Yearbook curriculum

With most of the school year in the proverbial book, we are counting down until summer vacation. End-of-the-year celebrations aren't complete without a yearbook. If you're the one wearing the yearbook coordinator crown, it's time to circle the wagons and quickly create your elementary school yearbook without sacrificing style. We have live webinars on Wednesdays to help jumpstart your second semester.

Step 1: upload your student roster

Your first step is a quick visit to the front office (remember to bring some lattes) to get a community and student roster. This seems tedious. It will save you hours if you do this first. You will easily be able to

• Tag to ensure inclusivity or to create an index
• Start marketing and selling your book
• Receive your yearbooks sorted by your choice of grade, teacher, or last name which will save you tons of time once they arrive

(We promise, you'll thank us later.)

Step 2: get the word out

With an updated student roster, you can now effectively communicate with your community and launch marketing campaigns that support yearbook building and orders. Examples of communication that will help you build a better book include emails asking for photos, how to purchase books, and special features like creating personalized pages and showing your students/parents how to create e-signatures.

If you really want to ramp up sales and raise awareness of your yearbook project and photo needs, use this month of Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Twitter content. There's also a full marketing module in our free yearbook curriculum.

Step 3: collaborate with your community

Following strong communication, you are set up to collaborate on the yearbook with ease. Crowdsource photos from school staff, other parents, coaches, and students.

When possible, assign class pages to others. No yearbook coordinator is an island (or something like that). By building a team, you'll capture more, include more, and stress out less!

Step 4: upload your students' portraits

Whether your elementary school was able to take professional portraits, or you are sourcing portraits from parents, upload these to your yearbook next. Your yearbook provider should have a solution for adding these to your book. You can even use these yearbook spreads to add more content.

Step 5: build your book

Now that you’ve connected with your community and begun sourcing ideas and visuals for your yearbook, you’re ready to select and set up your book themes and styles. In addition to designing your own themes, Treering offers a free library of professionally designed themes. Each theme package includes layouts, font pairings, and graphics to tie your look together. You can also 100% customize your own.

Set spreads aside for

• School events such as fun runs and book fairs
• Sports (If your school doesn't have teams, crowdsource photos of students on their outside sports team)
• Holidays
• Trends
• Clubs
• Class favorites

Build a beautiful yearbook with features like auto-page layouts that magically lay your photos out beautifully on a spread or pre-designed pages that cover the Best of the Year and Year in Review plus student-generated content through fill-ins for a quick elementary school layout.

Step 6: set your yearbook to print ready!

Drop the yearbook and walk away. In all seriousness, hit “print-ready” to send your files to the printers and, if you're using Treering, you'll quickly have your books in hand in three weeks or less! If for any reason you want a little more time, it’s easy to adjust print-ready deadlines too. As the yearbook coordinator, you're in charge!

Step 7: distribute the yearbook and celebrate!

All this work is worth celebrating! Work with your parent group to host a yearbook signing party. It doesn't need to be fancy or cost you additional money; this could be something special like

• Playing music at lunch
• Offering a jeans day to yearbook buyers if you're a uniform school
• Allowing yearbook purchasers to bring a stuffed animal to school
• Setting up signing tables at a year-end school event

QR Code is a registered trademark of DENSO WAVE INCORPORATED.

It’s common for school leaders to underestimate the newsworthy aspects of their school’s yearbook. They may think, “Our school is too small, so why would anyone outside of our students’ immediate families care about what’s going on with our yearbook?” Throughout a school year, consider all of the work that’s put toward building the book, the stories gathered, the candid photos captured, the skills gained, etc. Local media care about what’s going on in the community, and if they never know about it, there’s no opportunity for them to share with their greater audience. It’s time to consider getting local media completely stoked about your yearbook program!

1. Identify newsworthy aspects of your program

Oftentimes, yearbook-focused stories are going to resonate the most with smaller, hyperlocal outlets within a school’s community. This could include newspapers (print and online), TV, radio and even community newsletters. What you may think is a “meaningless story” could in fact impact readers in your hometown. 

