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3 questions about school anniversary yearbooks
How to capture a milestone year in your campus’ history frequently pops up in adviser chats. Yearbook Hero Beth Stacy said her team “linked the past to the present” with their 75th anniversary yearbook. That’s the goal.
1. What’s the best way to show school history in an anniversary book?
Anniversary books don’t have to deviate from your normal yearbooking protocol. It can be minimal, such as in a 40th anniversary book, asking students where they want to be in the next 40 years. Or devoting a spread to a list of 100 things to love about your school in its 100th year (remember to include alumni). Or even showing photos of teachers on the staff page from the year the school was founded.
The ideas below take up a spread or two, so your focus can be the history currently written in the year at hand.
School Timeline
Schools commonly create a timeline outlining specific milestones and achievements. For Rock Academy in CA’s 15th anniversary, yearbook creators featured two pages of school history with old photos of current students.
The timeline included when faculty members joined, the expansion of course offerings, and photos of the first-ever graduate. Old photos had the year on the bottom right corner to denote the past from the present. They continued this trend on divider pages.
Cover the years
When Wayne High School in OH published its 75th yearbook, the editorial team created two spreads showing the school's history through their yearbook covers. The team at Wayne worked with the alumni association, the local historical society, and the school archives to find most of the yearbooks.
Then and now
(Side note: this would make a great anniversary yearbook theme.)
The team at H.O.P.E. in TX also took a trip to the yearbook archives. They scanned old photos from previous books to do side-by-sides with their present counterparts. They also researched the cost of goods from 30 years ago to show life off campus.
Adviser Rita Johson's team also interviewed alumni from the first graduating class and pictured previous advisers in the colophon. She said this was the first year they created a style guide; the yearbook design process evolved from more of a scrapbook to using mods. The team enjoyed exploring the school archives and found 19 yearbooks for the school's 30 years.
Pro tip: Save yourself the scanning. If you’ve been with Treering for multiple years, your yearbook covers and photos are in your yearbook account.
2. What’s a “good” theme?
Well-executed themes cover the school year both verbally and visually. It shows and tells. In a milestone year, like your school’s 50th anniversary, it may be tempting to try and carry this concept through the entire book. Full stop. Unless the winning point guard from the 6th grade basketball team is currently coaching his great-grandson, resist the urge to make your anniversary the yearbook theme. This year (the buyers!) will always be the primary focus.
Verbal theme ideas
Because yearbook creators love the look, we’re starting with the “sound” of the theme. Headlines, theme copy, and spin-offs should reflect your yearbook’s theme.
Evergreen Anniversary Theme Ideas
- Construction-focused: “Built to Last” or “Foundation for Tomorrow”
- Timeline focused: “Our Journey Here,” “Milestones Marked,” and “Then and Now”
- Younger school: “The Wonder Years”
- Older school: “Timeless”
Year-Specific Theme Ideas
- 10-20-30, etc.: “Decades of Excellence”
- 15: “Time to Shine”
- 50: “Golden Moments”
- 100: “A Century Strong”
Visual theme considerations
Align your theme’s aesthetic with the verbal tone. Taking a page from my junior year, the theme “Reflections” should have some mirroring in the graphics, if not some shine on the cover.
Traditional anniversary gifts—a list that dates back to the 19th century—prescribe the following:
You can easily add such elements to your cover finish. Bringing your “golden anniversary” to life can be as simple as adding gold foil. Treering also offers silver foil and clear UV embossing.
Inside your yearbook, you could (choose one!)
- Denote old photos by making them black and white or using a Polaroid-style frame (like HOPE did)
- Hide 20 pictures of your mascot (if it’s your 20th)
- Use blueprints or construction photos for a significant building project
3. When should I do an anniversary yearbook?
We see anniversary books for 10-100 years, and everything in between. The caveat here is that if your school is doing nothing, why would the yearbook? Align with your school community to get the final answer on this one.
Getting personal: Treering’s 15th anniversary book
As Treering’s 15th year closes, we created our first-ever anniversary yearbook. Our staff took yearbook photos on the conventional blue background. As a cross-functional team, yearbook creators interviewed staff members and collected photos of people in the home office as well as remote teammates’ home offices.
Unlike a school where students promote and graduate, many staff members are in their second decade with the company, and two of the founders are involved in the day-to-day. The history section features photos of the early offices and staff, the original 44 schools, and a history of Treering-produced theme art. It is heavy on nostalgia.
We look forward to celebrating many more milestones with you.
Covering natural disasters in your yearbook
As sad as it is, a lot of communities experience natural disasters, and their people must come together and rebuild. Sometimes it can be a struggle as a yearbook adviser, student editor, or team to decide whether or not to capture this historic event in your school’s yearbook, especially if you have younger students who may not fully grasp what happened. To help alleviate some of the back and forth and uncertainties, we’ve laid out a guide of best practices when covering natural disasters in your yearbook.
Are natural disasters yearbook-worthy?
