Yearbook Heroes

Treering Yearbook Heroes is a monthly feature focusing on yearbook adviser tips and tricks.

Schools like Kate D Smith DAR High School of Grant, AL, build momentum by gathering motivated teachers and students to gather photos, draft content, and design spreads. Dr. John Finley is a business teacher for grades 9-12 at Kate D Smith DAR High School and also spearheads the creation of the yearbook with the assistance of his students. With his background in videography and photography, he inherited the role of yearbook sponsor and this is his second year leading the development of student journalists.

What’s unique about John’s role within yearbook is that he really lets the students run with creativity and he owns his role of adviser. This allows the students to take near-complete ownership of the book, learn how to utilize the Treering app, and motivates them to be confident in their abilities in the classroom.

John and part of his yearbook team were excited to share how they plan to develop the yearbook this year, which will include KDS DAR School’s 2021 Dedication Day, which occurs every October.

What’s something unique about the school’s yearbook team?

Last year, we started a mentoring program where the seniors who have experience with yearbook get to share their knowledge with junior and sophomore students. We realized that the students who were involved with yearbook were primarily juniors, so when they eventually graduated, we didn’t have students on board who could guide the underclassmen.

So now, all seniors and juniors involved with yearbook choose one younger student to teach everything they know about yearbook. And then when the seniors graduate, the younger students are prepared to take the reins. A lot of the “yearbook” training actually takes place at events when students are taking photos for the yearbook. It’s a great hands-on opportunity for upperclassmen to show and explain their process for securing content for the yearbook.

What stands out to you from last year’s book, which was created during the pandemic?

What stood out to me the most was the theme, A Year Like No Other. This really rang true to everyone at school be it teachers, students or administrative staff. The yearbook team took the approach that they were writing the first history book of the pandemic for our entire community. The book was dedicated to the memory of those we lost and the families that were affected.

What was nice about using the Treering app, especially during this time, was that it gave us the ability to share photos right into the folder in an easy way. Because we weren’t able to be together in person, we were able to get a variety of photos from at-home learning. We’re currently back in the classroom this year, but a lot of lessons were learned last year—some heartbreaking—that were beautifully expressed in the book.

What’s something unique your school adds to the yearbook?

Dedication Day is a two-day event set to take place October 21-22 that only takes place in our community and is something we always take time to cover in the yearbook because of how much it means to all of us at the school. This will be the 97th year the school celebrates the patriotic education made possible by the Daughters of the Revolution (DAR). During the Dedication Day celebration, DAR chapters from across the U.S. travel to Grant, AL, and pledge funds for school projects.

In the yearbook this year, for example, we’ll capture photos of the two-day event highlighting student musical performances, speakers and the overall history of the DAR and how they began their mission in 1922 to build schools in remote areas of the U.S. KDS DAR School, which sits atop Gunter Mountain in Grant, was selected based on the will and dedication of the Daughters of the Revolution to give the people in this area a path to education.

Treering Yearbook Heroes is a monthly feature focusing on yearbook adviser tips and tricks.

Mom of triplets and one of Treering’s sales directors, Ansley Cheatham, fell into yearbook advising at Augusta Circle Elementary School after knowing she wanted to be involved at her children’s school. But what she didn’t know is that she would also fall in love with yearbook creation.

As soon as Ansley’s three boys headed to kindergarten, she started looking for a way to become involved with the PTA and was asked to assist with the yearbook. As some of you readers may know, the yearbook adviser role can be a challenging position to fill, but Ansley was all in.  

To date, Ansley has made five yearbooks for Augusta Circle, each creatively capturing the school year they represented. And while all the yearbooks hold a special place in Ansley’s and the elementary school’s heart, the 2020-21 yearbook was unique and challenging in a different way.

Learn more about Ansley’s journey creating a yearbook this past school year. 

How do you think COVID-19 impacted your yearbook and yearbooks across the country?

At Augusta Circle, we were lucky to go back to school safely in October, but it looked different than any other year. I wanted to be sure to highlight that in our yearbook in a way elementary students could understand and remember in a positive way.  The pictures weren’t what you were used to seeing in a yearbook, but I think that was part of its charm! In all of our group photos, our kids were wearing their masks. If the kids were alone, they didn’t have to have a mask on, so we had a lot more solo pictures as well.  

