Yearbook heroes

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!

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

Long-time Treering editor Janet Yieh from San Francisco, CA started gifting yearbooks when her high schooler son was in elementary school. She added a fundraiser to the cost of the yearbook so every promoting fifth-grader received a free yearbook. Now, as the Family Partnerships Coordinator at Presidio Middle School in San Francisco, CA, she ensures every eighth-grader who wants a yearbook leaves with one. 

This year you gave away 90 books. How is that possible?

In August and September, I push for early sales so parents can get the best price and I can earn free books from Treering. On September 30, I use the fundraiser to buy as many books as possible with the 10% discount. Then, in October, I do the same thing with the 5% discount.

Almost two-thirds of the graduating class purchases a full-price yearbook and I try to give away as many as possible by creating a contest. It susses out students who might not be able to afford a book and don’t want to ask for a free one.

How do you advertise?

I’m consistent with marketing: during the daily bulletin in homeroom, teachers show the tiny URL to register for the contest. In parent newsletters, there is an ad saying, “Hey, your kid could win a free book!” When parents hear about the book contest, some still purchase the book.

I also strategically reach out to teachers to see if they know any students who want to win a free book. It’s actually hard to get students to fill out the form.

What other tips do you have?

The students in the yearbook club received their books a day early. This created excitement and I sold out of the extra yearbooks I had on hand.

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

In our first-ever parent contest, Treering Yearbooks asked parents to capture and share their child’s unique POV. Elementary winner Tawanna Edwards from Cantonment, FL loves to play on words and used the first letter of her daughter Amani’s name to guide her design efforts.

We love how you organized your custom pages around your “A Moments.” 

You’ve got to always bring your A-game! This year has been a year of many firsts and I created our custom pages to celebrate our activities, accomplishments, and accolades! 

Talk us through each spread.

Activities: We have SO much fun participating in activities, whether it is schoolwide, or classroom-driven, Ammani wants to be a part of it all. A highlight has been the Bottle Biography Report on Katherine Johnson, a NASA mathematician who loved to count and helped change the world with numbers that soared astronauts to the moon and home safely. Ammani is great with her hands, and it has been amazing to see her little mind at work to create a masterpiece. 

Accomplishments: We love our school and have cub pride in everything that we do! From spirit wear to fundraisers, we support every cause and do our part.

Accolades: Ammani has been on Cloud 9 with all her accomplishments, especially the yearbook cover contest, so we are embracing this accolade and sharing this moment with every student on the front cover of every yearbook this year.

Clearly, you had a plan for your custom pages–how do you begin to organize an amazing year like Amani’s?

Action speaks louder than words! Every picture chosen was "A Moment" that focused on what this year truly meant to us. Those actions captured the essence of success from many different angles. 

I choose pictures of activities that Ammani is amped to be a part of and those that have us attached at the hip. Life is too short, so I try not to miss opportunities to show my support, whether it is Polka Dot Day coloring circles on her face or Running Club Relay with a 5K race and coming in LAST place. 

What’s your favorite part about the process?

I am the Author! Being a quality engineer by day and a Treering page designer by night, I can create and give existence to anything my heart desires. The amazing part: I have access to graphics that look like me! Treering took the time to add that special touch to make me feel important, like I was part of the process.

What advice would you give to another mom who is just getting started?

Activate your creativity! Take the time to explore all options available to you before you customize: from backgrounds to layouts to text fonts to graphics. 

Have F.U.N. (Fully Understand Newness). When I started this journey, I had no idea there was so much to choose from that I did not take the time to truly learn the process. It can be a bit overwhelming, but each year I learn something new that can be used to make my custom pages stand out better than the year before. 

There is no right or wrong way to customize your pages… create your own F.U.N. (Find Ur Niche) and have fun at it!

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

In our first-ever parent contest, Treering Yearbooks asked parents to capture and share their child’s unique POV. Homeschool mom Kirsten Megaro from Netcong, NJ created a spread to celebrate the growth in all areas of her three kids' lives: educational accomplishments, deepening friendships and family relationships, creative projects, and current hobbies and activities.

How did you decide what to include on your custom pages?

Our homeschool co-op offers a mix of core and extracurricular classes. We love how our yearbook documents the classes and field trips we enjoy with our group each year. The custom pages allow us to see a wider view of our year.

I like to include a casual portrait of each kid from the year as a focal point, then use larger text boxes to give an overview of the main activities we participated in during the year. I fill in the rest of the spread with some of our favorite photos with captions to share the accomplishments they had, hobbies they pursued, important people in our lives, and field trips we took throughout the year.