Including current events is typically a staple for every school’s yearbook, since it is essentially a snapshot of what life was like that year. However, determining the best way to cover natural disasters, which are also considered events, isn’t always the first thing that comes to mind for yearbook editors. Or the easiest. And it’s not something for which one can completely prepare. Natural disasters can shape a school year and have an impact on everyone. Because of this, it is worth including it in the yearbook. It’s important to find uplifting ways to cover these stories when interviewing school members while respecting the boundaries of those who were impacted.
The right words and tone can emphasize how a school showcased perseverance in the face of a tragedy.
Include accurate and approved information in your coverage
Be it wildfires, tornados, hurricanes, or earthquakes, it’s critical to provide accurate information about the event. When looking back at a yearbook years from now, you don’t want the wrong date, for example, to be in print. The goal is for students to be able to look back to remember this part of their history. And ideally, the way it’s covered in the yearbook can show how the school and community overcame the crisis.
Unless you’re lucky enough to have a copyright lawyer on your yearbook committee, it’s critical to understand the basics of trademark and copyright laws when deciding on if/when to use professional photos to cover a natural disaster. You always want to make sure it’s an image you are allowed to use and that it’s free to the public. If this seems like something you don’t have time to research, instead it might be worth considering stock images that are available online, licensing images from your local newspaper, or using—with permission—photos your community has captured.
Along with photos, you should also consider the statistics to highlight. It’s important to remain sensitive and not include mentions of a death toll, for example. Instead, you can focus on other hard facts like the date(s), time, location, the scale of the natural disaster, etc. in your yearbook. If your school community collected donations, include those numbers.
When it comes to deciding on what information to include, a great tip is to make sure that your yearbook committee has an editorial policy in place that can be shared with the community. Covering any kind of crisis can be difficult, and some may always disagree with the way you did it, so it’s best to have a written policy so that teachers, students, and parents can be aware of how the yearbook team will plan to cover a crisis like a natural disaster or a death in your school community. Get your administrator's signature on it.
Lessons students can learn from natural disasters
A tragedy is not something anyone can overcome easily. It’s worth highlighting the hope of people within a community when they’re facing hardship together. Experiencing something of this nature becomes a part of one’s story and while it may take some extra dedicated time to determine how to showcase the lessons learned in a positive way, it’ll be beneficial to capture an impactful time such as this in a yearbook.
Interview questions for students and teachers impacted by disasters
- How did the [natural disaster] impact the community?
- What was, or is currently, being done to help rebuild?
- Are there any stories you’re comfortable sharing about the [natural disaster’s] personal impact?
- Where were you and what were you doing as this event unfolded?
- How has the [natural disaster] impacted how you view your day-to-day life at home and at school?
- What advice would you give to students who may face a similar natural disaster crisis in the future?
- What are you grateful for after this?
- What changes did you see within the community during and after this event?
Teaching yearbook: graphic design
In my credential program, I missed the comprehensive graphic design, marketing, journalism, editing and proofreading, photojournalism, contract negotiation, and volunteer management track that would prepare me to be a yearbook educator. Over the years, an idea library on my classroom shelves slowly came about: other school's yearbooks, folders of magazine spreads worth emulating, Treering's Big Idea Book and Marketing Un-Stumped, plus gobs of digital files. If your yearbook advising journey is relatable, try these small changes that will make an impact on your book's visual look.
This blog was adapted from Yearbook Hero's Lauren Casteen's Teaching Yearbook: Graphic Design webinar. If you're interested in joining this professional community to grow your yearbook pedagogy or to score some PD hours, register for one of our free webinars on Zoom.
Graphic design self-analysis
On a scale of 1-5, how do you currently feel about teaching graphic design? Keep in mind teaching and doing are two different skill sets.
Mild, medium, or spicy?
Below are some suggestions based on your self-reflection. This year, you may be Mild, and next year, you'll apply some of Casteen's tips and be Medium with a hint of Spicy.
Yearbook theme
A theme helps keep your yearbook unified so it doesn’t look like a different person did every page (even if they did).
A theme does a lot of the graphic design work for you: it's like giving your students fill-in-the-blank notes as opposed to having them copy them by hand.
Lauren Casteen
Mild
Choose a yearbook theme from Treering's Theme Gallery. Commit to it by using it for your whole book: each theme package includes layouts, backgrounds, and graphics you can mix and match. Using powerful tools such as auto page layout, you can create a beautiful book while learning.
When you're ready, move to Medium.
Medium
Casteen falls into the Medium category: she says they start with a Treering graphics package that supports the verbal theme, and then they adapt it. The 2022 Polaris team wanted a newspaper feel to go with "A Year to Remember." The staff blended QWERTY, which had a modern media feel, and Venture, which is filled with vintage items and textures, to create their book.
Spicy
You can design your own theme. Have students come up with a color palette using an online palette generator; use Treering’s font bank to match fonts. To build a unique look, consider including student drawings or artwork.
A style guide will help your designers remain focused. It will also help you, as an adviser, provide detailed feedback on how to improve the design. Here's Casteen's.
