by Bernadette Cranmer, yearbook adviser
Granite Bay High School, California
You finished the last pages. There’s nothing left to do but correct proofs and plan distribution. Now what? How do you keep the staff engaged in meaningful, educational activities for the rest of the year?
End-of-the-Year Underclassmen Project
This culminating activity has two parts. Theme Project Part A is due the Tuesday before the final exam. Plans for Next Year Part B is due at the beginning of the final exam.
This is worth 225 points.
Part A: Your Theme Project
You’ll be presenting your theme project to class. That presentation will be on the Tuesday before the final exam. For that, you’ll create a Google Slide presentation with pdf’s of your Indesign pages from your theme project. Make sure that you export your pages as spreads when you make the pdf’s. You’ll need to include slides for the following:
1. Initial slide on which you have your name and 2016 Theme Presentation.
2. Information about our school that inspired the theme idea
3. Cover pdf
• explain color choice
• explain font choice
• explain graphic choices
4. Opening Endsheet pdf
• design ties to the cover with color, font, and graphics
• explain how you organized the sections of the book and why; does it have two sections? three sections? four? What is included in each and why?
5. Title page PDF
• design ties to the cover with color, font, and graphics
• essential information
• photo(s) supports theme concept
• photo(s) has caption(s) (dummy text) and photo credits
• theme logo from the cover present
6. Opening spread PDF
• create opening spread for the book (Will there be one of two/three? Why
• design ties to the cover/other pages with color, font, and graphics
• photos support the theme
• opening theme copy written and designed as part of the overall theme tone & design
• photos have captions (dummy text) and photo credits
• theme logo from the cover present
• theme-related folio design
7. Divider PDF
Which divider is it?
• ties to the cover/other pages with color, font, and graphics
• photo(s) support theme & the particular section
• copy format & content
• name of the section is on the divider
• consistent folio design
8. Back Endsheet PDF
• ties to the front endsheet with color, font, and graphics
• theme logo/phrase from the cover is on it BUT altered to suggest finality
Part B: Your plans to improve the yearbook next year
Make a Google Slide presentation that shows three ideas that would improve our yearbook and/or our class. They can be about any of the following:
• How our class is run
• How we organize and/or gather information
• How we teach new staff members about our processes
• How we communicate with the student body and teachers/staff.
This will be presented at the final. You’ll need to explain the benefits of your plan.
End-of-Year Senior Legacy Project
Your culminating activity has two parts: Legacy Part A is due on Tuesday before exams; Legacy Part B is due at the beginning of the final exam. This is worth 125 points.
Part A: Leaving A Legacy to the Ursus staff
Choose from one of the following projects that must be completed responsibly, neatly, and professionally. One person will complete each project. Save any receipts for any materials purchased and give them to Mrs. Cranmer and you’ll be reimbursed.
Decide who will do which project.
1. Create a 2015-16 scrapbook focusing on our family of staff members and our events, games, trips, and accomplishments. It will be archived for future staffers; it’s the history of our yearbook experience.
• Include the staff members’ first designs that all about them (YOU spread).
• All photos or other memorabilia are clearly labeled
2. Complete photo bag organization for all the cameras.
• Make new, HEAVILY-laminated tags for all bags that will be affixed in a secure manner to every bag. (NOTE: “Flimsy” does not last.)
• Name four new cameras (to be purchased this summer) and make tags for those as well.
• Make sure that the camera’s name and our contact information is on every tag.
• For every camera bag, take a photo, crop & and print it 2.25 x 4.25. It should show every piece of equipment in the bag. Make sure the name of the camera is above the photo. Laminate and place it in every bag. (Spell camera names correctly.)
3. Finish and fix the Inspiration Wall
• Create a new border and securely attach it.
• Remove any white background paper that has been damaged and replace it with new paper, and make it look neat.
• Remove the inspiration pieces from this year, and create a neat, ready-to-go inspiration background for next year’s staff.
• Remove the blacklist (students covered more than three times) from this year. Design a new one.
