As schools finish for the year, my heart leaps with joy every time I read a success story about schools using Google Slides to create their yearbooks. I have gathered a few of those stories for you.
Phillips Magnet Elementary in Napa, California
Jen Ellison is a technology teacher at Phillips Magnet Elementary School in Napa, California. In her May 28, 2019 blog post, Jen writes, "Yearbooks are for the rich kids. You know this to be true. Yearbooks have gotten even more expensive over the years. Many high schools charge over $100 for their yearbooks. " She even had to share her high school yearbook with her sister due to price. Jen removed the price hurdle by having her 5th-grade students use GSuite to create and organize their 66-page, full-cover softback yearbook.
The best thing about #slidesyearbook https://t.co/wKyWZlucOm, is that you would pick up our yearbook from a stack of "traditional" yearbooks and see NO difference -- other than the fact that ours is probably longer 66 pages (most elem yearbooks are in the 40s) and the price pic.twitter.com/B6KeKbN7Tx
— Jen Ellison, M.Ed💕 (@jellison23) May 29, 2019
1.I wanted it to be simple, clear and easy for students to create a yearbook, and they've been using google for FORVER. The students and I designed the book together. We LOVED using GSuite, and am pumped for next year when air drop works! (IT blocked it)
— Jen Ellison, M.Ed💕 (@jellison23) June 22, 2019
2. Blossom Books published it and it was GORGEOUS!! We 100% will use them again! We nearly sold out in presales! 150 yearbooks. Last year we almost sold 112 while sitting in front of the school every day. We never advertised or set up a table.
— Jen Ellison, M.Ed💕 (@jellison23) June 22, 2019
3. I am ALREADY thinking and planning for next year's yearbook, and am SUPER STOKED that @Jentechnology has coded it to make it EVEN better.
— Jen Ellison, M.Ed💕 (@jellison23) June 22, 2019
Uplands International School, Penang, Malaysia
Phil is a teacher at Uplands International School in Penang, Malaysia. On June 21, 2019, he shared his school's #SlidesYearbook with me and the world. Watch Phil's Twitter handle for links to blog posts about the project.
It worked! @ispuplands first yearbook (188 pages) made entirely in #GSuite just arrived and it looks great. Adapting the #slidesyearbook workflow to Asian paper sizes/printers not a problem. Many many thanks @Jentechnology for showing us how. pic.twitter.com/sQJMXCCnub
— Phil Macoun (@pmacoun) June 21, 2019
1. We had been using an expensive proprietary yearbook platform to create our yearbook in collaboration with students and teachers. But too expensive to continue. #slidesyearbook workflow emulates most of the things I liked about the old system at no cost!
— Phil Macoun (@pmacoun) June 23, 2019
2. Students and Staff. Build page ladder in Sheets together at start of year. Yearbook Club helped with some pages. Teachers did their own pages. Advisory/tutor group pages done by students. A lot of final work done by me. But next year will have x2 senior girls as editors.
— Phil Macoun (@pmacoun) June 23, 2019
3. One of the unexpected die benefits was that many teachers and students improved their #Slides skills. As we are a #GSuite school it was pretty much a frictionless transition.
— Phil Macoun (@pmacoun) June 23, 2019
4. We went with a local printer who were easy to work with and the final quality was pretty good. This was the part I was most nervous about but the high quality pdfs that export from #Slides worked great. I did use Photoshop for the cover art.
— Phil Macoun (@pmacoun) June 23, 2019
Page Hilltop School in Ayer, Massachusetts
Kristin Mayo teaches technology to K-5 students at Page Hilltop Elementary School in Ayer, Massachusetts. On June 12, I received this tweet from her.
The PH 5th grade #GoogleSlides yearbook is printed and ready for the students! Big thanks to @Jentechnology for this incredible idea and for all of your helpful guides and information! #ASRSD #gttribe #GoogleEDU #edtech pic.twitter.com/YjtSoat5q9
— Kristin Mayo (@kmayoTechTeach) June 12, 2019
I designed it. The 5th graders helped me come up with the questions. I used Google Classroom and Forms to gather their answers. I used Minuteman Printing in Devens, MA. I hope to do it again now that I know better what I’m doing! One example below-not the best screenshot! pic.twitter.com/QUbgQf2LSp
— Kristin Mayo (@kmayoTechTeach) June 24, 2019
Oxnard Middle College High School, Oxnard, California
Emily Guthrie works at a school located on Oxnard College where students take both high school and college classes. Students earn both a high school diploma and an Associate's Degree by the end of 12th grade.
I just got the first copy of the inaugural OMC family #slidesyearbook and I’m over here like 😍😍😍! pic.twitter.com/wskZjMaK9s
— Emily Guthrie (@msemilyguthrie) May 30, 2019
We did a #slidesyearbook b/c we’re a new school w/ no established class/club/infrastructure for yearbook. It was 💯 Ss designed and printed by Blurb since we don’t have a bookkeeper, so we had to have online sales only. Ss benefited from affordability, creativity, and ownership!
— Emily Guthrie (@msemilyguthrie) June 23, 2019
Conclusion
You and your students do not need a fancy yearbook company, not when they have Google Slides. I want to give a big thank you to teachers from around the world for sharing their success stories. Share your story via email or using the #SlidesYearbook hashtag on Twitter.