One graphic design concept at a time
Since graphic design is an entire professional field, and you could spend beyond four years in college studying it, there is entirely too much graphic theory and practice to complete in one semester or year of yearbook. By breaking it down, you can focus on what's essential for your team this year and build as you and your team grow. Here's how to do it:
Find the Golden Ratio blog and others on the design page of the blog.
Balancing first-year and returning yearbookers
If you have returners on your team, some of them may be Medium or Spicy, and that's OK. Now that you have some scaffolding, tailor your projects for your student by skill level.
You can revisit each topic each year with your returning staff members to make it more challenging. For example, maybe your newcomers are choosing a pre-made layout instead of doing it themselves, or maybe they are designing a layout for a module rather than an entire yearbook spread. Focusing on one specific skill at a time makes it easier for you as the teacher to differentiate.
Copy from the masters
The masters are "masters" for a reason. Whether it is a magazine ad or a social graphic, inspiration is out there. You can apply a photo treatment you saved from Pinterest on a divider page or emulate a car ad layout in your yearbook.
Get started in graphic design
Lastly, here are the action items from Casteen's session. Select one for your launch plan:
- Pick a theme if you haven’t (or maybe choose a few for your students to narrow down)
- Look through Treering blog articles to find a focus skill to teach
- Make yourself a Sandbox page and start playing around
- Find inspiration for a page to replicate
If you're interested in joining another of our working webinars, check out the entire Yearbook Club webinar schedule.
How to create interactive yearbook pages
Adding an interactive element to your yearbook pages can increase engagement and personalization in a culture measured by double taps and shares. Interactive yearbooks can have modules or spreads where students can record their ideas or engage with content. (And if you know anything about Treering, we’re all about making yearbooks as unique as your students.) Below are four ideas, from drag-and-drop solutions to those requiring a bit more delegation (wink) for your yearbook.
Interactive = personal
The most hands-off way to help others interact with your yearbook is Treering’s custom pages. These two free pages in every yearbook are prime real estate for artwork, celebrations, firsts (lost tooth, car, homerun, etc.), and what matters most to each family. Knowing they are creating a keepsake, many parents opt to add more pages.
These custom page examples from the Treering team include non-school sports, pets, milestones, and family trips.
All about me pre-designed pages
While seeing all that our school community achieved in a year gives us the feels, adding opportunities for students to share their take captures a deeper moment in time. It shows students how they contribute to the whole with their unique take on the school year. Adding an All About Future Me component allows students to dream. (Moms, it also gives us something to read aloud at their graduation, “Yes, Erikson, you really did aspire to be an underwater ninja.”)
Pro tip: many Treering themes have these templates ready for you to drag onto a page.
Fill-in-the blank stories
Part 80s nostalgia, part English teacher ploy to get us to know our parts of speech, fill-in-the-blank stories can range from nonsensical to [fill in the blank]. 😉
We created one you can copy and paste for your yearbook.
Puzzles
Including puzzles in a yearbook enhances personalization because they can play with words, images, and situations unique to your campus, fostering a sense of ownership. Simultaneously, these activities bring additional engagement into the yearbook, making the publication more dynamic. You can choose to add content with words and pictures.
Word puzzles
Word searches, crossword puzzles, and the like add an entertaining interactive break from traditional pages. Additionally, for younger students, they can be a means to involve family members who may enjoy solving the puzzles with their child, creating another shared yearbook experience.
Include things in your puzzles such as school subjects and the
- Mascot
- School address (street and city)
- Special events or all-school activities
- Principal’s last name
- Names of clubs, teams, or electives
An online puzzle maker can help you customize an interactive puzzle.
People matching
More fun than a history quiz, a yearbook matching module is a way to use your interactive content to increase coverage. Answers can share a page with the colophon.
Match:
- Students to cars
- Baby photo to the students or teacher
- Teachers to their first job
- The cleat to the sport
- The fundraising total to the class
The easiest ask: pets.
Side note: maybe I should have titled this, “Gamify your yearbook.”
I spy
There are two takes on this:
1. Search for objects such as eight basketballs, 14 pencils, and five nets. These items already exist within a section or the yearbook as a whole; you're just asking the student body to take a closer look.
2. Find a person. This is the most labor-intensive: hide a COB of your mascot throughout the yearbook. (Yearbook Hero Katie Parish had a great take on this.)
Adding one or all four of these interactive yearbook page ideas gives students a place to reflect, share their “voice,” and foster a sense of community ownership of your collective narrative.
How to build a yearbook staff manual
If I could return to year one of advising, I’d draft a staff manual. Yearbooking (yes, it’s a verb) would have been much simpler. I’m not talking about contract negotiation so much as how to deal with sports editors who cannot get a ride to a game or reporters who only interview their friends. Or the “finished” spread with “Lorem ispum dolor” still filling the caption boxes. Or how to tell a senior parent you cannot legally publish a screenshot from a mall photographer’s online proof system. Phew.
Tenets of your program
A tenet is a doctrine you hold to be true. The first section of your staff manual should define your non-negotiables. These could be class culture and coverage goals. They could also include specific ways your yearbook program aligns with your school’s mission. Or, you could take a different approach and schedule workdays to create your book in chunks.