The hardest part was that I couldn’t go inside the school to take pictures like usual. I had to rely on teachers and parents to submit them to me. Treering has an app that many parents used to quickly drop into my collection and most of the teachers used Google Photos. I also pulled a lot directly from Instagram into the book. The process was so easy that I will actually use the same one next year, even if I am allowed in the building!

In addition, I had my son, who is in 4th grade, write a summary of the year from a child’s perspective.  Describing what was different, e-learning, wearing masks, and how the kids adapted. He also talked about things that were new to our entire culture; defining words like “social distancing” and sports teams playing with cardboard cutouts for fans. He detailed things that all the kids will want to look back on and maybe show their own kids one day!

What is one of your favorite parts of your yearbook this school year?

One of my favorite parts in our yearbook is in our fifth-grade quote section. We asked them all, “Where do you see yourself in 20 years?” The responses are so much fun to read! We had future NFL stars, doctors, interior designers and vets to name a few. It’s a great addition to our yearbook and I know the students will love to look back on it when they are older and laugh at what they wanted to be in fifth-grade!

What is something you think is fun about your yearbook that makes it different?

Every year we hold a cover contest! Kids are so creative and we get so many fabulous submissions! This is one of the ways students feel like they were involved in the yearbook process since we don’t have a yearbook club. It’s special to our school and makes each book unique and nothing like any other yearbook across the country – it speaks to us and our students.

We also sell celebration ads to parents. The parents design them on Treering’s website, drop in their own pictures and write sweet messages, quotes or something special to their child. They look so good when they all come together in the book, plus they are unique and personalized!

Treering Yearbook Heroes is a monthly feature focusing on yearbook tips and tricks.

As a parent volunteer and part-time teacher at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic School in Elk Grove, CA, Katie Thomas took over the pre-K through 8th grade yearbook, inheriting boxes of unsold books from previous years. Her first mission: to not waste people's money or the school's.

What challenges did you face as a new yearbook adviser?

Looking for a yearbook publisher that would allow us more time to complete the book so we could include spring events was a priority from the start. I also didn't want the stress of having sales quotas. Since I made the preschool pages with our previous publisher's software, I can appreciate how easy it is to create with Treering's software. That and the three-week turnaround really sold me.

At the time, I taught three-year-olds and I would transition to leading middle schoolers in the yearbook club. We started with the Treering yearbook ladder to decide what would go in the book and planned from there. It's still a work in progress on how we finalize page assignments, and for the most part, 8th-grade students create their section, and the 6th- and 7th-grade students do sports, activities, and class pages.

You sold 65 books in one week. How did you achieve that?

Really, I'm not one for pushing sales. I tapped into these existing channels to reach parents. Our school communicates through student council announcements and email blasts. When we neared our final deadline, I ensured parents knew it was the last chance to buy it for school-wide distribution, and if they waited, they'd have to pay shipping and handling. I had a handful of them. Seventy-six percent of the school community purchased books.

Also, joining Yearbook Club webinars helped. I've learned classroom management tips such as having a job board for students between projects and how to organize photos in shared folders.

What are you doing differently this year?

We started sales early and leveraged the 10% discount. We are also involving the school in choosing the look of the book: the yearbook club narrowed the themes down to five and the entire school will vote. The school’s annual motto is “Embrace Joy” and we will tie that in with the book to make it uniquely 2022-2023.

Last year, I grabbed laptops and phones to AirDrop photos to myself to upload because grades couldn't mix due to COVID protocols. I did a lot of texting to parents. This year, we are using the built-in crowdsourcing features: the students are creating their own flyers with QR codes to shared folders. The flyers say things like, “You could be featured like these photos in this year’s yearbook. Send us your back-to-school photos.”

The other big thing is I will order my printed proof sooner and try to get everything finished earlier.

QR Code is a registered trademark of DENSO WAVE INCORPORATED

Treering Yearbook Heroes is a monthly feature focusing on yearbook tips and tricks.

Uncertainty. That was the word of the year in 2020. Just two weeks before the school year began, Emily Wilson unexpectedly stepped into the role of yearbook advisor. 

At the time, Charyl Stockwell Preparatory Academy (CSPA) was one of the few in the area offering both in-person and virtual classes. Like many, they faced challenges: masked students and staff, strict social distancing, limited outside visitors, and restricted volunteer involvement. These constraints forced a complete reevaluation of traditional yearbook creation methods.

To meet these challenges, the school switched to Treering, drawn by its intuitive software, online support, and the ability to crowdsource photography—a feature that became essential with reduced staff and student participation. Now, five years later, the school is producing its fifth yearbook using Treering.

