Treering Blog

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.

As any yearbook adviser will likely concur, one of the most beautiful sights on the internet is the celebratory confetti that fills your screen when you hit “print ready.” Now that summer break is underway and your yearbook has gone to print, it’s time to indulge in well-deserved relaxation. Whether you're opting for a tropical vacation or a cozy staycation, the Treering team has curated a selection of delightful beach reads and captivating podcasts to enhance your leisure time.

Beach reads to dive into

If you're an avid reader with a never-ending list of books to conquer, now is the perfect time to get caught up in a good read. Here are a few to add to your shortlist:

1. One Italian Summer by Rebecca Searle (recommended by Chrissy K., Customer Success Manager): A 30-year-old married woman from Los Angeles, finding herself adrift after her mother’s death, travels to Italy on a long-awaited vacation they had planned to take together. (Kirkus Reviews)
2. Trust by Hernan Diaz (recommended by Bobby H., Head of Growth): A riveting novel set in a bygone America that explores family, wealth, and ambition through linked narratives rendered in different literary styles, a complex examination of love and power in a country where capitalism is king. (The Pulitzer Prizes)
3. Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell (recommended by Ayesha M., Sales Development Representative): Ten years after her teenage daughter disappears, a woman crosses paths with a charming single father whose young child feels eerily familiar... (Greenwich Library)
4. The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan (recommended by George K., Head of Product): In 1949, four Chinese women, recent immigrants to San Francisco, begin meeting to eat dim sum, play mahjong, and talk. United in shared unspeakable loss and hope, they call themselves the Joy Luck Club. Rather than sink into tragedy, they gather to raise their spirits and money. (Amazon)

Poolside podcasts

If you prefer to relax with headphones by the pool, here are some podcast recommendations that are sure to pique your interest:

1. Gee Thanks. Just Bought It! hosted by Caroline Moss (recommended by Megan P., Marketing Manager): Ever bought something you loved SO much that you couldn't stop telling everyone about it? Los Angeles-based writer and host Caroline Moss invites interesting, smart, and savvy guests to evangelize their favorite buys in the hopes of helping you become a smarter and more informed shopper.
2. The Way I Heard It, hosted by Mike Rowe (recommended by Erin M., Sales Development Representative): From pop culture to politics, history to Hollywood, each mystery is a true-ish tale about someone you know, filled with facts that you don’t. Delivered with Mike’s signature blend of charm, wit, and ingenuity, these stories are part of a larger mosaic—full of surprising revelations, sharp observations, and intimate, behind-the-scenes moments drawn from Mike’s life and career.  
3. On Purpose, hosted by Jay Shetty (recommended by Shannon H., Sales Development Representative): Jay Shetty’s purpose is to make wisdom go viral. His podcast brings fascinating conversations with some of the most insightful people in the world straight to viewers worldwide.
4. Hey Dude... the 90s Called, hosted by Nickelodeon child stars David Lascher and Christine Taylor from the cult classic show Hey Dude (recommended by Erika Lin P., Marketing Manager): You won’t be Clueless about your favorite shows when the crew from West Beverly and Bayside High, among others, share gossip, coming of age takes, on set challenges, and fan encounters.

Embrace the vacation vibes

Whether you prefer turning the pages of a good book or immersing yourself in a fascinating podcast, we hope these suggestions enhance your well-deserved break from yearbook responsibilities. (If you can’t help yourself, check out this Summer Yearbooking blog.)  

Happy Summer!

We always say we will get started on yearbook planning over the summer. Raise your hand if you follow through. (My hand is down too.) Camp Yearbook, Treering's two-day virtual yearbook planning course, is back. It's part large-group training, part small-group mentoring and idea sharing. And it's 100% live.

The goal: have the first six weeks of yearbooking planned.

Register for an upcoming virtual session. Treering's Yearbook Club features virtual workshops on theme, design, and team training. Bring your questions.

‍What to expect

Treering's Camp Yearbook is a cameras-on, all-in yearbook planning experience.

Event structure

Both days are three hours of large-group training and smaller breakouts designed for you to get all your questions answered.