It’s your call. You determine what is valuable to your community. Here's what's in mine.
Coverage is a non-negotiable because our school claims to be a “People-first” learning community. If a student is excluded from the historical record of our campus, the yearbook team undermines the mission. That said, we’ve never had 3x coverage for 100% of the 423-person student body; on average, it’s 94-96%. And because Treering’s three-week turnaround allows us to add the students who transferred in through mid-April, hardly anyone is ever a zero.
Considerations for elementary schools
Middle and high schools use yearbook policies to govern student roles, responsibilities, procedures, and behavior; adult teams might need to establish guidelines for
If your group is parent-led, there may be turnover. These policies will help the next adviser.
Yearbook team policies
By taking time to craft some policies for your staff manual, you will also codify what your program looks like. For example, if you have a large class (or two) completing the yearbook, you will want to have procedures for group and editorial board communication, chain of command, and the like. A team of five will not.
For a smaller yearbook team, it helps to establish boundaries to prevent burnout. Use your policies to protect one another such as how you will prioritize coverage when you can’t be everywhere.
Parent groups, yearbook classes, and clubs of any size also need job descriptions (see the next section).
Organizing your staff manual
Try to keep this under five pages, including the rubrics and/or checklists. Admin needs to sign off on these. Physically. That signature will go a long way when a parent or student challenges you.
Here are ten policies to include in your yearbook staff manual:
1. Confidentiality
Use this section to outline what you keep quiet and what you share pre-distribution.
2. Photos
What guides the bulk of your content?
3. Obituary policy
This is the toughest policy to craft while grieving. I learned the hard way. A group text from the vice principal requested an emergency staff meeting before school. Two students died in an automobile accident. One was racing without a license. The other was walking home.
Momentarily putting aside the denial, anger, and bargaining, we had to decide how to honor two lives. Thus, the following became our policy:
If within press time, Warrior Yearbook will provide a ¼ page space with the following:
No additional information will be included. All student ads will feature a family-submitted photo and will have parent approval. Next of kin will provide the photo and approval for staff memorials.
Here are more examples of obituary policies.
4. Superlatives and senior quotes
These are two of the most controversial areas between your yearbook covers. Add relevant dates, submission guidelines, crowdsourcing avenues, etc., to your policies.
Part of your yearbook superlative policy should include:
- How superlative categories are decided (here are 100+ to get you started)
- How students will vote and the deadline for submissions
- The number of winners in each category
- How you will display superlatives in your yearbook
Personal opinion: Instead of senior quotes that focus on one group on your campus, why don’t you improve your journalism by building expanded captions into your designs? This way, you have quotes on every page from every grade. Now that’s people first.
If senior quotes are a golden calf, craft a policy that outlines
- Character or word limits
- Requirements for originality
- Vetting process (yes, we will look up that timestamp)
5. Journalistic integrity
Use this section to define how you will legally license and attribute outside content, and the role of AI in your newsroom. (Chances are, your district already has a written policy you can cite.)
This is also a great spot to explain the characteristics of reporting: it’s free of editorializing, defamation, or discriminatory content. What safeguards will you include?
6. Grading
Yearbook is the hardest “easy A” my students ever earned. (Wait for it…) Because of that misconception, include spread checklists and grading rubrics in this section so there is no question come progress report time. This is also a great area to outline your workflow and deadline schedule.
7. Style guide
This section provides clear instructions on theme elements to ensure consistency across the yearbook. With these decisions made early on, your team can focus on what truly matters: content.
Many advisers stop there. I would push you to expand your yearbook style policy to include writing.
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8. Content approval process
Who approves layouts, photos, and written content, and what is the order of approval? If you have mini-deadlines for reviews and revision, include them here. Treering advisers, allow yourself time to order and review your printed proof.
There may be some overlap with your grading section, and that’s OK.
9. Camera/equipment checkout procedure
This section of your yearbook policy manual should clearly outline the rules and expectations for borrowing, using, and returning yearbook equipment. Here's what you might include:
Bottom line: this should complement your district policy on technology usage.
10. Complaint policy and refunds
Yearbook staff job descriptions
After a disastrous first year where everyone created their own editor title, an experienced adviser sat me down and said, “You need to spell it out.”
That nugget provided the missing piece to my yearbook classroom management.
If you’re a teacher, yearbook is another class. It requires scaffolding and instructional time. It’s also a business: you’re creating a project that requires financial resources. Use the job descriptions below to organize your team, create a chain of command, and align your grading expectations.
If you’re a parent volunteer working with other volunteers, use these job descriptions to provide role clarity for your team. (And if all else fails, we have a blog for that too.)
Use these as a framework to structure your team and responsibilities.
Admin approval
Close your staff manual with an acknowledgment page: your signature and your principal’s should appear on every printout. Students and their parents should also sign it. Keep an acknowledgment page for your records.