How did you become the Yearbook Adviser?

Before becoming the yearbook advisor, my career focused primarily on teaching English, literature, and creative writing. Journalism and yearbook production were never areas where I expected to excel, but I always admired our previous advisor for the award-winning program she built. Her accolades still hang in our hallway, a constant reminder that there is always room to grow. Over the years, I’ve gained confidence as an advisor, building relationships with our student staff, and producing yearbooks we’re proud of. The experience has been transformative for both me and my students. 

How has your involvement with your state’s journalism association impacted your skills and opportunities in the field?

In 2022, I was honored when the Michigan Interscholastic Press Association (MIPA) invited me to serve as a judge for their yearbook competition. It was a valuable opportunity to see what award-winning yearbooks looked like up close and personal, and it gave me insights into how our own yearbook could evolve. To my surprise, we were much closer to hitting the mark than I had anticipated. That experience gave me the courage to submit our book for critique, and we anxiously awaited feedback from MIPA. 

After three long months, the results came in: we had earned a Bronze award for our 2024 yearbook, with a commendation for excellence in photography. The recognition was a testament to my students' hard work and dedication. But what stood out most to me was their reaction. Rather than getting too comfortable with their achievement, students immediately started thinking about ways to improve for next year. 

One of my editors-in-chief said, “We were only 47 points away from earning a Silver Medal,” and immediately began brainstorming ways to improve. That mindset—that focus on what we can achieve next—is what makes this journey so rewarding. 

Let’s talk about that critique. How did it benefit your team?

One of the most valuable aspects of submitting our yearbook for critique is the detailed feedback we receive, which helps us grow. We are focusing on a unifying concept and improving coverage.

To be more competitive, we need to create more original graphics and artwork for the yearbook rather than relying on pre-made designs. Fortunately, Treering’s platform makes this process straightforward. For instance, last year, one of our International Baccalaureate Art students designed the cover art, which we seamlessly integrated as the background for the cover. 

Additionally, we learned that carrying the theme throughout the book is essential—right down to the headlines and titles. Last year’s theme was “Our Stories,” but we could have done more to tie the theme together by using idioms or expressions related to storytelling across different sections of the book. 

Design consistency is one of the easiest ways to make a bigger impact. MIPA suggested that we choose one unifying style for the entire book—colors, patterns, and layouts should be consistent throughout. This allows us to maintain a cohesive aesthetic while allowing for flexibility in layout design. 

While we did a solid job covering our school’s 11 non-athletic clubs and 17 athletic teams, we need to focus more on individual stories—highlighting specific student achievements and weaving in features that reflect the times, like the cost of living. We’re also working on improving our balance of academic content; as MIPA pointed out, “Not every student is in a club or plays a sport, but every student sits in a desk in class.” 

What is your area of strength?

We were thrilled to receive commendations for our photography, an area where we truly excel. Our focus on candid photos and capturing moments of excitement paid off. Moving forward, we’ll continue to refine our photography skills, paying more attention to cropping, editing, and ensuring that photo credits are included on every image. 

What will be your focus this year?

Writing is where we have the most room for improvement. Every photo needs a caption, and those captions should follow journalistic writing standards—using active voice, varied sentence structures, and avoiding overly descriptive language like “is running” or “is playing.” 

We also need to use secondary headlines to draw readers in and provide additional context. The critique also reminded me that, as an English teacher, I’ve been teaching students to write like English students, not like journalists. This is an area where I plan to invest more time, learning more about journalism standards so we can elevate our writing to meet those expectations. 

What is the role of a yearbook adviser at CSPA?

Our yearbook, “The Sentinel,” is a labor of love produced by a small but dedicated team. I advise a staff of four students. We serve a high school with approximately 320 students. Every year, we produce a 150-page yearbook that covers everything from the start of school through prom, delivering it to students during the last week of school. 

Additionally, we create a 28-30 page supplemental softcover book for the senior class, which includes coverage of senior-specific events like Senior Sunrise, Senior Awards, and Graduation. This supplement also features graduation speeches and letters from teachers to the graduating class. Design-wise, it complements the theme of the main yearbook. We print the student commencement speech in this supplement.