The following are high-level ideas to consider when thinking about working with local media:

• Position your yearbook adviser, or even the entire yearbook staff, as your school’s “hometown hero.” How are they positively impacting the school? What unique stories have they been able to capture for the yearbook that will pull at the heartstrings of the community?
• Reporters don’t want to talk to companies, they want to talk to people. Is the yearbook editor, parent coordinator, or even principal, media-prepped and comfortable speaking with reporters about the program?
• Local media tend to love stories with a multi-generational angle. How long has your yearbook program been in place? What unique, new aspects of the program can be shared? Do you have anyone on your yearbook team whose mother, grandmother, etc., was also involved in yearbook at the school years prior?
• Yearbook cover contests are a great opportunity to share a photo of the winning cover with media. Is this a contest that’s been occurring for years? Is it new? Are local artists involved? Reporters appreciate being given stats (i.e., years doing XYZ) as it helps strengthen a story.
• Share your successes. Has your yearbook earned recognition from your publisher?

2. Contact the right people

Depending on the size of the media outlet, some stations or publications have reporters that cover specific beats, while others that have a smaller staff have reporters that cover a wide variety of stories. If the outlet has a reporter that covers education, or more specifically K-12 education, this is someone to consider when your yearbook program has a story to share. Otherwise, reaching out to a general contact at an outlet, even if it’s for a general introduction if you’ve never worked with them before, is a great place to start.

It’s important to be professional, thorough, and to the point when reaching out to reporters and news outlets. Think about how yearbooks themselves convey stories through carefully selected phrases and high-res photos. Reporters are looking for the same: meaningful stories with images to support them. 

3. Write a press release

Writing press releases is a common practice for businesses that want to announce a new product or feature, an award win, contest results, a new hire, etc. As it relates to a yearbook program, a press release would be most appropriate when announcing a yearbook contest award win, for example. Or if your school has never had a yearbook program and they have plans to launch one in the new year, this would be an opportunity to share a press release with local media.

So what should you include in the press release? Here’s an example to reference and a free press release template.

• Strong headline and subhead
• 3-5 body paragraphs (try to ensure that the press release is no longer than a page)
• A quote or two from leaders or subject matter experts to support the announcement
• Boilerplate at the bottom
• Contact person and their information (i.e. phone number, email address etc.)

Promote your yearbook program

In order for your yearbook program to flourish by increasing yearbook sales and growing your yearbook team, people need to know:

• What the yearbook program is all about and the importance of having a yearbook for students.
• How to get involved, and the specific steps to do so. Share the “how, what, why, and when” details if you really want your outreach efforts to make an impact. Consider creating a Facebook group for parents if you’re needing to recruit staff.

Treering's In the News page has plenty of examples of newsworthy yearbook programs.

Project manager. Social media marketer. Volunteer luncheon coordinator. Teacher liaison. Journalist. School historian. Memory maker. Yearbook coordinators wear all these hats and more! Below, we’ve taken one thing off your to-do list and compiled all the things on the definitive yearbook timeline so your planning and production resources are in one place.

When Last Year's Book is Complete...

Don't freak out. Keep scrolling if you were just handed the reins to the yearbook.

Fall

If there's one thing we hear from advisers around the globe, it's that they wish they started earlier! And while we can’t give you the gift of time, we can hook you up with some ideas to save you some.

Create a Plan

(Note to self: planning and controlling are two different things.)

It's impossible to think about yearbooks without considering yearbook themes. Whether you use a pre-designed one or create your own using Treering's design application, make sure it tells the story of your school this year.

Gather the school calendar, and PTA-sponsored events, previous yearbooks, and, with your team, start your ladder. This will be the overarching plan for the year(book). Your yearbook details should align with your ladder.

From there, add your team, create shared folders, and decide how to assign spreads. You’ll want to schedule follow-up meetings and track progress on this timeline.

Pre- and post-event check-ins ensure expectations are set and met. 

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Start Marketing

When we think of marketing, we think of yearbook sales. It’s so much more. Your marketing plan should include

• Crowdsourcing efforts
• Yearbook staff recruitment
• Yearbook sales

No one will know what you do (create the most epic yearbook ever), what you need (photos, photos, and more photos), and how they can be a part of it (upload photos, join the team, host a party) if you don’t tell them. 