Create a quick, easy, and beautiful elementary school yearbook
With most of the school year in the proverbial book, we are counting down until summer vacation. End-of-the-year celebrations aren't complete without a yearbook. If you're the one wearing the yearbook coordinator crown, it's time to circle the wagons and quickly create your elementary school yearbook without sacrificing style. We have live webinars to help jumpstart your second semester.
Step 1: upload your student roster
Your first step is a quick visit to the front office (remember to bring some lattes) to get a community and student roster. This seems tedious. It will save you hours if you do this first. You will easily be able to
- Tag to ensure inclusivity or to create an index
- Start marketing and selling your book
- Receive your yearbooks sorted by your choice of grade, teacher, or last name which will save you tons of time once they arrive
(We promise, you'll thank us later.)
Step 2: get the word out
With an updated student roster, you can now effectively communicate with your community and launch marketing campaigns that support yearbook building and orders. Examples of communication that will help you build a better book include emails asking for photos, how to purchase books, and special features like creating personalized pages and showing your students/parents how to create e-signatures.
If you really want to ramp up sales and raise awareness of your yearbook project and photo needs, use this month of Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Twitter content. There's also a full marketing module in our free yearbook curriculum.
Step 3: collaborate with your community
Following strong communication, you are set up to collaborate on the yearbook with ease. Crowdsource photos from school staff, other parents, coaches, and students.
When possible, assign class pages to others. No yearbook coordinator is an island (or something like that). By building a team, you'll capture more, include more, and stress out less!
Step 4: upload your students' portraits
Whether your elementary school was able to take professional portraits, or you are sourcing portraits from parents, upload these to your yearbook next. Your yearbook provider should have a solution for adding these to your book. You can even use these yearbook spreads to add more content.
Step 5: build your book
Now that you’ve connected with your community and begun sourcing ideas and visuals for your yearbook, you’re ready to select and set up your book themes and styles. In addition to designing your own themes, Treering offers a free library of professionally designed themes. Each theme package includes layouts, font pairings, and graphics to tie your look together. You can also 100% customize your own.
Set spreads aside for
- School events such as fun runs and book fairs
- Sports (If your school doesn't have teams, crowdsource photos of students on their outside sports team)
- Holidays
- Trends
- Clubs
- Class favorites
Build a beautiful yearbook with features like auto-page layouts that magically lay your photos out beautifully on a spread or pre-designed pages that cover the Best of the Year and Year in Review plus student-generated content through fill-ins for a quick elementary school layout.
Step 6: set your yearbook to print ready!
Drop the yearbook and walk away. In all seriousness, hit “print-ready” to send your files to the printers and, if you're using Treering, you'll quickly have your books in hand in three weeks or less! If for any reason you want a little more time, it’s easy to adjust print-ready deadlines too. As the yearbook coordinator, you're in charge!
Step 7: distribute the yearbook and celebrate!
All this work is worth celebrating! Work with your parent group to host a yearbook signing party. It doesn't need to be fancy or cost you additional money; this could be something special like
- Playing music at lunch
- Offering a jeans day to yearbook buyers if you're a uniform school
- Allowing yearbook purchasers to bring a stuffed animal to school
- Setting up signing tables at a year-end school event
QR Code is a registered trademark of DENSO WAVE INCORPORATED.
48 questions guaranteed to get teachers to open up during yearbook interviews
We think that teachers should always be treated like the rockstars they are. But that’s a double-edged sword. Because of their school “celebrity” status, we can sometimes get a little tongue-tied when it comes time to snag some quotes.
So if you’ve got a mod that needs some teacher insight, a spread offering a look ‘behind the curtain’ about teachers, or if you’re writing an article on a specific teacher and are looking for some pizzazz, you’ll need to ask some great questions. And we’ve got just the list.
Set up a time for the interview, take a moment to brush up on your interview skills, and then take the bull by the horns with these quote-baiting questions for teachers.
About life outside of school
- What is one of your hidden talents?
- What would the students be surprised to find out about you?
- What’s a typical Saturday night like for you?
- How often do you accidentally start speaking Spanish at home? Lecturing about fractions? Correcting grammar? [personalize to their subject].
- What are some pets you’ve had or would like to own?
- What is your dream vacation?
- How do you spend your summer breaks?
- What are your “trapped on a desert island” books or movies?
- What would your last meal be?
- What can you cook to perfection? Are you willing to share the recipe?
- If you won the lottery and decided to give up teaching, what would you do instead?
About school life
- What are some traditions or superstitions you have for the First Day of School?
- What makes a ‘good day’ at school?
- How do you show your school spirit?
- What accomplishment fills you with pride so far this year?
- What is your favorite dish from the cafeteria?
- What sort of morning routine do you have to get jazzed for class?
- How do you keep things fresh? [particularly good for seasoned teachers]
- What inspires you?
- How does technology make teaching more simple or difficult?
- Are there any embarrassing teaching moments you’re willing to share? What are they?
- What’s the best/worst thing about being a teacher?
- In which other teacher’s class would you like to enroll, even for a day? Why?
About the students
- What current trends are baffling to you? Why?
- So many students admire you. How do you make those connections? [*note: question should only be asked if the teacher is universally known for making great student connections]
- What differences do you see in your morning students versus the afternoon classes?