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To bring our yearbook to life, we rely on a combination of Treering’s software, Canva, and Adobe Lightroom. Our resources are modest—one laptop, one large monitor, and two Rebel cameras—but we make the most of what we have. Fundraising through Treering has helped us pay for essentials like new camera lenses, a journalism camp for our editors, and lighting equipment for portrait photography. This year, our goal is to raise enough money for a new camera and upgraded lenses to continue improving the quality of our work. 

What’s next for “The Sentinel?”

As we look ahead, we’re excited to continue improving. We’re going to hang our Bronze Medal plaque on the wall as a reminder of how far we’ve come, but our eyes are already set on the next challenge. We’ll keep pushing ourselves to tell more meaningful stories, refine our writing, and produce a yearbook that our school can be proud of. Ultimately, it’s not just about winning awards but about creating something our students, staff, and community will cherish for years.

Treering Yearbook Heroes is a monthly feature focusing on yearbook tips and tricks.

Financial constraints in college led Yearbook Hero Justin Warren to a warehouse job where he unexpectedly began a career pathway in a print shop, eventually becoming the operations manager. Rooted in his love of learning, his passion for innovation, and challenging industry standards, he moved from the print floor to directing Treering Yearbooks’ domestic, coast-to-coast print network. Early this year, Justin worked with cross-functional teams to introduce tactile elements through the Treering Heritage Collection. 

How do you respond when people tell you print is obsolete?

I’ve been told that my whole career. Something physical in someone’s hand is so valuable, even though it may sit on a shelf for a bit. It’s so much easier to pull it off the shelf to relive the memories in a beautiful, full-color book than it is to dig through your phone and find a photo you think you took seven years ago.

It’s morphed, definitely, and that’s the great thing about Treering: we’re innovators. We anticipate what the future brings while maintaining that physical connection to our memories.

Speaking of physical connection, what inspired the development of studio-designed, textured yearbook covers?

Touch is a huge component of child development. You remember something you can touch. 

One of my biggest “brings” to the company was to bring a more tactile element to our printed yearbooks. It really does bring a new dynamic. Texture has always done super well in print and is difficult to implement. I said, "We're doing this," and collaborated with our print network to create a thick, glossy polymer that extends to the end of the cover and the spine, of which we are proud. The Heritage Collection showcases the possibilities that we have in front of us. All it takes is great development and some research before we execute.

People ask all the time how we manage to have a three-week turnaround. What makes it possible?

It takes a lot of strategy. It takes a lot of preparation. It takes a lot of commitment in order to turn a digital file into a printed file, and it really comes down efficiencies. Being digital, we reduce waste and errors. If there is a problem, we can catch it immediately. We don’t have to remake or rehang plates to do a full run.

We're not going to store any inventory or print extras. Print on demand allows us to personalize and print your custom yearbook as the order comes in. That takes time. Real people look at the yearbooks (it’s not all automated) to check for quality.

Our printing network is coast-to-coast, so we are geographically positioned to service our schools with shorter transit times and increased flexibility. We are striving to be both eco-friendly and economically friendly to pass on savings to schools.

What other innovations set Treering apart?

Personalization, it’s what our thing is. Personalizations changed the world. When I first heard about it, frankly wasn't sure how, on the production side, I was going to produce it. It brought challenges and through discussions and brainstorming, we came up with a product that we can then continue to enhance. 

Portrait autoflow is another. Treering utilizes technology to solve an old school problem and be able to bring our little twist to it. Without revealing too much, this is just the beginning.

Rumor has it, that you’re also a master brewer.

My dad and I own it together. We both have full-time careers, but after work, we do sales calls and on the weekends we brew beer. No advertising. It's just literally dad and I all the way from ops to janitor. We have 30 recipes that we rotate we keep five or six going year-round. Living in the Pacific Northwest, IPAs really are the huge driver: really bitter, really floral. Those are the king of beers over here. So we have quite a few of those. We just pick and choose what we're feeling and what our customers want. I mean it's a wonderful experience and it's taught me a lot about smaller companies because I've lived in the corporate world for so long that I get to see the smaller craft of a business. It keeps me out of trouble.

Treering Yearbook Heroes is a monthly feature focusing on yearbook tips and tricks.

Meet the man who created Treering's new color picker. Engineer Nick Pasto grew up among cherry, walnut, and apple growers in Stockton, CA. In addition to his swoon-worthy homemade lasagna (yes, Pasto makes pasta) inspired by his time studying cuisine with Italian grandmas, Nick led the teams which developed many of Treering's other editor favorites:

• Recognition ads
• Spell check
• Marking pages "done"
• Polls
• Language support for Arabic, Chinese, and Hebrew characters
• Alignment tools
• Package tracking improvements

(This is not an exhaustive list by any means.)

How did you move from the classroom to the backroom?

Back then, Treering’s design software was Flash-based, and that was going out. I saw a message that they were looking for developers to change it to HTML5. The opportunity spoke to me because there was a lot of overlap between my professional career and personal interests.

While earning my art education degree, I worked as a graphic designer and animator for my college. I’ve also been an indie game developer.

[Editor's note: Nick made Super Chibi Knight with his eight-year-old daughter who served as the voice actor for the main character; she's now 18.]

How does your background as a classroom teacher make you a better developer?

So many people who work at Treering are currently making yearbooks at their kids’ schools. I’m one of the only engineers who’s served as an adviser. It helps to have real-world experience with our product because I can see it from both sides.

The leadership at Treering looks for a breadth of experience to remain customer-focused and make the best product. The strength of our team is our diversity–our experiences help with ingenuity and problem-solving.

We build in a ton of automation and templates to make things less intimidating. You don’t have to know Photoshop, Illustrator, or InDesign to do desktop publishing for your yearbook design. Treering’s software is the bridge. 

If you could tell our editors anything, what would it be?

The most impressive part of Treering as a user is the customer service.

Like many first-time advisers, I missed our deadline. The pressure of making sure kids had their books before summer was stressful. As a new teacher, it was too much on my plate.

I picked up the phone and just communicated with the CAT team and they helped me work it out by using my fundraiser to pay for expedited shipping. My students received their books on time, and I determined this is a company I am interested in learning more about. It was then I knew I wanted to work here.

Treering Yearbook Heroes is a monthly feature focusing on yearbook tips and tricks.

What could you do with a group of four elementary students? How about a middle school club of 10? April Nelson produces separate elementary and middle school yearbooks for her pre-k-12 school. And she won’t take credit for it.

Big picture: How do you manage two teams to create two different books?

My job is to advise and let the kids lead. I look over everything the students create to keep things appropriate and ensure equity in coverage. Each year I cede more control to the students.

This year, the elementary students chose their theme and the middle schoolers created their own ladder. We started with a sample layout from Treering and discussed what had to go in and what they wanted to go in the yearbook. Then, we budgeted pages appropriately.

They really wanted it to be their book. I really try to make it their book.

What does theme development look like with your elementary students?

They chose “Galaxy of Possibilities” for their yearbook theme. It’s fun. Throughout the book, they will incorporate famous quotes about possibilities and dad jokes about space. On the staff spread, it talks about teachers being rocket fuel. They designed their cover and title page. They're enthusiastic.

With only four students meeting once a week, organization is key. I helped them use folders to organize photos so we could keep everything by topic. I communicate with the students and their families regularly and use Google Classroom for assignments and questions. 

How is the middle school club different?

Their ambitions are really high, and I love that they're aiming big. But we have to stay realistic—there are only a certain number of pages and a limited amount we can include. I tell them we may need to scale it back a bit, but I’m still excited to see what they’ll create.

Typically, students come in, grab a Chromebook, and log into Treering. They check how many photos they have and figure out how many more they need. For example, they might notice that they only have photos from one volleyball game and need coverage of another. Then, someone will look up the school website to see when the next game is scheduled. 

I love that they want to just keep working on stuff.

The middle schoolers do a mix of Treering templates and their own designs. They chose to do a board game theme and hired a senior who is dual-enrolled to do the cover design. She came into one of their meetings and they shared their vision, and she drew it out.

Inside the book, the game starts in sixth grade. On the pages, they put fun spaces: they've got things like “You skipped class. Go back four spaces.” “You finished Percy Jackson. Go four spaces ahead.” 

Before partnering with Treering, how did you manage multiple books?

I didn’t! My first year advising was an elementary and a combined middle/high school book. We used to send photos to our previous publisher, and they would create the yearbook. The students didn’t like it because it lacked organization: pictures were thrown together without captions of identifying information. You couldn’t distinguish prom from a dance, and our big Earth Week celebration was sprinkled throughout. Unless you went to the school, you wouldn’t know what was what.

Switching to Treering made the yearbook more personal. We split the book by schools (elementary, middle, and high) when we made the change. It also empowered students to create the book they wanted. The elementary students are now writing basic captions.

Treering allowed them to do that.

Admin was also on board. We’re an environmental school, so our principal loved that there is no waste. We only receive what we pre-order.

