Yearbook hero April Nelson makes two books… and likes it

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.