- If you could pass on any wisdom to your students, what would you share?
- How do you remember all of your students’ names?
- What’s a school sport or activity you enjoy watching?
- If you could take the students on a field trip to anywhere in the world, where would you take them?
- Why do (or don’t) you friend former students on Facebook?
Along the lines of a specific article or theme
- What kind of driver were you when you first got your license?
- If you were to be given a superlative when you were in school, what would it have been?
- Our yearbook’s theme this year is [....], how do you work to bring that to life in everyday classes?
- What song should students listen to when doing work for your class?
- What is your first memory from school?
- When or why is (or isn’t) a picture worth a thousand words?
- How do you think students will remember you and your class?
About nothing—Just for kicks (or mods)
- How long would you survive a zombie apocalypse? Why?
- In which Hogwarts house would you be sorted?
- If you could grow up in any decade, which would you choose?
- What are your thoughts on astrology? Do you know your sign?
- What are your must-have smartphone apps?
- Did you see the new Star Wars on opening night? What memories do you have from the first movie you ever saw in theatres?
- Is there a quote or saying that you live your life by?
- What would your perfect party look like?
- What is your spirit animal?
- What song do you know all the lyrics to?
And there you have it—48 yearbook questions that you can choose from to build an interview with a teacher. It’s important to remember that an interview is a conversation. Keep it natural, and use your time wisely. It’s better to get five quality responses instead of a dozen one-word answers. If you see a hook, run with it. Don’t be afraid to veer a bit off course when the opportunity presents itself. Wherever the conversation goes, these questions are a great start to an intriguing spread or mod, and can add some wonderful insight from your teachers to this year’s book.
Why you need a yearbook ladder for your planning efforts
A yearbook ladder is a nice—and concise—chart representing the yearbook’s pages. Use it at the beginning of the year, and you’ll be able to better plan your book length, prioritize all the ideas you have for sections and stories, and determine what you have room to cover. Best yet, it doubles as a visual reminder of what your book is supposed to look like when it’s done. It’s basically one huge, visual post-it note.
When it comes to planning a yearbook, our favorite piece of advice for new yearbook advisers is this: Begin at the end.
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It might sound counterintuitive, but knowing where you want to go before you start will help you get to that end goal a little faster—and a little happier. You can achieve most of that by picking your deadline, theme, and coverage goals, but there is one tool that will get you the rest of the way.
It’s the yearbook ladder.
Here’s what one looks like:
A ladder makes yearbook planning easier
Other yearbook planning tools, like project management spreadsheets, editorial calendars and deadline charts, might seem to do everything except make your morning coffee for you, but those tools miss a key element that yearbook ladders offer: a “big picture” view.
Have you ever struggled to remember where, exactly, your Halloween parade collage is set to go? Or how many pages you had reserved for prom night?
Your yearbook ladder will tell you right away.
Because a ladder can show you your book from the proverbial 50,000-foot view, you’ll never be more than a quick glance away from knowing where in your book you planned for each feature to go (and how much room you gave them).
The ladder is an especially useful device that can help you determine the layout and flow of the book, to make sure that you’re not forgetting anything, and to check and see that any multi-page features look as good as possible in the way they span the pages.
Tips for using a yearbook adder
To help you, we’ve compiled a quick list of things to do when you’re setting out to create your yearbook ladder:
- Start with last year’s book. Of course, you’re going to want to mix things up and try some new ideas, but there’s no reason to reinvent the wheel. Just move certain sections around based on your new theme and ideas. (If you didn’t have a book, or are trying a new type of coverage, start by listing everything you plan to cover.)
- Begin your ladder with your first page. Your first page on your ladder should be one that contains content. That means page one should be on the right side of the ladder, with no facing page. If you also list pages that don’t (or can’t) contain photos and text, you may confuse how many pages you actually need for your yearbook.
- Adjust as you go. You don’t want to mess with your plan too much, but the beauty of the ladder is that it can be easily rearranged to determine what looks and fits best. (That’s why we like our digital!) It’s a fluid document, so, if things change, you can easily adjust while still sticking to your original plan.
- Highlight pages on the ladder once they’re completed, and check them off once you’ve signed off those pages. Doing so will let you know exactly how close you are to finishing at all times.
- Teach others about the ladder. Even if you’re planning to control the document, you’ll want everyone to be familiar with how to read it. Ideas can flow better when people see everything laid out right in front of them.
Put your yearbook ladder to use
Yearbooks are usually designed in facing pages, also known as spreads, where you will have one “story” on each spread. Keep this in the back of your mind when planning your layout, so you can make sure the content on your pages flows as smoothly as possible.
If you find yourself with features that are one or three pages long, consider placing candid photos, quotes, or filler items on the opposite page to complement the feature. It’ll help keep each spread cohesive.
And you know a good tool to easily tell if you’re going to run into that issue, right? Of course you do. Grab a yearbook ladder and get to work. It’ll help you make an even better yearbook.
