymmetry to draw the eye to a specific part of the frame. Think about how elements are weighted in the frame to achieve the mood you want.
In the example above, the laptop is what holds us captive.
Leading Lines
Use natural lines—like desks, edges of buildings, or stripes on the school bus—to draw the viewer’s eye towards the subject.
Depth of Field
This can be easily achieved with portrait settings on phones and cameras. Blurring the background adds drama and focuses attention on the subject. Whether you're using a DSLR or a smartphone, depth of field, or aperture, can elevate your images.
Viewpoint
Experiment with angles. Try taking shots from above, below, or behind to add variety and interest. Different perspectives help tell the story more creatively and capture aspects that a straight-on shot might miss.
These five lessons will help improve composition.
Lighting Essentials
To say lighting is crucial is an understatement. In photography, too much or too little light can impact the photo’s quality. Be aware of your main light source. If you’re at an event, take a moment to assess from where the best light is coming.
Tips for Indoor Photography
Windows can be problematic if they are behind your subject. Unless you are aiming for a silhouette, keep them to your side.
If the lighting isn’t ideal, adjust. Sometimes, just asking students to move to a better-lit area can make a big difference. They’re usually happy to accommodate. For example, if you are photographing a dance, set up an area to take group photos with good lighting.
Using flash can also help in tricky lighting. For instance, in a situation with backlighting (like a window behind your subject), a fill flash will illuminate the subject and balance the exposure. In low-light conditions, adjusting your camera’s ISO or shutter speed with the help of a tripod can also help capture the shot without losing detail.
Outdoor Photography Considerations
Outside, natural sunlight is ideal, and just like inside, positioning is important. Move so the sun is off to the side or behind your subject to reduce harsh shadows and prevent squinting. Most professional photographers avoid outdoor photoshoots when the sun is overhead for this reason. (Basically, when the fun run is happening.)
We recommend using a tripod and angling yourself so the sun is at your subject's side.
Remember that a good photographer’s eye matters more than fancy equipment. Whether using a DSLR or a smartphone, focus on framing, lighting, and timing to compose meaningful moments.
This blog is adapted from Sandra Violette's Photography session from TRL 24 POV: I’m on the Yearbook Team. Violette, a professional photographer and PTO mom, serves on the Onboarding and Engagement Team at Treering Yearbooks.
Never yearbook alone
This is the heart of Treering’s Yearbook Club webinars. Teachers looking for classroom support and parent volunteers looking for a launch pad can find resources and how-tos throughout the school year at no cost.
Synchronous Instruction
If you don’t speak teacher-ese (or don’t care to on your prep period), this just means it’s live. This real-time interaction means attendees receive instant responses to their questions. (Full disclosure: occasionally, we divert from the script because the group’s needs demand it.)
Direct Access to Expertise
See what happens when you bring together staff members from product knowledge, marketing, and community advocacy. No PowerPoint slides. No hypotheticals. All yearbook.
We Believe in Show and Tell
Starting at Treering.com, every webinar shows you how to create, get inspiration, and receive help. We show you how to customize your styles and settings, find marketing materials, and maximize the automations in Treering’s yearbook builder.
Each month, new advisers can join a Getting Started webinar to get an overview of the design and print process. As you progress through your yearbook journey other webinars are available, including Treering Live, our flagship virtual yearbooking event and topical sessions on portrait, advanced design, and theme development.
Your Yearbook Your Way
Yearbook creation isn’t a one-size-fits-all process. Neither are Yearbook Club webinars. We’ll show you all your options to make your yearbook represent your population, from changing up backgrounds to creating custom word art.
The Yearbook Club team releases new Tip Tuesday videos each week on YouTube.
Community
Call it networking, if that’s your thing. In the live chat, attendees exchange ideas and strategies.
On a personal note, I’ve met some yearbook advisers in the chat who have become contributors to this blog, and I’d like to think lifelong friends. We celebrate professional and personal milestones together. Occasionally, family pics pop into my inbox, or we text a timely yearbook meme.
No one else understands what being a yearbook coordinator is like outside this small world. I’m going to seek support from those who do.
Five yearbook activities not to miss
“Just putting pictures on pages” and other misleading statements about yearbook production do not capture what happens in the newsroom. However, it’s easy to take a heads-down approach to design as the deadline approaches. We all just want to finish! Nevertheless, amidst the rush, there are essential skills that you shouldn’t overlook. You’re going to want to save these activities.
1. Teaching Yearbook
Because no teacher program provided the comprehensive graphic design, marketing, journalism, editing and proofreading, photojournalism, contract negotiation, and volunteer management training that makes a great yearbook adviser. Breathe! (Club leaders, you too need to facilitate students’ creative and collaborative development.)
We created the Teaching Yearbook series so you would have grab-and-go resources to enhance your yearbook classroom.
2. Speaking the Language
Understanding yearbook and design terms means the team can have a conversation about the effectiveness of a dominant bleeding into the gutter without raising (too many) eyebrows.
3. Creating a Plan to Cover Everyone
Creating a plan to cover everyone involves more than just taking photos. It requires thoughtful consideration of how to represent the entire student body in your yearbook, even if you don’t offer custom pages.
Every student is more important than every activity.
4. Teambuilding Activities
Yes, games are important. Those forced fun activities help you break down the proverbial walls. (That’s the introvert talking.) More important: building a team of the right people.
Time spent investing in the right people and building healthy relationships will only benefit your book.
5. Managing Yearbook Complaints
Ouch. No one wants to field criticism of the yearbook when it is in print for all to see. No one volunteers to field emails with “friendly suggestions” for next year. From active listening to clear and transparent communication, having a plan in place for managing complaints ensures that any issues are addressed promptly and professionally.
This is one of those “better to have it and not need it” kind of things.
No longer the yearbook adviser? Here’s what to do next
What I Wish I Knew Before Taking Over Yearbook
Every new adviser is going to mentally prepare this list. You can take one thing off by setting up the new yearbook adviser with a list of must-know and must-do information.
Why Do People Stop Advising Yearbook?
Advisers move to new schools. Administrators cut costs. Teachers retire. Others no longer have an affinity for awesomesauce.
Remind the new adviser to take heart! There are many on this journey to become a project manager-slash-school-historian-slash-marketer-slash-designer.
One Sheet To Share
Use the list below to create an indispensable guide for your successor. If you’re like me, you may be tempted to create a fully illustrated manual with a month-by-month guide, financial forms, and plenty of Lucid charts. Don’t.
A one-page reference should include the following:
Publisher info This is #1: include all your contacts for your publisher plus how to contact support. If you have a multi-year contract, include it and its expiration date.
School photographer Add the photographer’s name, email, and phone number plus who who is in charge of picture day. (No one wants to find out last minute they are stuck with that gig.)
Financial information Include information on your book price, publisher promotions (heeey 10% off in the fall), ad prices, book sales from previous years, and subscriptions.
Page count We love a good yearbook ladder. Your predecessor will too.
Yearbook traditions There’s a fine line between sacred cows and ordering an archive copy of the library.
Procedures If there is an editing checklist, camera checkout policy, or go-to person for name proofing, include that info.
Passwords Ensure your successor can access social media accounts, generic photo emails, and the yearbook room computers.
“It’s Not About Me, It’s About Us”
Make the transition smooth. No one is going to run your program exactly like you did. That’s an unfair expectation. Instead, offer your ongoing support and mentoring to your successor. By remaining available to answer questions and provide (solicited) guidance during the transition period, you are putting others first. That’s classy.