We'll provide the goal-setting worksheets, ladders, idea decks, and resources because we want you to finish Camp Yearbook with your first six weeks of yearbooking planned.

Based on your feedback, Camp Yearbook’s sessions are even more specialized:

• Getting Rooted: designed for yearbook creators with fewer than three years with Treering, this session is focused on time-saving tips, design basics, what to do in class, and all the must-know info to create and market your yearbook.
• Branching Out: for experienced advisers looking to level up their yearbook design or classroom pedagogy, this session is all about intermediate and advanced features such as creating styles, adding content to portrait pages, yearbook staff structure, and problem-solving.

Register via the Yearbook Club webinars page.

Treering mentors

All attendees will be in a small group led by a Treering staff member who served—or currently serves—as a yearbook adviser. In groups specific to school style and yearbook team structure, you can ask questions about grading, crowdsourcing, club structure, page count, and whatever else you need answered. (Your camp counselors aren't Treering life coaches, but close.)

Grow together

Breakout groups for parent volunteers, solo yearbook coordinators, educators, and club leaders mean you get meaningful support and specific-to-you resources.

Register NOW for Camp Yearbook 2025

Camp Yearbook 2025 FAQs

Your questions deserve answers!

How is Camp Yearbook different from Treering Live (TRL)?

TRL is Treering’s flagship event. During National Yearbook Week, TRL will have all the design training, coveted prizes, and organization inspiration yearbook advisers have come to expect. We look forward to it as much as you do!
Camp Yearbook is a summer PD program for yearbook coordinators and advisers who want to get more from their program through professional mentoring and collaborative idea-sharing. It’s a cameras-on, all-in yearbook planning experience.

How do I know which session to attend?

Camp Yearbook is structured differently this year: based on your feedback, we have the yearbook overview to support newer advisers and a second session to challenge the veterans.  
BOTH have sneak peeks, specialized group training, and breakouts with Treering mentors.

What do I need to prepare for Camp Yearbook?

Make sure Zoom is up-to-date. This helps with breakout sessions and sound quality.

If possible, have previous copies of your yearbook and the 25-26 school calendar.

How much is it?

Free ninety free. Charging extra for support and training is not our thing.

Will I get CE/PD hours for attending?

Yes! Upon request, attendees will receive a certificate for six hours of yearbook production and classroom planning.

Can students attend?

Nope. Consider this a break… a working break.

Will Camp Yearbook be recorded?

Camp Yearbook is an interactive, experiential event. Recordings will not be made public.

Photo collages get a bad rap. Poorly designed spreads without uniform spacing or an overarching theme are little more than a photo dump. (I actually think that’s how my MIL would describe what I do as a yearbook mom. “She just puts pictures on pages.”) Executed well, they become standout spreads. 

How many photos should i put in a collage?

Answering a question with a question: is it even a collage if it has fewer than 15 photos? Too few can make the page look sparse, while too many can make it cluttered and overwhelming.

A good range for a collage spread is roughly 20-30 photos. While you can find layouts with up to 65 photo boxes among Treering’s 1000s of pre-designed templates, more photos mean smaller photos. Smaller photos make it difficult to discern who is in the picture. 

That’s the point of a collage: to increase coverage of events and individuals. 

Two must-have collage pages

When our team looks at yearbooks, the standout books have collage pages for each class or grade and the major school events. While collage pages are a great way to include many photos, too many can become monotonous. Aim to limit collage pages to around 10-15% of the total page count of the yearbook. This keeps the content varied and engaging.

Class collages

Pairing class photos with a collage of candids gives each class a spread of their own. It shows how each class is different. This is also an easy way to ensure each student is in the book more than once: their “official” photo and a fun photo.

School event pages

A collage page makes it easy to cover all-school events such as the jogathon or an awards ceremony, where you end up with 100s of photographs. Other ideas include:

• Fan sections at home games
• Movie night
• Father-daughter dance
• Homecoming and spirit week
• Game faces for student-athletes
• Vacations (summer, ski week, etc.)
• Field day
• Spring musical (include rehearsal photos!)

Should I include captions on a collage page?