Back to school is the ideal season to begin selling your yearbooks for two reasons: early discounts and the opportunity to earn free yearbooks. We’ve created a marketing plan template so you can stay organized.

If you are using your yearbook as a fundraiser, once again, work backward from your goal. For instance, is the PTG trying to earn money for more books in the library or playground equipment? Is your yearbook team trying to invest in new equipment? How much per book is needed to earn that amount of money?

Gather Content

August through November offer myriad opportunities to capture content and begin building your book:

• Student orientation
• First day
• Halloween
• Yerdsgiving
• Classroom shots
• Homecoming
• Spirit week
• Fall sports

Seize the [Picture] Day

Portraits comprise 40-60% of the average yearbook. If you aren’t on a first-name basis with your school photographer, it’s time to change that.

Touch base with your photographer and double-check they will export the photos in PSPA format (this is industry standard, but not everyone uses it) and confirm how they will deliver them to you. Copy your picture day coordinator on all correspondence (and offer up this professional school photographer's advice).

Winter

When you hit winter on the timeline, there is a shift at school: everyone becomes vacation-focused, and the list of things to do multiplies. (Late to the party? We have you covered with our yearbook quick start guide.)

Stay the Course

By now you have a rhythm: Your team has their assignments and together you’re tracking progress. Fall event pages are drafted and in the yearbook. Portraits should arrive momentarily. You follow up every event with an ask for additional POVs. 

Begin Proofreading 

Treering Yearbooks allows you to download a PDF proof of your book throughout the design process. Here’s how we use them:

1. Hand our portrait pages to teachers to help verify names and classroom placement
2. Project pages and evaluate them as a team
3. Track coverage
4. Post sneak peeks on campus

We have a whole module in our free yearbook curriculum on editing.

Cover Year-End Festivities

Fall and winter are the seasons for Bodhi Day, Christmas, Diwali, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, and Thanksgiving. Consider adding family celebrations to your coverage timeline as well as class parties.

Inspire Generosity

‘Tis the season to be selfless! Treering’s donation option makes it easy for families to gift yearbooks to the school. Advisers and coordinators then share the love by distributing yearbooks to those in need or gifting them to staff members.

Spring

It’s time to spring into action and finish the book! (Heads up: it’s also time to get those yearbook spreads and personalized pages ready for Treering Yearbooks’ spring contests.)

Finish Strong

If winter was the season everyone is ignoring you, in spring, everyone has questions. Can I have more time? How do I get my photos in? How do I buy a yearbook?

Some easy ways to help save your sanity are:

• Be proactive and share the personalized pages tutorial online (seasoned advisers hold their own training session).
• Use templates or the auto page builder to start your layouts. You can always modify them.
• Make sure all teachers and the front office staff have the ordering info. You may even want to share a QR code for them to place in newsletters.
• Add Year in Review and Trend pages

Let It Go... and Celebrate!

Before you hit print ready, ask yourself:

1. Do we need to order extra books? (Some schools like to keep a copy in the library.)
2. How do we want our books sorted?
3. Where should our books be sent? 
4. When will they arrive and do we need expedited shipping?

Summer

High five! You did it! 

QR Code is a registered trademark of DENSO WAVE INCORPORATED.

There are two schools of yearbook coordinators: the first, would never click on this blog, and the second, is ready to prep for the following school year. We’re glad you’re ready to lay the foundation for your yearbook over the summer and hope these three steps relieve stress because you’ll enter the school year more prepared than ever, and help you tick off some boxes so you can fully enjoy your summer vacation.

Step 1: Build your Team

Yearbook finished, check! Distribution party a success, check! Use this momentum to recruit a new team. Before you hand out your yearbook staff application, debrief with your current team and state your goals for the upcoming year. 

Are you creating a memory book? Be sure to build a team of photographers to capture the emotion behind the events as well as some marketing mavens who will pump up crowdsourcing efforts.

Are you looking to go more journalistic and create a history book? You’ll need writers/reporters in addition to your layout designers and photographers.

Are you creating a spirit book? You’ll want people who are passionate about your school community.

