The students are the yearbook editors, photographers, and staff members. You are the advisor. I will not pretend and say that creating any yearbook is easy, but with proper organization and student empowerment, the yearbook will be incredible!

 

Yearbook Sections

The yearbook should be created in small sections. Not only does this protect the integrity of the yearbook, it also affects the time it takes to open the yearbook to work on it.

I know a yearbook advisor who had a 100-page Google Slides yearbook. By the end of the year, it would take 20 minutes to load. High-resolution photos take time to load. It is best to keep the files smaller in size.

Yearbook Sections

  • Monthly activities
  • Electives
  • Clubs
  • Sports teams
  • Best of/Superlatives
  • Student achievements
  • Collages
  • Individual Student Portraits
  • Staff (all adults on campus)
  • Purchased pages

Click on the Purchased pages link for additional directions. Share this link with students and parents to help them create their personal page.

Yearbook Positions

Each section of the yearbook can be monitored by a student editor.  Remember, the students do the work! The teacher's job is to guide them and provide learning opportunities.

Teacher Advisor

The teacher advisor guides the student editors with the yearbook setup. The advisor also teaches the student editors how to effectively give feedback. At first, the teacher will have the greatest responsibility, but as the year progresses, student editors will take over.

Student Editors

Student editors run the yearbook. They are co-teachers in the Yearbook Google Classroom and have the same edit access to Classroom Materials and Assignments. These are the students who upload, label, and add photos to Google Drive. Under the initial watchful eye of the advisor, student editors offer constructive feedback and guide the yearbook design.

Student Photographers

This coveted position is crucial to a successful yearbook. These students attend after-school music, sports, and club activities. They are responsible for asking a student editor to upload the photos, as well as help the editor add only the best photos to the photo albums. They must behave in a manner that makes the yearbook class proud. This year, a fellow teacher made t-shirts that read "Yearbook Staff" for our photographers.

Student Graphic Designers

These students are just as important as the other students. They do the bulk of the work. Student graphic designers select select the page layouts and photos. They write captions on a weekly or daily basis. The yearbook would not exist without these students.

Additional Resources

YouTube Videos

Websites

Cameras

What about cameras? Which cameras should we buy? How can we use smartphone cameras?

Updated January 22, 2023.