Captions provide context for the photo. At a minimum, you should include ident captions. Below or beside the photos, add the students’ names and grades [e.g. Soren Ham (1) and Evangeline Romero (1)]. 

Middle and high school staffs should aim to add body copy in the form of a story to unite the spread. 

Including collage pages in your yearbook is a popular way to add more photos and showcase the story of your school year. 

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

Yearbook Hero Amy Windsheimer transformed a yearbook program on the chopping block into a thriving journalism class. After a year of co-creating Brush Middle School's book with a colleague, they opened it up for students. Windsheimer wanted the class to focus on both visual and oral communication skills. And she nailed it.

You truly collaborated with your whole community. Tell us what you did.

We used some of our yearbook fundraising money to purchase two cameras, and a local photographer came in and showed the kids how to use them. The kids really got into it.

At the end of the school year, I reached out to news and media outlets because I wanted to take them to a newspaper printing place. We toured Townsquare Media, which has three different radio stations in Windsor, CO. The kids recorded a radio intro and outro. They played with the green screen.

A couple of the DJs taught us how the morning show works and shared their career path. We learned about their college experiences and about radio advertising, which was a cool 360 because that’s how we started the year: Our secondary school sells ads together. For a field trip, I took my yearbook class out into the community to do in-person sales.

How did you make selling ads in-person less scary for middle school students?

One unit of my yearbook class focused on public speaking. We talked about professionalism and public relations. The kids spent a week crafting and practicing an ad pitch for local businesses. 

First, they went around and told any adult in the building who was interested in listening and sold them yearbook ads. Then, we had some simulations to prepare them to get turned down. I actually had one of the principals tell them, "Nope, I'm not interested," or “Well, I don't want to go as high as that route. What about this route?" 

When we went out, they had matching T-shirts. There was a process for receiving and depositing funds in the activities account. The kids also worked with the business to create the ad.

We have a restaurant in town that purchased an ad from a pair of girls and said, "Well, do you guys want a cinnamon roll?" They had cinnamon rolls the size of a small plate. A family-owned bowling alley gave the middle and high school staff an hour of bowling to close out the day.

How many pages of ads did you end up with?

We filled nine pages. Our town has many awesome businesses, and they are so supportive. 

How else do your students create the book?

It took us a while to decide on our the theme of our yearbook. They came up with five options, and they had to limit it to three, and then they finally decided on one. I told them to choose whatever style they wanted to make. Make it fun, make it creative, make it their book. And they really took off. 

We broke the ladder down into fall sports and activities. I assigned two kids per page. One kid would sit there dictating, and the other kid would be working. 

I rolled out a big touchscreen TV on a cart daily. Somebody would use it to work on their page. The best part about that TV was that it was big enough to see the layout easier, and it was more kid-friendly. 

We’d also use it at the end of our deadline: I would make them all go through and proofread and edit and make sure that there weren't any pictures with inappropriate signs or anything that could not be school-appropriate. Then, I would see if there were any other pictures that we could add to it.

We had four mini deadlines: October 31, another one at Christmas, at the end of the third quarter, and then, of course, our yearbook had to be in by the end of April. It was a mad rush in April to get everything done.

I don’t see many middle school books with captions. How do you do it?

Creating captions is really hard, especially when the yearbook kids don't know all of the other kids. I'd encourage them to go speak to a specific teacher and see if they can help out. We used all our resources. 

You equipped your students with public speaking, design, and sales skills. What else?

We have these big screens around campus that play a slideshow. I shared the Google Drive folders our students use to compile pictures of each activity. It’s as much real-time as we can possibly get. I watched kids stop and watch the pictures, and it's huge. 

They're like, "Oh yeah, that was a fun picture to take." Or, "Oh, yeah, that was a fun activity that we did. Oh, that was funny." And there are these moments somebody posed and didn't know they were posing, and we got it on camera.

Adding marketing to the list.

When they go into high school, I feel like many of them who wanted to be in the yearbook class will take what we learned and take it to the next step of what the yearbook looks like.

For a lot of yearbook advisers, the question of which students end up on their yearbook staff is outside their control—even if they don’t want it to be.

