Looking for a new class to take next year? Yearbook class is going on its first year being a class instead of an after-school club. Here you can share your creativity and talents and be a part of the Norwood High School yearbook staff. 

For the past few years yearbook used to be a club that anyone could join after school. Once the idea of turning this club into a class was brought up, Kendra Leavitt was thrilled with this new opportunity that she could take on. 

“Last year Mrs. Dwyer was the advisor but we had talked with admins about how we would love to make it a class and just being able to offer kids more options in terms of electives. I was involved in the yearbook previously and had done it 2 years prior and then when the opportunity arose while we were talking about it being a class I said I would love to be involved and teach it,” she said.

With it being a class now there is no worry for students about attending meetings or not being available on certain days. Some have found that it is easier when there is a certain time when everyone can get together and work on it. 

“It gave us a lot more time to dedicate to the yearbook whereas when it was a club sometimes it was tough for kids to make it to meetings or make pages on their own time so by making it to a class we now have a specific time in the day where kids can dedicate to working on pages for the yearbook” said Leavitt. 

During class, each person has their own duties and responsibilities that need to be met within a certain time period. Although there is some individual work, there is a lot of teamwork that goes into making sure everything runs smoothly. 

“We all decide on a theme and then we sign up for pages and it's kind of like an independent study where we work on our own pages and incorporate our theme in our pages,” said Junior Madison Ditulio.

Sophomore Jaileen Sanchez also helps to make sure everything is well organized and takes on her own responsibilities. 

“We all take certain responsibilities deciding pages and we all work together to come up with what the theme is and how the cover is going to look and then from there we all branch off. In this term I take responsibility for the yearbook staff page, the senior class will, and senior superlatives. Ms. Leavitt takes care of sending out forms and once they all get filled out and the information gets filtered through I put it together” said Sanchez.

Because this is the first year as a class and for some a whole new field, it evoked some emotions with the unknown of how the class would run. 

“This is actually my first year involved with the yearbook and I love it. I wish I knew about it last year. Since this is my first year, in the beginning, I was a little intimidated. But once I saw how everything worked and how everyone gets certain roles it made it a lot easier knowing that we are all cohesively working together. It also made it a lot less stressful and is actually a lot of fun now,” said Sanchez.

Yearbook class offers many different opportunities that are more driven to letting personal talents take the lead. With everyone bringing their own talents and creativity to the table it makes this class even more fun for everyone. 

“I really love the opportunity for kids to be creative. Yearbook allows them to let their creative side shine. Sometimes we have kids that are really great at photography, really great at design, or wonderful at talking to people, and so being able to give them opportunities and put their talents to use has been awesome to be involved in” said Leavitt.