How to get local media stoked about your yearbook
It’s common for school leaders to underestimate the newsworthy aspects of their school’s yearbook. They may think, “Our school is too small, so why would anyone outside of our students’ immediate families care about what’s going on with our yearbook?” Throughout a school year, consider all of the work that’s put toward building the book, the stories gathered, the candid photos captured, the skills gained, etc. Local media care about what’s going on in the community, and if they never know about it, there’s no opportunity for them to share with their greater audience. It’s time to consider getting local media completely stoked about your yearbook program!
1. Identify newsworthy aspects of your program
Oftentimes, yearbook-focused stories are going to resonate the most with smaller, hyperlocal outlets within a school’s community. This could include newspapers (print and online), TV, radio and even community newsletters. What you may think is a “meaningless story” could in fact impact readers in your hometown.
The following are high-level ideas to consider when thinking about working with local media:
- Position your yearbook adviser, or even the entire yearbook staff, as your school’s “hometown hero.” How are they positively impacting the school? What unique stories have they been able to capture for the yearbook that will pull at the heartstrings of the community?
- Reporters don’t want to talk to companies, they want to talk to people. Is the yearbook editor, parent coordinator, or even principal, media-prepped and comfortable speaking with reporters about the program?
- Local media tend to love stories with a multi-generational angle. How long has your yearbook program been in place? What unique, new aspects of the program can be shared? Do you have anyone on your yearbook team whose mother, grandmother, etc., was also involved in yearbook at the school years prior?
- Yearbook cover contests are a great opportunity to share a photo of the winning cover with media. Is this a contest that’s been occurring for years? Is it new? Are local artists involved? Reporters appreciate being given stats (i.e., years doing XYZ) as it helps strengthen a story.
- Share your successes. Has your yearbook earned recognition from your publisher?
2. Contact the right people
Depending on the size of the media outlet, some stations or publications have reporters that cover specific beats, while others that have a smaller staff have reporters that cover a wide variety of stories. If the outlet has a reporter that covers education, or more specifically K-12 education, this is someone to consider when your yearbook program has a story to share. Otherwise, reaching out to a general contact at an outlet, even if it’s for a general introduction if you’ve never worked with them before, is a great place to start.
It’s important to be professional, thorough, and to the point when reaching out to reporters and news outlets. Think about how yearbooks themselves convey stories through carefully selected phrases and high-res photos. Reporters are looking for the same: meaningful stories with images to support them.
3. Write a press release
Writing press releases is a common practice for businesses that want to announce a new product or feature, an award win, contest results, a new hire, etc. As it relates to a yearbook program, a press release would be most appropriate when announcing a yearbook contest award win, for example. Or if your school has never had a yearbook program and they have plans to launch one in the new year, this would be an opportunity to share a press release with local media.
So what should you include in the press release? Here’s an example to reference and a free press release template.
- Strong headline and subhead
- 3-5 body paragraphs (try to ensure that the press release is no longer than a page)
- A quote or two from leaders or subject matter experts to support the announcement
- Boilerplate at the bottom
- Contact person and their information (i.e. phone number, email address etc.)
Promote your yearbook program
In order for your yearbook program to flourish by increasing yearbook sales and growing your yearbook team, people need to know:
- What the yearbook program is all about and the importance of having a yearbook for students.
- How to get involved, and the specific steps to do so. Share the “how, what, why, and when” details if you really want your outreach efforts to make an impact. Consider creating a Facebook group for parents if you’re needing to recruit staff.
Treering's In the News page has plenty of examples of newsworthy yearbook programs.
Gold yearbook themes
Adding a spot of gold is a growing yearbook trend. And we love it! While gold is a go-to accent for a 50th-anniversary book, use it to capture the spirit of 2024. See how easy it is to build a gold-themed yearbook with these design ideas and headlines.
Free whole-book looks and yearbook templates
You don’t have to begin with a blank book. Opting for a theme package is a time-saving alternative if crafting one from scratch seems overwhelming. These four golden packages by Treering Yearbooks below streamline the design process and are fully editable.
Gold foil yearbooks
Adding optional gold foil to the cover draws attention to specific elements like the school name or key theme graphics.
These two resources will help you begin:
Advice as good as gold
“A [Treering] theme does a lot of the graphic design work for you: it’s like giving your students fill-in-the-blank notes as opposed to having them copy them by hand,” said Yearbook Hero Lauren Casteen.
She and her team select one or two of Treering’s graphics packages and adapt them to tell the story of the year. They design layouts from scratch using the backgrounds, overlays, and other included visuals to build their style guide. Read more on Casteen’s approach to teaching design alongside using Treering here.
More than just a look
A visual theme becomes stronger when headlines connect content to create a story. Your gilded yearbook theme is more than a color scheme; it’s a clever play on the year (‘24) or a way to highlight a milestone (e.g., 50th anniversary). Here are some headlines to align your verbal and visual theme.
Headline ideas
A gold yearbook theme needs some golden headlines. We love browsing an idiom dictionary to create a list of headlines and spinoffs. Pro tip: an idiom dictionary is a great place to start with any theme.