And while you can do a lot to influence that question, it’s still the teacher’s equivalent to rolling of the dice. Which means you could spend a lot of time focused on building your dream yearbook staff, only to find out it can’t happen for a number of reasons outside your control.

When it comes to your yearbook program, then, don’t just ask, Who are the right students for my yearbook staff? Make sure you ask, What’s the best way to structure my yearbook staff for my students and my goals?, as well. Because that second question might set you and your yearbook staff for success in more ways than the first question ever could.

Focusing on the right structure for your yearbook staff will provide these advantages:

• Ensure the work your students do is aligned with your goals for the book, giving you a better chance of meeting your goals for the book.
• Ensure your students work in roles suitable to their experience and interests, giving them an opportunity to experience success early and learn a specific set of skills that interests them.

Inside this post, we’ll explore how to organize your yearbook staff for these advantages, plus the basic positions you’ll need to fill for a successful year. Read on.

Making your yearbook staff structure fit your needs

When organizing your yearbook staff, you have two choices for structure: organize your staff by responsibilities, or organize your staff by sections of the book.

Understanding the advantages (and disadvantages) of both types of yearbook staff structures will make picking the right one for your team easier. That being the case, let’s break them down.

Organizing by responsibility.

A more traditional structure for large yearbook staffs, this approach mimics the type of organizational hierarchy that students will find out in the real world. It provides each member of a staff the opportunity to work on a core responsibility, giving them better experience in a select area.

If you have a large returning group of students, this can be an easy organizational structure to implement. You’ll know your students’ strengths and interests, and you’ll be able to match them to roles that will be the best fit for them.

The advantage here is clear: Your students will become rockstars in their given roles. As the year progresses, so, too, will your students skills. The layouts and designs will get better, the photos will get better, the writing will get better. Hard to turn down, right?

There are, though, a couple drawbacks to organizing your staff in this fashion. For one, you need a decent sized yearbook staff—and that’s something not every yearbook adviser has. If you don’t have a class smaller than 12 students or so, you’ll likely be asking students to focus on multiple responsibilities.

For another, your job as a classroom manager will get a little hectic. Each responsibility on a yearbook staff—layout and design, copy, photography—could be taught as year-long, stand-alone courses. And if you’re students are diving deep on a specific responsibility, they’re likely to want the knowledge and challenges that come along with that deep dive. Figuring out how to teach three different subjects to three different sets of students for the entire year, then, can be challenging.

Organizing by sections of the book

When you’re running a lean and mean yearbook staff, everyone needs to get their hands dirty on everything. And that’s exactly what this organizational structure allows.

For small yearbook staffs and for staffs where you know little about your students’ strengths and interests, giving everyone the chance to design, write and photograph allows for more exploration, skill development, and overall interest in the book.

Organizing your yearbook staff by sections of the book will give everyone a specific task, keep them focused, and help ensure each section (if not the whole book) has a cohesive feel. Pretty much everyone we’ve ever talked yearbooks with would agree it’s nice when that happens.

The biggest downside to this organizational structure is actually it’s strength: Students will get experience with lots of different responsibilities, but not a lot of experience with a single responsibility. That’s a problem, if one of your goals as a yearbook adviser is to help students develop a specific skill.

For student-run yearbook staffs, either of these organizational structures will help you set up your yearbook staff for success.

Basic positions for any student-run yearbook staff

Just like there’s no single, perfect organizational structure for your yearbook staff, there’s no single, perfect set of roles. There are, though, a few roles that are good starting points for shaping your staff.

Here’s a breakdown of yearbook staff positions to consider:

Editor-in-chief

Because of the huge list of responsibilities that come with the title, nearly all editors-in-chief are returning students. Experience alone isn’t enough.

They’ll need all the tools: dedication, talent, leadership. Your editor-in-chief will be part of a small team that shapes the theme and coverage of the yearbook, and will help train new students, provide you with feedback on how the yearbook program is being run, and be part of the team that signs off on the book before it goes to print.