The judges loved the color scheme as well as the repeating elements of the rounded rectangles.

I love playing around with layout: moving pictures, adding frames, making it organized, but just a little quirky too. 

How do your kids help tell their stories?

We take so many pictures that it’s hard to narrow them down. I usually start by choosing my favorites that give a good overview of our year, then ask my kids what information and pictures they want to include to remember for the future.

What advice would you give to another parent who is just getting started?

Start simple: use a template for your layout—there are a lot of great options! Drop your pictures in and add a few captions. Add a creative touch here or there to start, and each year, you’ll get more and more confident and capable of showing your personality and style through your pages. 

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

In our first-ever parent contest, Treering Yearbooks asked parents to capture and share their child’s unique POV. Self-described Band Dad Paul Nisely from Charlotte, NC entered the senior tribute he created for his son, Jason.

Paul featured his son’s involvement as a trumpet player in both the marching band and the school’s band as well as the friendships he’s built and maintained throughout 9-12 grade. On the right-facing page, he created the show-stopper that had us all choked up.

How did you decide what to include on your custom pages?

I have been taking a first day of school photo of my son in the same spot in front of our house every year since kindergarten and wanted those memories on one page. I have seen this done many times before.

In addition to seeing the changes in your child, you can also see the changes in the background scenery. We had to remove the brick edging because it was a fire ant nest which we realized after a photo. The different hairstyles, clothes, and backpacks show how much he has changed and how quickly the years go by. Every time I look at that page it makes me tear up.

Paul, let me tell you, there was a lot of emotion from the parents on the panel after seeing your spread. A reverent hush permeated the meeting, and then we read your story.

I love telling a story and getting emotional reactions with my photos. I was a newspaper photographer and went to school for photography and absolutely love seeing “visual moments” and documenting them. When the marching band season is finished I love putting together the photo book for that season. Even though my son is graduating I have already told the band directors I would love to keep taking photos of the band and making more keepsake photo books for the kids and their families.

Since you’re also a professional photographer, will you share some tips?

Take a lot of photos! You can’t run out of film: it's all digital now. Be there for the moments that are important for your child and capture them. Be patient with your child and be patient when taking photos. Then tell a story with those photos.

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

In March, Treering Yearbooks announced its 2022 #TreeringMemoriesMatter Design Contest for yearbook advisers, coordinators, and editors to share their unique perspectives from their campus community. It’s time to meet the winners and glean their best practices for yearbook spread design.

Jazmine Richey is a student editor from Grandview High School in Grandview, WA who was nominated by her editor-in-chief Lilly Kassinger for her basketball spread. This spread caught our eye and became the one to beat for several reasons: it shows basketball season from the fans and team’s POV, it’s modular, and there’s a highlight reel produced by Jazmine linked to the QR code.

Jazmine, what all went into creating this spread?

I wanted to create a spread with not only the sports players included but the huge student section our school held. I created a highlight video for our boys' basketball team and wanted it to be included on my spread to show parents, students, or anyone who buys a yearbook. I took a picture of our own basketball hoop and wanted to incorporate each of our boys by giving them their own basketball.

It was an exciting year for you: national recognition for your yearbook staff, basketball state tournament playoffs, a crowd in the stands, and a new campus building!

They're pretty excited, especially because it's everyone's first year in the yearbook class. We're all really glad our hard work has paid off like this. More than anything, this yearbook spread represents both the creativity of our yearbook team and the passion our school showed during the winter sports season. 

Lilly, please describe your relationship with Jazmine and why you nominated her.

Jazmine is one of our spread developers. In addition to creating her spreads, she does photography and edits videos to create content for our school. My role as editor-in-chief is to edit the spreads made by our team to make them fit together and take care of the rest of the book's loose ends.

How does your team design the book?

Our team makes all our spreads in Adobe InDesign and everyone creates their own layouts. As the editor, it's always nice to see the way each person on the team likes to design their spread, because once they make a couple you can see what their style is. Then I get to make the little tweaks to tie them all together for our book

Explain the big tie-in: the red line.

The spread is built around what we call the Red Line of Equity, which is a red line that is on our hallway tiles in real life. As this is our first year in our new building, we decided to incorporate it into our yearbook as a design element featured on every page, tying back into our theme of "Paving The Way" as we take the new parts of the school and turn them into traditions. The line represents not only the presence of the Red Line of Equity in our everyday lives but the beginning of the creation of traditions here at GHS.

Our school's yearbook's main strength is our theme and the way it is present in all aspects of our design. Our Red Line doesn't run through every page just because. We gave it a meaning. Just think about what story are you trying to tell about your school and dive right into making it into a reality.

What advice would you give to another student who is just getting started?

The most important thing is to have a vision.

QR Code is a registered trademark of DENSO WAVE INCORPORATED.

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

In March, Treering Yearbooks announced its 2022 #TreeringMemoriesMatter Design Contest for yearbook advisers, coordinators, and editors to share their unique perspectives from their campus community. It’s time to meet the winners and glean their best practices for yearbook spread design.

Grace Montemar is the Yearbook Club Adviser from Edison Regional Gifted Center in Chicago, IL. Her team earned first place in the middle school division for their “Aesthetic” spread. The reporting and design distinguished this spread.

Tell us about this show-stopper.

While we like to include several recurring spreads that appear in our school’s yearbook each year, we still like to introduce a few new features as well. This fresh feature allowed Yearbook Club to spotlight classmates from various grades whose fashion sense stood out from the crowd. The students who were invited to participate enjoyed answering a brief questionnaire that helped to illustrate their distinctive style.

How does Edison RGC design the book? 

I typically like starting with a general template but then customizing it to suit the needs of the specific spread. Some of my yearbook students prefer creating a layout from scratch, which takes much longer. But if they’re committed to doing it this way (and time allows for it), then it’s totally fine. 

I also try to manage expectations upfront so they understand that there will usually be a lot of polishing involved before their spread is fully ready for publishing in the yearbook. One thing that my yearbook students love is seeing their names attached to their work. It gives them a sense of pride to see their byline displaying their name and grade on any spreads that they’re involved in.

What does your role look like as a club adviser?

My responsibilities include recruiting and training the 6th-8th graders who join Yearbook Club, running the weekly meetings, empowering the students to help build the ladder and decide content, art directing them in designing their layouts, and helping them to proofread, edit, and write copy. 

I also handle the marketing aspects––sending announcements to key channels for sharing with the intent of promoting sales with parents, as well as encouraging photo submissions.

How do you gather photos?

Pre-pandemic, the majority of photos were taken by myself, and/or I recruited parents who had an eye for photography to cover events that I couldn’t attend. With in-person events slowly starting to happen this school year, I’ve been able to resume taking some photos but we’re still relying more on community submissions than we have in past years. In order to keep the submissions coming, we periodically request specific photos throughout the year (to avoid receiving an onslaught of images too late in the production timeline).

What advice would you give to another person who is just getting started?

Congrats on accepting your role with the yearbook! It can feel overwhelming to take on this endeavor but you’ll do just fine. Here are some tips to help you: 

1. Take things one step at a time––but don’t wait. If you work on the yearbook little by little, regularly, and continuously, it’ll be much easier to produce, as opposed to cramming and rushing everything all at once at the end. 
2. Ask for help from your community when you need it. Need more photo submissions? Be sure to ask for help from the room parents and PTO in spreading the word. Still trying to recruit students? Ask for help from the principal or certain teachers in drumming up interest. You’d be surprised who’s willing to help (and how) if you just ask.

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

In March, Treering Yearbooks announced its 2022 #TreeringMemoriesMatter Design Contest for yearbook advisers, coordinators, and editors to share their unique perspectives from their campus community. It’s time to meet the winners and glean their best practices for yearbook spread design.

Last year, Elyse Martinez from Del Norte Heights Elementary School in El Paso, TX submitted a face mask fashion spread for the inaugural #TreeringMemoriesMatter Design Contest. The spread won second place. Fast forward a year, and her design earned the top prize among the elementary schools. 

Congratulations, Elyse! 

I believe that two years of national recognition tells the community that our yearbook is timely and a great representation of current events. It lets the community know that much love and intent goes into the creation of a book that they can cherish as they look back on the memories of their child.

I am very competitive and I'm also very proud of the work I put into the yearbook. I also love to win stuff! The option to win additional free yearbooks allows us to provide books as an incentive and a reward for students who otherwise might not have the opportunity to purchase the yearbook.

Tell me how your school community responded.

We are excited and proud! As I began sharing with students, they cheered—especially the class that was key in planning the Sept. 11 tribute. They were the ones who read special excerpts to commemorate the event. One wrote a poem she read out loud, and our Music teacher played a special musical selection. We invited our local fire department as well as the JROTC unit from our high school, Bel Air High School. It was an exceptional morning that didn’t leave a dry eye on the field.

What does your position as Campus Reporter entail?

My role is to document the activities on our campus that celebrate our students and then I post them on our social media accounts. Because I take copious amounts of photos, I have an ample supply to use in the yearbook. I have learned that it is important to create folders for each event and drop them in as soon as possible. That makes it so much easier to create the pages as I already have the pictures grouped by event.

Once you have the photos, how do you begin the design process?

I start with the Treering Yearbooks templates to lay out the photos. Then I add or adjust as necessary to fill it up with all the pictures I’ve taken. When I design my yearbook, I try to include as many events that happened on campus as possible. Because when families look back at their yearbook, I want them to have fond memories of their experiences.

What advice would you give to another yearbook coordinator who is just getting started?

If someone was just starting out on their yearbook, I would tell them, “You can never take enough pictures!” 

It is so easy to snap a photo with our digital cameras (especially our phones!) and you can easily cast aside those that don’t come out. You can never recapture a moment that has already passed.

Secondly, although seeing and capturing your students engaged in an activity is easy and fast, parents can not resist when you capture their child looking at the camera and smiling as they enjoy whatever it is they are doing. Those smiles—they are priceless!

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

Meet Abby, Treering’s Community Advocate Team (CAT) Director. Not only does she advocate for schools and parents who need support, but she also advocates for the team she leads by creating a positive, proactive environment.

Do you have a yearbook story for us?

In 7th grade, I won the athlete of the year superlative. The photographer set up her photoshoot after a workout and expected me to do a chin-up. I was a swimmer. The resulting image showed me with my tongue out, hair in disarray, and shirt pulling from my shorts. It told people, “I’m a great athlete, but a mess everywhere else.” I always wondered why they didn’t photograph me in my element, the pool.

And thus, you began fixing yearbook issues! You’re in the midst of our busiest season because April through May are when our spring deliveries go to print.

Yes, this is my favorite time. I started hyping up the team in January by letting them know we are approaching the final stretch. It’s now, in the 11th hour, when customers are putting the final touches on their masterpieces and inevitably things are going to go wrong.

Last summer, we increased our permanent staff to better serve customers. We also increase seasonal help during this time and extended the hours phone and email support are available.

What other new initiatives have you begun?

We are constantly evolving. In fall, we started Welcome Walk-Throughs for new yearbook editors so they are ready to cheerlead their own book. During these one-on-one sessions, an advocate goes over page count, shipping, dates and deadlines, yearbook promotion, and how to engage the school community, set up folders/photo storage, complete portrait autoflow, and go print ready. It’s a lot! We really want to build confidence.

Every day, we learn from customers, and many updates to the app or new themes have come from them! 

How does it feel to see your ideas in motion?

We are just scratching the surface! Last year, I wanted to do something fun for our customers and recognize our community by rewarding them for doing a great job and for all the hours they put in. The #TreeringMemoriesMatter came from that. I’m excited to see how it expanded to the #YearbookHero and #TreeringMemoryMaker contests.

There are always things we can do along the way to help people smile. Whether it’s these large-scale contests or telling yearbook editors what looks great in their books—it’s about kindness. Our customers put hours they don’t have into their craft.

When people think of “support,” they probably envision a cube farm with a bunch of headsets and scripted responses. How is Treering Yearbooks different?

The work culture at Treering Yearbooks is what attracted me to the company in 2012. Our focus has always been on customer service. When most help centers have a “turn and burn” philosophy, Treering doesn’t monitor call times. Our advocacy team is trained to anticipate future needs and educate editors. I tell them, “Answer the unasked questions.”

Every year, satisfaction surveys consistently mention how much yearbook editors and parents appreciate the focused time they receive on the phone from our agents. 

If you could tell a Treering yearbooks customer anything, what would it be?

The CAT team is here to help you every step of the way in your yearbook journey and we are here to help you when you are overwhelmed. There’s no limit to what we won’t do for them (in the yearbook).

Operative phrase: In the yearbook. Visit/favorite/bookmark help.treering.com for more.

Treering Yearbook Heroes is a monthly feature focusing on yearbook adviser (and in this case, student editor) tips and tricks.

This year we at Treering called on all our schools’ parents, teachers, and students to nominate yearbook heroes in a first-ever peoples’ contest: #YearbookHero. The yearbook callout contest was prompted by our empathy and true appreciation for our yearbook editors.

Klamath Union High School senior Bailyn Amos won first place in the high school division; her team nominated her because she led them in problem-solving how to produce a yearbook in the 2020-2021 school year. From collecting photos from students to gaining valuable skills that will stick with her for years to come, Bailyn shares her experience leading her staff in creating a beautiful yearbook Klamath Union High School students will treasure for years to come. 

What does it mean to you to be Klamath Union High School’s Yearbook Hero?

Being a Yearbook Hero means that I have the ability to give back to my school and express how the school year was and all the good times we had. 