If you lead a student class or club:

• Make sure your recruiting message aligns with your goals
• Highlight the transferable skills
• Solicit recommendations from the faculty as well as your current team
• Build your syllabus and bookmark these rubrics from our free yearbook curriculum

Summer is a great time to do some introductory training with your team. Some advisers do a two- or three-day minicamp and select the theme, colors, and fonts for the year. Others host team-building events to build trust before jumping into design.

If your team is comprised of adults:

• Make sure your recruiting message aligns with your goals
• Set specific expectations for involvement
• Follow up, follow up, follow up
• Offer opportunities for all parents and teachers to contribute

Step 2: Start a Ladder

A ladder is the lifeblood of yearbook organization because it serves two functions:

• It helps you create a schedule
• It helps you determine your page count

From your ladder, you can reverse engineer your yearbook from the final deadline to all the photoshoots that need to be scheduled in between. Since this doc is an overview of the entire book, some yearbook staffs like to post it and use it to check off spreads when they are finished. 

Using this yearbook organization module will help you with all the back-end administrivia. 

Step 3: Relax and Wait for School to Start

We’re working parents, so we get it: it’s easier said than done. Yes, you’re going to want to solicit summer vacay photos for the yearbook, so grab you-time when you can. From an extra five minutes of privacy in the bathroom to hours with a great book, we wish you well. 

To echo the signatures in our yearbooks, have a great summer!

Congratulations! The yearbook is done… Now what? I remember the years before I found Treering Yearbooks, when my publisher called in the pages at the end of February. A whole quarter of yearbook students with “nothing” to do was a pedagogical nightmare. Even with a three-week turnaround, Treering advisers everywhere need inspiration, motivation, and a few learning outcomes to finish the year. After talking with several advisers, we compiled this list of things to do to make the end of the year even more meaningful.

1. Keep, Change, Stop

This is a conversation to have with your printed proof in hand. Thumb through as a team, project some spreads on the wall and complete a matrix. What aspects of your program are proverbial home runs and should be keepers? What needs to be changed? (Use this time to brainstorm solutions.) What needs to be stopped?

How it worked in San Diego, CA

After ten years at a K-12 private school, the yearbook staff said they wanted to stop having a purple yearbook. It was a sacred cow we were ready to take off the altar. We color-coded the book in warm reds for the upper school and cool blues for the lower school. When we did the reveal, some of the lifers were enraged until the editor explained, “Blue plus red equals purple.” Cue tears. 

It was another five years before we did a purple book again. Had we not had the Keep-Change-Stop conversation, the journalism program would continue to limit its creativity and every book would essentially be a spirit book.

2. Honor the Yearbook Heroes

Grab a stack of thank you cards from the dollar store and take time to recognize the people who helped you create the book, from the office team who gives you the roster at the start of the year to the mom who tirelessly uploads photos from the pick up line. If you are not acknowledging the yearbook heroes on your campus in your colophon, think of a public way to do so:

• School marquee
• Social media post
• Special luncheon
• Send a THNKS a latte

How it worked in Olathe, KS

Being unable to set foot on campus last year was certainly an obstacle, but with the help of our amazing PTO members, school staff, yearbook committee, and community of parents, we were able to still capture the year in a holistic way. We worked with parents to showcase our year in and outside of school.

Because it was a collaborative effort, and we really do have such an awesome community of parents who make this all possible, it was easy to make a video and celebrate our yearbook coordinator through Treering’s #YearbookHero Contest. 

3. Make Time for Fun

How many of us Type-A advisers focus on business and forget to play? When the yearbook is finished, it’s the best time to celebrate. Some ideas for stress-releasing fun include:

• Craft time
• Digital escape rooms
• Potlucks
• Game nights
• Sundae bars

How it worked in Clarksville, TN

All of us brought in a board game to play. Our adviser made us rotate for a week and try one another’s. I learned Exploding Kittens, Sequence, and Mancala. It helped us break down the stress of finishing the book and focus on celebrating as a team. After the week, we went back to business and got ready for our signing party.

4. Hold a Social Media Bootcamp

The period between going print-ready and distributing your yearbook is the ideal time to teach new skills, such as social media marketing. If your school has a social presence, adding yearbook-related content is one idea to keep what you and your committee are doing top of mind.