Editor

How you decide to structure your yearbook staff will impact how you define your editor roles. If you choose to organize your staff by responsibility, you’ll want an editor for each core area of the book: layout and design, writing, and photography. If you choose to organize your staff by sections of the book, you’ll want an editor for each section of the book.

Regardless, your editors will be lead-by-example types who are also comfortable providing guidance to staffers  and younger students. They’ll serve as coaches, and make sure students stay on theme and within the style guide constraints you and the editor-in-chief put in place. They’ll keep their pages moving or make sure their responsibilities aren’t blocking pages from being finished on time. And they’ll copy edit and proof pages before submitting to you and the editor-in-chief for final sign off before submission.

Staffer

With few exceptions, the majority of your students will be staffers.

Their primary responsibilities should include choosing the right layout for the write spread, taking photos, covering events, and writing headlines, captions and stories. Because many of your staffers will be new to yearbook, your editors will need to help guide with them. They'll work together on developing story ideas, learning to tell stories through photos, and fitting layout schemes and page designs to content.

There's plenty of work to go around when it comes to yearbook (as you know); so, making sure you have a sizable staff is worthwhile—even if that means your editorial staff is a bit smaller.

Spending more time on structuring your yearbook staff to best fit your students and your goals will do more than help you create a better book; it’ll help you deliver a more rewarding experience for the students in your program.

Whether you just inherited the yearbook or are a seasoned adviser, the need to streamline processes is very real. We collaborated with middle and high school advisers, copy editors, marketing pros, and PTA officers to create free, editable yearbook templates to help you stay organized in your yearbook program.

Yearbook planning templates

Yearbook ladder template

Think of your ladder as your yearbook itinerary: it’s where you’re going to go and when. Using the school calendar and last year’s yearbook (or a few prior years’-worth), chart what will go on which spread. 

We like to take our ladders and create a content calendar from there. Is the Turkey Trot scheduled for November? Well, so is Mrs. Jimenez who volunteered to take photos. Are track and swimming beginning in February? Then Jayne knows to contact the coaches in January.

Does pre-planning equate to inflexibility? No. It just means you’re ready for whatever comes your way.

Editable yearbook syllabus

From course objectives to parent acknowledgment, we have you covered. We’ll walk you through how to make it your own. And if you’re using Treering’s free yearbook curriculum, we’ve already aligned it to the national CTE standards.

Yearbook staff application

How do you separate the wheat from the chaff? An application helps. Staff recruitment might be the second-most important planning piece.

Yearbook grading templates

Spelling out exactly how your students will be assessed is a really important part of establishing expectations for the upcoming semester. A yearbook grading rubric is a perfect way for teachers to give students the grades they earned as well as the feedback they need to make a better yearbook. There’s no guesswork for them and your expectations are clear.

We made two rubrics for your yearbook class (heads up, they are in the same spreadsheet).

• Design rubric
  You might be tempted to break the elements of design into a handful of granular rubrics (one for photography, another for layout: you get the picture, pun intended). While there’s nothing wrong with doing this, ensuring that the individual elements work in concert is as important as the quality of those elements in their own right. Your end product is a spread, therefore, it’s graded as such.
• Copy rubric
  By assessing the writing on each page, you achieve two things. First, you give your students a tangible grade for their hard work. Second, you can vet the copy on every page of the book, which gives you an idea as to how everything fits together tonally and whether the book as a whole adheres to your established style guide.

Yearbook marketing templates

Because everyone needs to see your yearbook team’s work, you need to get the word out. Marketing the yearbook is not just about sales: we have two templates below to help you get books in the hands of your school community and get more assistance in building an inclusive yearbook.

The only yearbook sales flyer you’ll need

Yes, you should have a table at registration, parent conferences, and any all-school event with laptops or iPads so parents can shop on the spot. Many parents have yearbook sales as part of their back-to-school to-do list.

For those who don’t, we’ve heard year after year: this is the greatest flyer. It assures buyers they are in the book. Pair this with custom yearbook pages that print only in your copy of the book, and you truly have the story of your year.

Social media calendar

To market your program, you have to—to (mis)quote Ariel, “Be where the people are.” Use our social calendar to market to parents on Facebook and Twitter and pump up students on Instagram and TikTok. 

