Yearbook and Newspaper Class - The Experience
Embedded Files
This year, I had the pleasure of working with our resident high school yearbook team - and it certainly was an experience! From maintaining the newspaper to making each and every page within the yearbook unique, there was not a day where I wasn’t working doing what I wanted. Within this article, I’m going to give incoming students some insight for just what they signed up into.
I’d like to start with our school newspaper: online and accessible to all. Working on The Husky Howl always began with choosing what articles we would be working on in each edition. From sports to events (Blood drive, Homecoming, local happenings …) to international NEWS (Notable Events, Weather, and Sports), we’ve covered it all - thanks to this organizational pattern.
Newspaper
Choosing an article starts with each of our role leaders. Given there were seven of us, we each had our indivisual roles that we would discuss with the others while listing ideas on the board.
Our roles were;
Editor in Chief (Brailynn Watson)
Photography Editor (Jorden Moser)
Advertising and Marketing Manager (Jessica Gouldby)
Sports Editor (Addison Wheeler)
Entertainment Editor (Jessica Gutierrez)
News Editor (Estefany Morales Carmona)
Feature Editor (Lauren Renouf)
By the time each of us had taken some time at the board, we all had an idea of just what we were doing within that months edition. At that point, it was time to get to work! With two articles required from each of us for each edition, we worked hard and had fun. I don’t know if you've ever experienced the tranquility of a quietly working classroom, but if you haven't, let me give you an idea of how it feels. It’s a pure, unfiltered working environment, especially if it’s work that you chose and work that you are happy to do. It stimulates the brain to be working separately but with others. So closely intertwined within the same thoughts, but separate all the same. None of my other classes had the same wondrous environment, added on that Yearbook class was the last one of the day this year, it was entirely relaxing. After you finish your article, you move it over to the website, where you promptly choose a theme and some relevant pictures. Sometimes, you have pictures you already had in mind, sometimes it is a search that happens over several days, but regardless- working on these articles was cathartic and therapeutic in how writing went from being a drag (that drag you get every time you have to write an essay for class) to being fun, in its own way. That's when you would check off your article and move on, but I don’t think I’ve ever had to take work home from this class - which is simply another bonus.
Yearbook
Now let us move onto the actual yearbook part. Work on the yearbook began similarly to newspaper as we decided what kind of pages we wanted to include and who wanted to design what. Of course, given we started on the year book after winter break, and finished the main yearbook by the end of March (the insert was done by the end of April) we had more than two pages going at a time. Personally, I did around 9 pages, but given some pages took longer than others. The amount of pages each of us did varied, but the most predominant thing to note about creating the yearbook was the amount of creative freedom we had. The only limitation imposed upon our creativity was the fact that the website we used hadn’t been updated since the early 2000s. (It was like trying to use word.doc again, after not having used it since before 2012). Of course there were quality concerns: things like spelling, grammar, punctuation, and labeling of persons within the pictures featured, but those things were fixed up with the group, and hardly took up more than a few minutes fixing. Overall, it was super fun choosing backgrounds, fonts, and trying to keep with the theme. Sometimes, in an effort to do just that, I’d have to go through great lengths just to drag whatever collage I cooked up back into something that could carry on the theme from the last page. Regardless, even with such a small team, we had an easy time with the yearbook, and by the last couple months of the school year we were able to making articles like we hadn’t just taken an unannounced break for almost three months.
The Conclusion
Other than that, we of course had smaller things to do. Like speaking with advertisers, and setting up posters we put in the hall to advertise both of our ventures. This class was fun and artistic in a way I didn’t think it would be. Especially with the fact that the entire team worked together, pulling these things together as seamlessly, we could with deadlines biting at our heels. Overall, I would recommend this class, and to all of the students coming in next year, I wish you the best experience as well.
Best wishes!
-Jessica Gouldby of the 2021-2022 Yearbook Team.
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