• Attractively mount the covers of past yearbooks across the top of the wall. Each will need to be framed and securely attached to wall.
4. Recognizing greatness
• Remove old award certificates and put up our new ones. Create headline/title that precedes that has the name of our book on it (something like Ursus Awards).
• Go through every single yearbook and other printed materials in cabinets and in magazine boxes to determine which will be taken to recycling bin. (Get Mrs. Cranmer’s permission before removing them.)
• Create an Ursus library of the yearbooks, magazines and design books in the cabinets.
5. Matt & Maverick
• Teach two returning staff members how to fly Maverick (the drone) from start to finish.
• Create a heavy-duty luggage tag for the drone box and for the laptop bag, and for the three new laptops that we will buy this summer. (You’ll have to name the laptops, so that’s part of it. This is like the tags being made for #2 above.)
• Take a color photo that shows every piece of equipment that should be in the box and bag. Make sure the name of the laptop and Maverick is above the photo. Laminate that and include it in the box/bag.
6. Supply cabinets and drawers
• Clean (with actual cleaner) all cabinets and drawers. Throw away and/or giveaway things that are back there that really shouldn’t be there.
• Organize all drawers and cabinets for all our necessary materials and label (wit. an actual label maker) the contents of all of them,
• Make a list of materials that we need to have to function properly (paper, tape, staples, label maker, and much more) and ask me to purchase them. When the supplies arrive, organize and label.
7. Photo USB.
• Load a 16GB USB Flash Drive with the BEST photos of every event, sport and club from this past school year. This will be the history of this year that will be saved, so really pick the best. All others will later (not now) be deleted later (not now).
• Place the photos inside labeled folders on the drive.
• Make sure that Media/Student Government has the photos needed for the end of the year.
8. Paperwork
• Update all yearbook forms, handouts so that they are ready for next year’s staff.
• Post to the Google Drive and to the Ursus drive on the network in a folder called Yearbook Forms and Yearbook Handouts.
• Create new forms that would be useful.
• After forms are approved by me, make enough copies for the first semester of 2015.
• Put forms in appropriate places in the room, making sure the places are labeled.
• Make sure that all old forms are thrown away.
9. Closet organization
• Clean entire camera closet and organize all materials inside.
• Create space for every item so equipment and materials are easy to see and access.
• If some items won’t fit, then make a plan for what can be removed and how those things can be secured. Discuss the plan with me, and then make it happen.
• Label every shelf and area for every piece of equipment.
• Throw away things that are trash or shouldn’t be saved.
• Move things that are currently in the closet that shouldn’t be (ie. old yearbooks, old supplements, etc.)
• Go online and research to find the most secure lock. Get a better lock with more than one key or one with a combination. Find out which would be the safest and go with that.
Part B: How did you grow this year?
Make a Google Slide presentation that shows what you’ve learned and how you’ve grown this year. Look back at the goals you did earlier this year, and decide if you met your them. What will you do with the skills you learned in yearbook? How will you carry them forward into your life?
This will be presented at the final.
There were a lot of things that I thought worked well about our final projects last year.
• Every student could address the requirements in a creative, personal way.
• I was able to assess each student individually and see how each had grown over the course of the year. Many things that we do on the book are completed on a team, but this wasn’t the case for this assignment.
• Whether seniors or underclassmen, all contributed toward the positive development of the program.
• I didn’t have to hold anyone’s hand to complete the assignments. I was available to answer questions and give feedback if asked, but these were all individualized projects.
• The culminating day of presentations was filled with “ahs” and hugs with fellow staff members as each person honestly expressed his/her development and gratitude to others on staff who’d helped them grow.
• The seniors were able to leave something lasting, that we still use today and will build on for the future.
The difficulty for me was in coming up with enough individual Legacy projects for the seniors. Thankfully, I have fewer seniors this year, so my list won’t have to be as long. However, I won’t be able to just repeat all the same projects. That will challenge my creativity as I want each project to be something that we actually need for the yearbook program.
Excerpt from Elements magazine “How’d You Do That?: Assign End-Of-The-Year Projects.”