We hope these customizable templates help propel your program to the next level. Keep it simple and happy yearbooking!

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

In San Mateo, California, a group of remarkable students has embarked on an extraordinary journey. Led by their passionate social sciences teacher Cristina Gutierrez, the diverse group at San Mateo Union High School Bridge program (SMUHSD Bridge) is not only learning English and striving to complete their high school education but also making history by creating their school’s inaugural yearbook.

What made you decide to start a yearbook program this year? 

We started the program so our students could have something physical to remember all the unique memories and memorable moments in our Bridge program. As they move on in life, I want them to be able to hold onto that joy. 

Our students face challenges above and beyond most high school students. Most are unaccompanied newcomers from Central America: Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Mexico, and many come to the U.S. to flee violence or to reunite with a family member. Students range in age from 16 to 18, and 95% also work full-time to support family in their home countries. We wanted a way to empower them to showcase their experiences, culture, and dreams. 

What activities, events, and programs did you cover in the 2022-2023 yearbook? 

Every day at Bridge is different and exciting, so we tried to showcase all our diverse activities in our yearbook. We covered the fiestas we held, Independence Day for some students' home countries, Halloween, various award ceremonies, field trips, and English Learner Development classes. Our soccer league even won the championship in May! And, of course, we covered the people who make up Bridge: our staff and students. We honored our graduating seniors with recognition pages. They deserve all the accolades! 

Our school’s philosophy and teachings are grounded In Lak’ech pedagogy, a Maya affirmation that roughly translates to “you are my other me,” it focuses on prioritizing our relationships and responsibility to one another to foster a supportive learning community. We included In Lak’ech in our yearbook to memorialize our learnings. 

How did the students participate in creating the yearbook?

Our independent studies students worked together to create the yearbook. Treering’s crowdsourcing made it easy to grab photos from across the school. Working on this project was a hands-on way to teach students valuable skills like graphic design, storytelling, and photography to use later in life. It was also great to see students reminisce about our different events in the past while creating the yearbook. 

What is the most memorable thing about your yearbook?

Our program is constantly growing in numbers, and throughout the year, we are continually adding new students to our Bridge family. It’s never too late to join the program. We captured much of our year with Treering’s later deadlines, but even students who arrived in the last month of school were still thrilled to receive a copy of the yearbook and hold on to those memories. Their excitement shows how powerful a yearbook can be - it keeps students excited for future years’ memories and gives them a physical treasure to take home. 

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

Few educators willingly take on the yearbook. Greg is one. As a member of the House of Slytherin, he used his resourcefulness to find Treering Yearbooks and make us work for him, not the other way around. He left his previous yearbook companies, frustrated with diminishing print quality and leftover books. Now, because the books arrive before school lets out, Greg’s working to build a yearbook culture at Apprentice Academy.

How do you define yearbook culture?

Building a yearbook culture is difficult. Our old publisher delivered them late every year, so there was never a signing day. This year, I have the first-ever yearbook class. It restored my passion for yearbook. 

The theme was a hit; the cover looked like an iPad. The students reported on more than portraits and sports. There were spreads devoted to style, music, pop culture, and siblings. They used the yearbook to define what makes an Apprentice an Apprentice. They captured the CTE essence of our school culture. 

We still have a ways to go. Mainly middle schoolers and seniors bought yearbooks. I want to get more books in the hands of freshmen through juniors.

What did you do to make your first in-school distribution special?

All the seniors received their books at Senior Breakfast. And one of the seniors that was with us for four years came up to me and said, “Thank you, Mr. Carpenter. We've never got a book before the end of school.”

My son was also a senior this year, so it was cool for him. They all sat around at breakfast, looking through the books, laughing, looking at the pictures, and seeing the superlatives—that made me feel amazing.

I want kids to have access to their year. Something I’ve done for years is a Video Yearbook. It’s a slideshow of behind-the-scenes footage. Students came in and we handed out popsicles while they watched it. The yearbook staff introduces each section and students see photos from their book. They also see outtakes. It is really for the kids who cannot afford a book. They watch it with their friends. I hand out autograph sheets, so if they order a book after the deadline, they can slip it in the back.