How have you seen the yearbook impact students?

If you can develop that rapport with your staff and they know they have the power, they will do great things.

Treering Yearbook Heroes is a monthly feature focusing on yearbook adviser tips and tricks.

Driven: just one of the sweetest words used to describe the diligent students at Langston Hughes High School in Fairburn, Georgia. These words came straight from former graphic design teacher, adviser, and yearbook manager Deja Rolle (who is pretty driven herself, if we do say so ourselves). As a first year Treering user, Deja wanted to show the perseverance of her students throughout the challenging pandemic in this year’s yearbook.

Deja, like yearbook coordinators everywhere, knew the importance of capturing the true essence of the school year with its in-person, virtual and hybrid formats. Once Deja heard about Treering and how it gives schools the flexibility to create custom yearbooks, using collaborative tools without the constraints of deadlines, she knew it would assist in producing a unique yearbook (alley-oop for us).

Langston Hughes High School students showed their perseverance to create an inclusive yearbook. Deja, with Treering’s assistance, was able to preserve this special show of character in an unpredictable year. 

Learn more about how Deja showcased the students of Langston Hughes High School in their yearbook.

What led to you creating this past year’s yearbook with Treering?

Just like nearly every school last year, there were a variety of new challenges that came with the pandemic—and the possibility of not having a yearbook was one of them. As the school year continued, I knew someone had to take responsibility to summarize the scope of the year during COVID-19. And I knew it had to be me. I love these students and I just couldn’t take the thought of not celebrating them.

While brainstorming the best way to capture this school year, I came across Treering, which allowed me to be flexible and unique with the way I formatted the yearbook.

How did the LHHS’s students handle this past school year (2020-2021)?

If the pandemic revealed anything about our students, it’s how amazing they are, their passion for success and their entrepreneurial spirit. A lot of our students stepped up to the plate when their families needed help this year and have the proof to show it. There were a slew of entrepreneurs this year who sold all kinds of products including masks, earrings, hair wraps, clothes, etc. 

Also, our students not only brought income into their families, but some even used their time at home to pursue associate degrees. In our yearbook this past school year, we had two whole pages dedicated to students who were able to receive their associate degree while graduating from LHHS! All the students' work just drives my passion to see our students succeed.

What made this past yearbook stand out from the others?

Last school year was just crazy—everything stands out! It was so different from anything the students or I had ever experienced and will probably never experience anything quite like it again, I hope. I had to capture that in the yearbook. Since lessons were being taught in three formats, I really wanted everyone to feel included whether it was a photo submitted of their virtual workspace or text quotes from the seniors. This book really aims to capture ALL, I want to repeat ALL the students and their stories. Every year, we include everyone and their story, but what stood out the most this year was how much work it was to include everyone. 

Also, in this year’s class pictures, our students had the freedom and choice of what they wanted to be showcased, which I think was a little more fun for the students. Depending on preference, we had students submit their own portraits while others submitted selfies! This allowed our students to choose the picture they wanted to present of themselves rather than the school choosing. 

Deja Rolle now teaches at the STEM School Global Impact Academy.

Treering Yearbook Heroes is a monthly feature focusing on yearbook tips and tricks.

In high school, Sarah Coleman joined the yearbook staff for the varsity letter. As a competitive dirt bike racer, she could not earn one through school-sponsored sports. 

The yearbook became more than just a means to a jacket.

What value did being on the yearbook team bring to your high school experience?

Student journalism was a means to be involved in everything. I got to know all the students on campus—they didn’t know me—through this inside look. I was the first-ever editor of both the yearbook and newspaper. My focus was on writing (there was another editor who led the design aspect).

Now, you’re an adviser! How have things changed?

I never thought I'd be working on the yearbook again, ever in my life. Being able to knock it out with ease was pretty cool. Photos are so much easier to upload. I see in real-time what my edits do. Also, the printed proof is the actual book. I know that even this past book, I overlooked things from the computer side that I caught on the print side. I remember we used to have paper proofs. There were no tools to show us duplicate images or an easy way to duplicate layouts. It seems archaic compared to what Treering offers.

For example, during my senior year, in February, someone knocked over our server, and we lost our entire yearbook. We had a few weeks to rebuild the layouts. It was horrible. We got it done, but it was horrible. The entire book was due by March so that we could get it by the end of the year. We also made an insert with a sticky back to include more events. It was mailed out in the summer. That was the dumbest thing. What I like about Treering is that you can go all the way through the end of the school year and still get the book back in less than a month.