Tweet

Before you bring in a marketing professional or check out a professional course, set the goals and expectations with your team. Do you want to

• Recruit volunteers?
• Sell more yearbooks?
• Crowdsource content?

How it worked in Arlington Heights, IL

Going social was the best thing we did for our yearbook. When I saw the social media calendar, we adopted it, and it increased our followers, which increased our yearbook sales and crowdsourcing efforts. 

We also created a hashtag for our yearbook, so if any parents posted a photo—if they used the hashtag—we would consider it for publication. This helped us get a bunch of photos we wouldn’t normally have: boarding the bus, friend groups at events, and cultural events.

5. Brainstorm Evergreen Ideas

Evergreen content for yearbooks is a collection of interview questions, infographic topics, and story ideas that can be used throughout the year. (Here are 40+ to get you started. You’re welcome.)While we want to have a yearbook that reflects the current year and trends, having a timeless collection for reporters and designers serves two purposes:

1. Something to do: in that first-of-the-year lull, students can build out evergreen modules and work hard to incorporate less involved students.
2. Fill coverage holes: sometimes an event doesn’t happen (hello 2020). Sometimes a student doesn’t cover an event. Sometimes you just have holes. By having a collection from which to draw, you will always have usable content.

How it worked in Williamstown, KY

I remember the first time a student missed an assignment. As a second-year teacher and rookie adviser, I felt like a failure because I didn’t have a contingency plan. My editor actually came up with the idea to have a question of the day. She would text the question in the morning and everyone would ask three students. They would then input the responses into a Google Form. 

We kept all the questions related to our theme, Give + Take. They were simple like “Give us your top three songs” or “If you could take a class on anything, what would it be?” Since they were thematic, it was a perfect complement to our book. If we needed a student for coverage or had a blank spot on the spread, we had the material for an instant quote bar. Using Google Forms also allowed us to track and sort the answers by the respondent.

6. I Do, You Do, We Do

I Do, You Do, We Do is a teambuilding idea as well as a way to add in professional growth. It works like this:

1. I pick a skill to teach the class and demonstrate it
2. You learn and apply the skill
3. We do it together

How it worked in Miami, FL

We decided we wanted to use Doodle as our theme for next year and wanted to create coloring book-style pages in the book for dividers and such. None of us are Photoshop pros, so our adviser suggested we learn. Each of us on the editorial team for next year picked a video on YouTube to watch. Then we taught our classmates how to do it. Teaching my friends to do something I just learned made me proud and they listened well. 

7. Practice Interviewing

It’s easy to fire off a text that says, “Give me a quote for yearbook,” but yearbook staffs don’t do easy journalism. Spend some time refining your reporting using the yearbook storytelling module of Treering’s free curriculum.

How it worked in Lakeside, CA

Our district hired a branding company to re-do the website, marketing materials, and our social presence. They brought in a photographer to capture student life and take professional headshots of the staff. When the final products came out, they were incomplete. No one knows the Warriors like the Warriors, so I seized an opportunity: hire out my yearbook students.

We wanted to improve our writing, so we created a list of questions to ask teachers and re-wrote all the staff bios for the website.

Your Turn

With these seven actionable ideas, you can find a place of rest going into summer. If you want to get a head start on planning for the fall semester, check out six weeks of yearbook lessons, including rubrics and a yearbook class syllabus.

May 2-6 is Teacher Appreciation Week and it’s time to plan your strategy! An attitude of gratitude can propel the faculty through the last weeks of school. While it’s generally not the yearbook team’s job to organize Teacher Appreciation festivities, we know there are parent contributors and class-act students who love to spread joy. 

Yearbook Donation Drive for Teachers

Treering’s donation option makes it easy for families to gift yearbooks to the school. Advisers and coordinators then share the love by distributing yearbooks to staff. Some schools even do an online auction for the principal’s yearbook. Since donated yearbooks won’t arrive during the week, make sure your yearbook team has a card or certificate to present to recipients.