How did you go about getting the photo submission for the yearbook? How did you motivate your peers to get involved, especially those that weren’t involved in the media design class?

I motivated my peers by making every minute spent working a fun experience. We turned work into a mini party and played lots of music and watched lots of movies! With some of my friends who weren't in media design classes, I spent a lot of time on calls with them working at home. Treering made it really easy to work on the yearbook anywhere and at any time.

What advice would you give to students for gathering photos from parents? In your opinion, what are some tips for talking to parents about yearbook needs as it could be viewed as intimidating for some students? 

The school sent out a lot of notices and emails to not only students, but the parents as well informing them on deadlines and such. Treering was a great tool to help gather as many quality photos for the yearbook as possible. We also leveraged social media to ensure we had plenty to choose from!

What kind of leadership skills do you feel you implemented during the past year when leading yearbook creation? 

Starting off, I felt like I didn't have much leadership skills other than being loud. But by the end, I picked up so many different skills. I learned how to better communicate what needs to be done and how it can be done. I also feel more comfortable being in a leadership position and am so much more confident in my work, which is something I struggled with in the past.

How has being involved with the yearbook inspired your career choices? 

Being involved with the yearbook inspired me to pursue a career in teaching because it showed me how much I enjoyed teaching how everything worked and how to build up skills. Overall it was a lot of fun and something I can see myself doing in the future.

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

This year we at Treering called on all our schools’ parents, teachers, and students to nominate yearbook heroes in a first-ever peoples’ contest: #YearbookHero. The yearbook callout contest was prompted by our empathy and true appreciation for our yearbook editors.

Students Izzy Stewart and Lila Viselli from Richmond Middle School, located in Richmond, Maine won first place in the middle school division of our nationwide contest; they were nominated by their adviser Becca Redman for their work in restarting the yearbook after a six-year hiatus—even when the pandemic hit and the girls had to work on the yearbook from home!

What does it mean to you to be Richmond Middle School’s Yearbook Heroes? 

We all think it’s important to get recognized for the work you’ve done when the opportunity presents itself! And in this case, it was Treering’s #YearbookHero Contest. It was quite the surprise to get awarded for the yearbook, and it feels great to be recognized for all of the work that was put into it.

What was it like to bring the yearbook back after six years?

We were thrilled to bring the yearbook back and learned so much as a team - about design, collaboration, communication and time-management. It was a really rewarding experience that hopefully will help students in their other activities and classes. I think it would have been exciting under any circumstance, but we all felt even more satisfied with our work because we put it together during a pandemic, when we were all at home. We had to be creative. I think last year's book reflected lessons we learned the first year, and we see the book getting better with every edition.

How did you gather photos when you were at home? How did you involve and motivate your classmates to contribute to the yearbook? 

Ms. Redman: I sent a LOT of emails and contacted parents on Facebook to ask permission to use their photos of school activities in the fall, and to contribute to the quarantine collage. At one point I also gathered the entire team of middle school teachers in a Zoom meeting and took a screenshot of all our smiling faces. It was captioned with a "We Miss You" message. I think that was special for the students, and will definitely be a memento from an unprecedented year.

Izzy and Lila: When we were at home, we’d email a lot of people consistently, including classmates and coaches, in order to motivate them to send us pictures. We also contacted parents to see if they could send us pictures that they’d taken of students and events.

Ms. Redman, how is Richmond Middle School’s Yearbook Club going?

This year, things are going really well! We are still in the planning stages, but definitely learning from the past. For example, after taking photos during Spirit Week and Halloween, we created those pages immediately at the following meeting. I’m sure this will pay off in the spring. One of our past mistakes was definitely leaving a lot of the actual book editing until the end. I'm glad to have a lot of 6th graders expressing interest in the club this year and hopefully they will stay with the club through middle school and be leaders in the future. 

I am also lucky to have some really proactive team members who take initiative to take photos during important events—I don't need to remind them! Since Izzy and Lila have graduated from 8th grade, they are definitely missed this year! With that said, I have plans to bring them on board to come and help me teach the current middle schoolers a few key Treering skills. We’ll be working on portraits soon, so that’s definitely something we’ll be focusing on with Treering in the near future.

Izzy and Lila, now that you’re in high school, what advice would you give younger students who are involved in the yearbook? 

Never give up and push through obstacles the best that you can. It’s always ok to ask questions and get help! For us, it was very rewarding in the end to bring back the yearbook by using Treering and for everyone to give us positive feedback. It feels good to leave middle school knowing that we brought the yearbook back and left them with a solid foundation to build off of this year and for years to come.