You’re about to begin your second yearbook for your school. What do you do to make it special?

Because we are a smaller school with a little over 120 pages, every student gets their own spread. Their fall and spring pictures are there to show growth. I put every event in the book: big ones, like a foam party, and even the little ones, like crazy sock day.

Kids loved the custom pages. They're so excited because they made their yearbook all about them. 

How do you get all the photos?

I take photos whenever I’m out and about on campus. I tell the teachers to let me know whenever they are doing something like an experiment. Teachers tell their students, “The yearbook lady is coming; look alive.” I really hate staged photos.

Our kindergarten teacher showed the others how to put the Treering app on their phones so they could share. The church secretary also takes a lot of photos. We also encouraged our parents to log in and create an account so they could add theirs. Two moms contributed a bunch. Now that the school community has seen the yearbook, I’m hoping more will participate next year.

I’m also working on getting a digital camera for teachers to use.

Any other takeaways from your progression from a student editor to a yearbook adviser?

Treering is also economically pleasing to work with. The books are a great price and nice, thick quality. You don’t have to be a professional to have a good book. The designs available just elevate everything. 

I come from a strong yearbook culture. My mom bought every yearbook for us, and I do the same for my kids. I love that if people didn’t buy one early, they can still order it. As a creative person, it’s nice to be able to make something for others. 

Coleman's photo courtesy of Fenceposts Photography, LLC.

Treering Yearbook Heroes is a monthly feature focusing on yearbook adviser tips and tricks.

David Graeve is a professional artist and full-time teacher at Houston’s Cristo Rey Jesuit College Preparatory School. As a need-based school, Cristo Rey Jesuit offers a rigorous college preparatory education that’s available to students from low-income families in the Houston area. With the pandemic and uncertainty of in-person education, Yearbook Hero David took it upon himself to identify new and innovative ways to teach students remotely while also addressing individual learning styles and needs. 

As an 11th- and 12th-grade teacher to a diverse student body—80% Latino and 20% Black—David understands the importance of preparing students for the future and exposing them to different career paths. With their yearbook creation positioned as a club at the school, the yearbook turned into the perfect tool to highlight these different career opportunities. 

Learn more about how David used yearbook creation to teach his students, many from low-income families, valuable workforce skills.

How have you used Treering Yearbooks to teach students skills they can use after high school?

Treering offers so many valuable skills for my students: skills like graphic design, marketing and communicating with customer support. These are all skills that are incredibly valuable and beneficial to life after high school. If one of my students encountered any kind of hiccup with the software this past year, I encouraged them to contact customer support on their own. Fortunately, the Treering team made this option very accessible and ultimately taught my students the importance of taking initiative and problem solving. The customer support through Treering has been fantastic. 

With Treering’s software, building the yearbook is quite easy for my students and many of them built the pages from scratch last year. This encouraged them to be creative and pursue their passions. For my students that weren’t aware of marketing or graphic design careers, yearbook creation really opened their eyes to those possibilities. 

In addition to unique skill sets, what else do you think your students learned this past year through yearbook creation?

COVID-19 truly taught my students the value of capturing real-life moments. Much of the Latino community in Houston has 2-3 family generations living under one room. This past year’s yearbook showcases so many family moments - more than any other yearbook we’ve had in the past. So although the pandemic brought forth a lot of hardship, it also brought many families closer together. I’ve seen a lot of pride shine through my students in that they’ve been able to capture those moments. 

What would you say has been the best part of using Treering this past year?

Its easy-to-use platform has taught my students how skills in the classroom can be used later on in the workforce. And how those skills - many of which have proven to be very enjoyable for them - can help them reach financial independence. I look forward to the next year in continuing our use of Treering to build onto these workforce skills. All of my students learn differently - some thrive better in the classroom while others perform better online. As a teacher, the pandemic has really shed light on the different learning styles and how we can work with different tools to ensure all students thrive. Even with the pandemic this past year, it’s critical to continue to arm our students with the skillsets they’ll need to flourish in the workforce. 

Treering Yearbook Heroes is a monthly feature focusing on yearbook tips and tricks. 

Five years ago, Yearbook Hero Arielle Shansky took over the yearbook production for her Classical Conversations Community. Leading a team of three in Central Florida, she also manages an online community for over 650 others via the CC Yearbook Support Facebook Group. As the default tech person in her social circles, she enjoys helping other homeschool yearbook coordinators plan and organize their yearbooks. 