- Worth its Weight in Gold
- Gold Mine of Information
- Heart of Gold
- Gold Standard
- Silence is Golden
- Golden Girls
- Gold Star(s)
Punny gold headlines
Puns, while a particular favorite of this adviser, are best used when peppered in. Using too many becomes like white noise and runs the risk of being unfunny. (The horror!) Remember, if one person doesn’t get it, chances are, many of your readers won’t–case in point: the Ponyboy Curtis reference above.
- Au-some
- Glitter of Speech
- Gold Feet - soccer or step team
- Golden Age of the [mascot]
- Goal Diggers - volleyball
- If I Gold You That
- Thanks a Bullion
Headlines using synonyms
As with puns, too many Gold This and Gold That headlines diminish the luster. Brainstorm a list of synonyms to use, and then search your idiom dictionary for new nuggets.
- All that Glitters
- Rain or Shine
- Rise and Shine
- Sea to Shining Sea
- Shine On
- Shining Example
- Take a Shine to
Writing your own headlines
If a curated list is too much of an easy button, and you want to teach the process, here are five steps to craft a headline.
- Review the spread and sum up the coverage in a single sentence.
- List five keywords from the coverage.
- Look up idioms and/or puns incorporating those keywords and their synomyns. Compile a list of five to ten before moving on.
- Evaluate which headline idea achieves the goal of accuracy, clarity, and interest.
- Revise and rewrite until the answer is “yes” for all three.
To dig more into a goldmine of theme development, check out
Happy New Year from Treering
For fifteen years, you’ve trusted us to capture and print your priceless memories, and we reflect on this honor every holiday season. In addition to helping schools raise over @2.2M in the 2024 school year, we printed over 500,000 custom pages in 2022—that’s a lot of joy. Thank you for trusting us with this invaluable task. We wish you all the best this holiday season and we can’t wait to get to work in 2025.
As the Treering community surpasses 1.6M members, together we continue to grow and innovate. Because of your feedback, we added
- An onboarding team for first-year yearbook coordinators
- Bigger prizes for our annual editor and parent contests plus pop-up giveaways on Facebook and Instagram
- In-person adviser events in Florida, Illinois, and Texas
- Camp Yearbook, our first-ever two-day summer conference
- Two new webinars to the Yearbook Club lineup: custom cover design and yearbook photography
- More IRL examples of what members of the Treering Community create on our socials
- New ways to capture student memories with photo gifts
Happy holidays!
What to Expect in 2025
- Superior support as you design, market, and distribute your best book yet
- Semi-monthly training through Yearbook Club webinars
- Design contests for editors and parents
- Your memories arriving within three weeks of clicking Print Ready
- New predesigned “About Me,” “Year in Review,” and “Best of…” pages
- Weekly blog articles to provide inspiration and resources – subscribe and have them sent to your email
Happy New Year from Treering 2024
Since 2009, you’ve trusted us to capture and print your priceless memories, and we reflect on this honor every holiday season. Thank you for trusting us with this invaluable task. We wish you all the best this holiday season, and we can’t wait to get to work in 2024. Happy holidays!
Some quick 2023 stats:
- School communities donated over 7000 yearbooks
- Through yearbook sales, schools raised over $2 Million
- Families customized nearly 500,000 custom pages
15 years of Treering: it is our birthday!
Here’s what you can expect in 2024: from January through December, we will celebrate our 15th birthday with goodies for you. You are the reason Treering Yearbooks continues to grow and innovate.
Giveaways galore in 2024
Since we can't hand out plastic goodie bags with sticky hands and noisemakers to every member of the Treering community, coffee, gift cards, custom pages, and other freebies will have to do.
Spoiler alert: Treering’s annual design contests are not going anywhere.
“Treering in the wild”
Last year, at the PTO Today conference in Chicago, IL, an editor said she loved seeing “Treering in the wild,” and it stuck with us. In 2024, we’re leaving our home offices and Google Meets for more IRL conversations and celebrations.
New ways to capture and share memories
Personalized memories are here to stay. How families and yearbook coordinators collect and share them once again will get a shake-up at our hands.
2024 growth Oopportunities
From new Yearbook Club webinars for yearbook coordinators and advisers to multi-day virtual events and mini-tutorials, we pledge to continue supporting you by answering your questions and simplifying the design-to-print process.
To learn more about how you can be involved in Treering’s 15th birthday celebrations,
- Engage with Treering Yearbooks on Facebook, Instagram, X, formerly known as Twitter, and TikTok
- Read the monthly editor newsletter
- Subscribe to the blog
Staff pictured
Top: Sara C. (Sales), Jordan O. (Community Advocate Team), Ali J. (Sales), Gia W. (Sales), Ed G. (Product Evangelist), Liz T. (Customer Success Manager), Dara A. (Sales), Kate H. (Sales)
Bottom: Dustin A. (Community Advocate Team), Katie P. (Customer Success Manager), Shannon H. (Sales/Social), Sandra V. (Engagement and Onboarding), Louise Kate L. (Community Advocate Team), Aisa A. (Community Advocate Team)