How do you structure your staff?

We have a semester system at our school; the kids end up with eight classes a year. So I said, let's do Yearbook 1 in the fall and Yearbook 2 in the spring. It worked out really well. I feel like it's one of the best teams I ever advised, and the website was very straightforward. I use the Treering curriculum modules; with the quizzes at the end, it’s easy documentation for the district CTE.

How else does Treering help?

I should be stressed, but I’m not. Treering handles the trifecta of yearbook stressors: money, minimums, and ad sales. The cool thing about Treering is there are no high-pressure sales, and there is help when I need it. I didn’t need to negotiate a contract because pricing is upfront and haggle-free. It’s like CarMax. Before switching, I had additional cost centers I never saw until the final invoice. 

Treering even gives families two pages.

Let’s talk about that. Some high schools do not offer custom pages to their students.

We look at it like it’s a free ad. Our parents loved the custom pages and bought more after their first two free. It was crazy. They love them. I sent emails home and taught the students how to customize their books. Even the school staff helped and shared them.

I briefly review custom pages because our name is on the cover. It’s also a safety lesson: I remind the students this will be somewhere on the internet. Yes, I can see them. People from Treering see them. Never post anything anywhere that you would want anybody else to see.

Although you’ll likely take the month of June to relax and rejuvenate after a long year in the classroom, you’ll eventually want to start planning for next year’s yearbook. One of the tools that you should begin building during these months is a calendar that tracks all of the dates that affect your role as yearbook adviser throughout the year. From brainstorming to editorial due dates to when your committee members will be on vacation, this will become essential to planning your content.

Below, I’ll walk you through the most important things to include on your calendar, and how to utilize this important tool for success throughout the school year.

Start with a project timeline

Before you build your calendar, create a project timeline in a spreadsheet or Google Doc to plan your year. This allows you to first  detail out each of the small projects and features that will become part of your publication. Once your timeline is complete, start adding those dates to your yearbook calendar, so that you’re always aware of what’s coming up across all of the projects your team is working on, with one glance.

Add important dates from the school calendar

As you’re thinking through the specific projects you’ll assign to your committee, start adding some of the more important school events to your calendar. This includes big fundraisers, the school art fair, sports events, dances, etc. Anything major that you want to cover in the pages of your publication should wind up on your calendar. This helps you plan out who will cover big events in advance, instead of leaving everything until the last minute.

You should also include any dates that are important to your committee, so that you can recognize what your team has going on as you’re assigning out content. This includes birthdays, vacations, and events that they’re participating in themselves, and therefore can’t cover. If three of your students are part of the school’s show choir, mark out their major performances. If one of your students is in the school play, make sure you note that on your calendar. This keeps all of your important date information in one centralized location. You can then use this information to plan out a month of committee activities in advance, including who will cover specific stories, knowing who has time to edit content, and more.

Once you’ve assigned out content, make sure you add the name of the responsible committee member to each of the deadlines in your calendar--or, better yet, 'invite' them to the event! Now they'll get an email reminder of this event, and can add it to their own calendar, so they know.

Include ideas

If you have an awesome activity or exercise that would be perfect for a specific committee meeting, add it to the “notes” section of your calendar appointment. This helps you stay organized, so that you’re not constantly searching for the sticky note with that great idea at the last minute, or worse, forgetting to use it all together. To add notes to your schedule in a Google calendar, just open up the appointment and add your idea to the “Description” section, then click “Save.”

To do this in your Outlook calendar, use the notes section at the bottom of your appointment. Then click “Save.”

A calendar for the yearbook adviser

As the yearbook adviser, you have the most dates and timelines to keep track of. Having this information in two locations--your calendar and your Google Doc timeline--makes your job easier. With your calendar, you can see exactly what’s happening for your publication on a particular day, week or month. Your timeline is more project-specific, so that you can track what’s been assigned out to your committee within each of your features, and help each committee member stay on track with their assignments. Both are important in their own way. By utilizing these two great tools together, you’re sure to be the most organized yearbook adviser on the block. And that translates to a much easier process for pulling your publication together!