What’s unique about a homeschool yearbook?

Everything is a volunteer job. There’s no budget and possibly no team to help. Most of us do not have a yearbook background and we have to create our systems from scratch.

That said, there are many opportunities to showcase families. Under each portrait, we do a mini interview so students’ thoughts flow throughout the book. We also do a “Family Spotlight” in our yearbook. Homeschool parents take tons of photos at home because that’s where the bulk of our education occurs. Normally, those never get printed, but with a yearbook, we are able to put those moments in there.

You said you love organization. What are some tips to share?

I track everything on my phone: running notes of things to do and hex codes I’m using. I can also monitor core book page progress and check book sales using the Treering app.

How else does Treering help?

The biggest thing is allowing families to upload directly to shared folders. I send out weekly reminders to our community so we get photos throughout the year. During National Yearbook Week, we are doing our big kickoff. We have a lot of new families this year, so our goals are to get everyone to log in and upload one photo. Whoever does that will get an entry into a drawing for a coffee gift card or something. Then whoever orders by the end of the month for the discount will get another entry. We are going with a Happy Yearbook Day theme for the kick-off (to the tune of happy birthday). One of the ladies is wearing a birthday hat and making a sign that she will wear around campus with a QR code to take people to the upload page and a box to drop their name in for the drawing.

The personalized pages are also great. I scan my kids’ art and the notes they write me to add to their books. I laugh because we only have one family photobook—the yearbook replaced that.

Treering Yearbook Heroes is a monthly feature focusing on yearbook tips and tricks. 

Yearbook Hero Lauren Casteen decided in kindergarten if she were a teacher, she could go to school every day. Her passion for diversity, equity, and inclusion transformed her approach to teaching yearbook class: instead of recruiting the top 20 students to create a book about their friends, she built a team that reflects the students whose stories they tell. In 2022, Lauren earned an M.Ed. in Urban Education with a certificate in Anti-Racism. Her pedagogical approach is to lead the yearbook class as a public history course where the goal is to accurately and thoughtfully record the history of Northern High School. 

Why should someone buy a yearbook in 2022?

As a historian, I like knowing that there is an artifact. Our yearbook students are telling future generations, “We were here!” It is something future scholars will study. Furthermore, our yearbook students have written and published something. It matters.

So much of our memory-keeping has become digital. I have 500 pictures on my Instagram, but it doesn’t compare to having something to physically go through. Digital doesn’t create a reverence for your memories. 

How do you address issues of equity with the yearbook?

When I inherited the yearbook program, it required a written application with teacher references. It limited the type of students who could apply. Now, any student can sign up regardless of grade or ability level. I run a discipline report prior to scheduling anyone in my class and have one-off conversations with students [e.g. history of truancy] as needed.

With yearbook, there are many places where different kinds of students can be successful, and I want a committed staff that is representative of the student body. We are a majority non-white, Title 1, semi-urban school. Students of all educational abilities and language backgrounds roam the halls. The yearbook class should reflect that. 

And you sold out three times.

Yes! I had to do a second order and had to open up sales to with the ship-to-home option. 

What made the Knights want the yearbook?

The yearbook staff evaluated last year’s yearbook: we found out it covered mainly the juniors and seniors. It was also very white, when the school is very diverse. We resolved to make it look like our school. 

As a school that is committed to equity, we can’t do that if we don’t know who is in the book. Since the yearbook is a historical document in the most faithful way possible, our team tagged and tracked coverage. And since my staff cannot be everywhere all the time, it is important for other people to send us things.

How did you crowdsource content?

I started with the teachers. I recorded a tutorial and emailed it, asking them to send us photos for the yearbook. The chorus and outdoor ed faculty were early adopters. I even taught the lacrosse team how to share photos via the app when they were headed to Wilmington for a game.

On our yearbook Instagram, we post sneak peeks. Someone commented that the outdoor ed page looked good. We responded, giving credit to the teacher. This created a buzz and now some teachers have a student classroom photographer to put ownership and responsibility on the kids. It also makes them want to join the yearbook staff.

Students like that the app talks to their Instagram; teachers like that it connects to their Drive.

What does the fall look like for the team at Northern?

I have 70 students signed up for the yearbook class for the 2022-23 school year. We are excited about this year’s book, as it will be the last book we’ll produce in our current building—we’re moving to a new home next year!