In 1999 I was the co-editor-in-chief of my high school yearbook. My adviser, Charles Murray, set the best example for me as a student and now as an adviser, and I try to emulate his advising style every day.
Every year, Mr. Murray made sure we knew how to shoot pictures, design pages and write copy. After that the editors and staff took the book and ran.
As a sophomore and section editor, I remember sitting in the newsroom creating a design for the academic section of the yearbook. Mr. Murray stopped to check my work. He asked, “Are you sure that’s the way you want the section to look?”
Hesitant at first, I finally said, “Yes.”
He said, “Okay!”
I knew he didn’t necessarily approve of the design. It didn’t really “match” any of the other sections of the book or the theme. But it was a classic example of Mr. Murray’s hands-off style. He was giving me and all of the staff an opportunity to create something independently and giving us ownership of what we were creating. He let my design stand and it ran in the book.
For three years of my high school career, Mr. Murray created an environment for student- centered learning in the yearbook class and that’s what I try to do daily. Now in my 9th year of advising yearbook staffs, I feel student ownership of the book is essential.
Our yearbook is truly a student-run publication. I give my editors full responsibility for theme, design, photography, copy and sales. We spend the first six weeks of school making sure everyone knows how to do a little bit of everything “yearbook” and then the responsibility is theirs:
• Editors run the “Remind 101” app to keep in touch with staffers.
• Editors create assignments and deadlines that play to our staffers strengths.
• Editors conduct class daily.
• Students come to me with ideas and I tell them to let me know what I need to do to make that idea fly.
• Editors collect cell phones in baskets at the beginning of classes sometimes to create “total focus” days.
• Staffers step up and shoot events for each other if there are scheduling conflicts. They show appreciation to each other when they get each other’s backs. When one editor couldn’t get a work schedule changed to shoot a basketball game, another staffer stepped in for her and that editor in turn showed up the next day with a tray of thank you brownies.
“Yearbookers” know that yearbook staffs become great friends and even like family; My staffs are accountable to me but more important, they are accountable to themselves and each other. In the end, that’s what gets our book done.
Excerpt from Elements magazine “How’d You Do That?: Become A Hands-Off Adviser.”