Staff Tributes in the Yearbook

If your yearbook deadline is mid-to-late May, Teacher Appreciation should have coverage. Even if Teacher Appreciation Week comes after your final deadline, you can use the yearbook to showcase your on-campus heroes by:

• Leaving space for staff candids
• Interviewing the Teacher of the Year, department heads, and new members of the faculty
• Highlighting pregnant teachers with a “Future [Mascot]” module

Last-Minute Teacher Appreciation Ideas

We know you’re busy [finishing the yearbook], so here are some no-prep appreciation strategies you can do with your yearbook staff.

• Print and write a postcard (aka a social science lesson on what a postcard is)
• Hold a mini supply drive to replenish teachers’ stock⸺ it can be as simple as cracking open a Costco pack of Expo markers and sharing them among the faculty
• Compile a list of all the free food in your neighborhood so your teachers know where to grab dinner each night
• Create a hall collage with classmates by each bringing in a thank you drawing; if you start small Monday, it could create a movement by Friday
• Use an e-gifting platform such as THNKS to digitally send an  'I Appreciate You' A Latte or a You're Spec-Taco-ular Lunch. It takes seconds.
• Go social: record a video or upload a photo of you and your favorite teacher(s) using #thankateacher, #teacherappreciation, #teacherlove, #weloveourteachers, #thankyouteachers, #teachersrock, #treering
• Download photos and create a slideshow of staff members to display on a screen in the office, on your morning broadcast, or share it with the school community in the May newsletter.

What did you do? Tag us on Facebook and Instagram to share your successes.

You did all the work. You submitted it. And boom: boxes arrive, filled with memories and awaiting signatures. You could deliver a stack to each classroom, wipe your hands, and prep for next year. Or, you could create an epic yearbook distribution and signing party to further cement the yearbook’s role on your campus. Yearbook distribution doesn’t have to be a total mic drop moment (it can), but rather a unifying event to help close the year.

Make Unboxing a Moment

Unboxing the yearbook can help build excitement for yearbook distribution because it tells the campus community the yearbooks are here! A few ideas for social media posts are:

• Put a GoPro or tape your cellphone on the boxes as they get wheeled into the building
• Film your team cracking open the first box (make sure they smell the ink!)
• Photograph a box of yearbooks in various “seats” around campus: the principal’s chair, a student desk, a key locale in the caf
• If your yearbook company doesn’t label your books individually by buyer and organize them by class, do a time-lapse video of your team organizing the books for distribution

Start Distribution with the Yearbook Team

Being on yearbook staff has to have perks, and one is a fancy-pants dinner before yearbook distribution. (Please note fancy is a relative term: if an Oreo shake is your thing, you’re our kind of people.) 

Think of your typical sports banquet: the coach (adviser) stands and speaks a few remarks on the team then hands out the awards. Traditionally, the yearbook staff unwraps their yearbook and shares it with their family. It’s special because they have the first copies and it’s an individualized time for parents to see all the work their child accomplished. Do you have parents creating the yearbook? Celebrate these yearbook heroes!

Distribution Parties

The last month of school is full of events and celebrations, yearbook distribution should be one of the reasons your community comes together. Here are three ideas for yearbook distribution parties our advisers hold, and since we’re all lovers of a good theme, we put together some end-of-the-year playlists for you. 

The Extended Lunch

Work with your school’s faculty and administration to add 15-25 minutes to the end of lunchtime for yearbook signing. Create designated areas for each grade with class color-coded pens to distribute the yearbooks and then play music while students mingle. 

The Afterschool Special

When yearbook distribution and singing are a family event, you build even more community. Meet at a public park’s gazebo and pass out books and play. Moms hang, kids hang, and the teachers breathe easier because they didn’t have to plan it. 

The Bundle and Save

For anyone thinking, “I don’t need one more thing to do,” this is for you: add a yearbook signing party to an existing end-of-the-year event such as award night or an all-school carnival. All you need to do is make a cluster of tables (velvet ropes optional) and have an organized distribution center. 

Want to make it next level? Have your distribution area next to a bounce house. Students get their books at the bottom of the slide as they celebrate bouncing to the next grade.

How will you celebrate? Be sure to tag @treering on Facebook and @treeringcorp on TikTok and Instagram to show us.

Some of these ideas originally appeared in our yearbook traditions blog.