Embedded Files
This calendar is a guide of activities that can be done throughout the school year to promote the journalism program and create bonding opportunities for the staff. These bonding activities are also a great way to promote the journalism program for further recruiting.
These personalized letters are delivered to each student by the current editor in chief. Students are excited to receive their letters and feel a sense of pride in receiving a personalized letter from the adviser and editor in chief.
In addition to giving recruiting letters to the students, retired adviser Ellen Kersey also suggested sending a version of the same letter to parents.
"I would get recommendations from other teachers. Then I would send letters to their parents, telling them their child had been recommended by a teacher to be a part of the journalism program. Most parents saw that as a good thing and urged their son or daughter to check it out." -Ellen Kersey, retired adviser from California
Yearbook Recruiting Flyers
The recruiting flyers can be given to each teacher to hang in their classrooms or on their doors. Below are a few for The Blaze yearbook. They are changed out throughout the year to keep interest and add new visuals.
Click each image to view the full size flyer.
This is a handout that is given to parents and students during our open house nights and during our open newsroom nights. It has basic facts about the yearbook program and also a list of top ten reasons to join the program. The list is a mix of academic reasons and fun reasons to join yearbook. It is easily adaptable to any journalism publication. It appeals to both parents and students.
This letter to the faculty is given to the staff at the beginning of the school each year. The letter and information is presented by our student editors. It helps our school staff get to know our journalism staffs and establish a positive relationship from the start. It also allows the school staff the opportunity to know more about how our publications operate and some facts about them.
So much of how our community sees itself and remembers itself goes through the journalism publications, yet it is the smallest department in the school. Much of what the students do is unknown to their classmates and their teachers. This letter allows the faculty to learn more about the publications and invite them to be part of the process. The teachers are a great resource for recruiting in the future and having a positive relationship with them is an important part of the recruiting process.
Each of these events is promoted on our social media accounts to help generate more buzz about the program. This helps accomplish both staff bonding and recruiting for the journalism classes. Recruiting through social media meets students where they are comfortable and helps programs stay current.
Links to The Blaze yearbook accounts are below.
Staff Shirts
Staff Shirts
Order staff shirts early in the year and plan regular days throughout the year for the staff to wear them. You may choose to have each publication staff pick a day during the week or all staffs wear them on the same day. Do what works for you. Either way, other kids in the school will notice and the journalism staffs become walking billboards for the journalism program.
2022 staff gather for an end of the year photo. The school district prohibited end of the year or season banquets due to some COVID protocols still being in place. The staff wanted to take a group photo to commemorate the end of the year even without a banquet.
The 2023 staff pose for a photo in front of the UW Whitewater sign before the start of the KEMPA Fall Conference on Oct. 14. This was the debut of the year's staff shirts and they decided to all wear them for the conference. KEMPA was able to hold the first in-person Fall Conference since 2019 and the COVID pandemic and this was the first staff to attend the conference in three years.
Pancakes
Pancakes
This has become a favorite tradition in the yearbook newsroom. An electric skillet, some cooking supplies and complete pancake mix make this an easy and fun event the staff looks forward to. Depending on your district's policies, you may not be able to have an electric skillet, but you can ask your Culinary Arts teachers if you could use their kitchens. The word has gotten around school that the yearbook staff gets pancakes, and it has driven interest in the program. It's turned into another recruiting tool. Never underestimate the power of food!
The Blaze yearbook adviser, Michelle Corbett, makes pancakes on the last day of summer training camp. The pancake tradition was put on hold for three years due to the COVID pandemic, but was welcomed back by the 2023 staff.
Kevin Vazquez (12) and Dan Zalazar-Ramirez (11) demonstrate a traditional Mexican dance for the rest of the staff on a warm, fall Wisconsin day. The Blaze yearbook staff took advantage of this Friday morning to spend some time outside and play music and dance on a Friday Funday.
Board games and music are the choice activities on Sept. 30, 2022. This year's staff quickly chose a couple of favorite go-to games for their Friday Funday time, but there are multiple activities they can pick from each week.
Friday Fundays
Friday Fundays
Our students work hard, so it's important to give them time to relax and play hard, too. This can be difficult when staring in the face of deadlines, but it's a great chance for the staff to bond and have a lot of fun with little effort on the adviser's part. Posting these days on your publication's social media accounts will also drive interest in the journalism program.
Have board games that you keep in the room.
We make a staff playlist on Spotify each year. (The kids know the songs need to be school appropriate.) The playlist is shared with the whole staff and they can add songs throughout the year.
Sometimes we take a break on nice days and go outside (those are short lived in Wisconsin) - one day a spontaneous dance party broke out and two students taught everyone how to do a traditional dance from their culture. These create great memories and generate interest in the program.
High Fives
High Fives
The Blaze yearbook 2023 editor in chief wanted to have a way for encouraging the staff to cheer each other on and recognize each other. She came up with this idea for them to write on post-its and stick them on the board. The staff was very excited to come in to the classroom and see their names on the board. This is another quick and easy way to bond the staff. It also has the advantage of all of your other classes seeing the positive things happening in the newsroom. It's an indirect way of promoting your journalism program.
Each High Five should include:
staffer's name
reason for High Five
name of the person giving the High Five
"It's really nice when people give you a high five. I'm really appreciative and it helps me interact with all of the other staff and know that they're thinking of me."
-Sergio Musaitef, 2023 Blaze Digital Media Manager & Celebrations Coordinator
Yearbook staffers set up a table in the commons to greet parents as they enter the school for the open house night. Parents and incoming students were then taken for tours of the publications newsrooms and studios. Staffers at the table also answered questions about the journalism program before and after tours.
You will be prompted to log into Google and make a copy of the document.
Open Newsroom Night
Open Newsroom Night
Our Open Newsroom Night is a part of our yearly open house. November of 2022 will be the second year we've had an Open House after COVID-19 and the first year we've been able to invite people into the newsrooms. We are looking forward to having the community in our space again and sharing the work our student journalists are doing.
Here are some ideas to create a welcoming and fun environment:
Create clear signage.
Have students greeting visitors.
Snacks - have simple cookies & drinks. (Our COVID times make this a bit more difficult, but you can be creative with it).
Have students walk visitors through the space and explain what happens in each area.
Displays - have student work displayed and have some students working on projects to show off their skills. If your program has won any awards, make sure to have them on display. These awards show the quality of the work being done in your newsroom and give young students something to aspire to.
Q&A station - have a designated spot with staffers for community members, parents and students to ask questions about the program.
Business cards - a few years ago we started giving out business cards. We made them in house by printing them on pre-made business card paper from Avery we purchased and printed them on our printer. You can find the our word file at the link to the left.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse