The Yearbook Whys Podcast

We channel our inner David Letterman on this one, giving you a Top Ten List of Opportunities and Things to Remember as we confront a back-to-school season like no other. Joining me for the chat are Alicia Merrifield and Callie Williams, two advisers I bonded with at the Journalism Teachers Facebook Group this spring. You don't want to miss it — some of this is practical "try this!" and other parts are more head & heart reminders and cautions as we look to the months ahead in our yearbook lives. You can reach Alicia at merrifield@thevillageschool.com and Callie at Williams.Callie@brevardschools.org. Need Theme Development resources? Go back one episode in the feed to "Theme in 25," and find our resources at tinyurl.com/theme25. Advisers, please use the episode and resources with your students in your distance learning plans and 2021 theme development! There's a PDF notes page and brainstorming tool that will help kick off your program's development for the year ahead. JEA has made free instructional resources available to advisers here, and you can find Yearbook Chat with Jim, Ask Mike, Mind the Gutter and The Yearbook Whys anywhere you get your podcasts. Keep the conversation going with me at iteachyearbook@gmail.com— I'd love to hear from you. Find the podcast on Twitter at @YearbookWhys. Please share the podcast online or with friends in your yearbook network, or leave a review on Apple iTunes; it helps others find the podcast! Share a review here: Apple iTunes This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

This one's a long time coming — originally recorded on May 28, 2020, this roundtable discussion brings together advisers, creative consultants and publisher reps from across the nation to look at staff training, coverage planning, photography, team building and yearbooking in the moment we're living in now. Watch for a follow-up episode in your feed in the next day or so. Many thanks to Jeff, Kristin, Brooke, Jed, Stephen, and Becky for joining me to chat all those months ago. Need Theme Development resources? Go back one episode in the feed to "Theme in 25," and find our resources at tinyurl.com/theme25. Advisers, please use the episode and resources with your students in your distance learning plans and 2021 theme development! There's a PDF notes page and brainstorming tool that will help kick off your program's development for the year ahead. JEA has made free instructional resources available to advisers here, and you can find Yearbook Chat with Jim, Ask Mike, Mind the Gutter and The Yearbook Whys anywhere you get your podcasts. Keep the conversation going with me at iteachyearbook@gmail.com— I'd love to hear from you. Find the podcast on Twitter at @YearbookWhys. Please share the podcast online or with friends in your yearbook network, or leave a review on Apple iTunes; it helps others find the podcast! Share a review here: Apple iTunes This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

NOTE: This episode comes with a guided notes PDF worksheet, a look at a gallery of 2019 yearbooks and other resources, all linked at tinyurl.com/theme25. Advisers, please use this episode and resources with your students in your distance learning plans and 2021 theme development! There's a PDF notes page and brainstorming tool that will help kick off your program's development for the year ahead. Award-winning adviser and friend of the podcast Carrie Faust, MJE, joins Mike for another look at theme development for yearbook staffs and advisers. In this rapid-fire primer, they discuss a proven approach to development that puts first things first, starting with story. Again, check out tinyurl.com/theme25 for accompanying resources to use with yearbook staffs. Need more coronavirus and end-of-book coverage ideas? Check these out!.Find Gimp, the open-source, FREE Photoshop clone here. JEA has made free instructional resources available to advisers here, and you can find Yearbook Chat with Jim, Ask Mike, Mind the Gutter and The Yearbook Whys anywhere you get your podcasts. Keep the conversation going with me at iteachyearbook@gmail.com— I'd love to hear from you. Find the podcast on Twitter at @YearbookWhys. Please share the podcast online or with friends in your yearbook network, or leave a review on Apple iTunes; it helps others find the podcast! Share a review here: Apple iTunesThis podcast is powered by Pinecast.

They may be stuck at home, but yearbook staffs and editors across the country are finding creative ways to reimagine and extend coverage to include the pandemic while still working toward their final deadlines. From retrieving files via wifi while parked in the school parking to interviewing in unconventional ways to getting a laugh from an adviser's coronavirus memes on GroupMe, we hear stories from yearbook editors at The Lion (McKinney HS, Texas), Madrono (Palo Alto HS, Calif.) and the Black & Gold (Rock Canyon HS, Colo.) as they establish new routines and norms for themselves and their staffs. A big shoutout goes to these editors' advisers and ALL of you advisers out there figuring this out one day at a time! Need more coronavirus and end-of-book coverage ideas? Check these out!.Find Gimp, the open-source, FREE Photoshop clone here. JEA has made free instructional resources available to advisers here, and you can find Yearbook Chat with Jim, Ask Mike, Mind the Gutter and The Yearbook Whys anywhere you get your podcasts. Keep the conversation going with me at iteachyearbook@gmail.com— I'd love to hear from you. Find the podcast on Twitter at @YearbookWhys. Please share the podcast online or with friends in your yearbook network, or leave a review on Apple iTunes; it helps others find the podcast! Share a review here: Apple iTunesThis podcast is powered by Pinecast.

It's a new world for our students and us, and the journalism can — and must — continue! I know many of you have cameras locked away in your publication labs, so I wanted to take some time to talk with one of the best photo instructors in the country to figure out how our student journalists can create opportunities for ongoing coverage as our school years continue. My conversation with Mark Murray is a long one, yes — but we talk about real, practical tips you can use with your staffs to cover life in your communities visually. From DIY at-home photo studios to iPhone apps that give you manual control to free alternatives to Photoshop, there's a LOT in this episode. You can look at some of the resources we discuss here. Check out Mark's organization, ATPI here. Find Gimp, the open-source, FREE Photoshop clone here. Check out more on JEA has made free instructional resources available to advisers here, and you can find Yearbook Chat with Jim, Ask Mike, Mind the Gutter and The Yearbook Whys anywhere you get your podcasts. Keep the conversation going with me at iteachyearbook@gmail.com— I'd love to hear from you. Find the podcast on Twitter at @YearbookWhys. Please share the podcast online or with friends in your yearbook network, or leave a review on Apple iTunes; it helps others find the podcast! Share a review here: Apple iTunes This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

First up: take care of yourselves, and mind your health. I hope you and yours are ok, safe, healthy — and that you have toilet paper. What a time for a global pandemic to hit — apparently the coronavirus didn't get the memo about yearbook final deadline season! I talked with retired adviser Lori Oglesbee-Petter about how tackle the final deadline and adapt to covering our schools and communities through the school shutdowns, strategies for accommodating blank pages and maybe even creating a spring supplement, and ways to maintain routine and normalcy for our kids — and even come out stronger as a program and staff on the other side. JEA has made free instructional resources available to advisers here, and you can find Yearbook Chat with Jim, Ask Mike, Mind the Gutter and The Yearbook Whys anywhere you get your podcasts. Keep the conversation going with me at iteachyearbook@gmail.com— I'd love to hear from you. Find the podcast on Twitter at @YearbookWhys. Please share the podcast online or with friends in your yearbook network, or leave a review on Apple iTunes; it helps others find the podcast! Share a review here: Apple iTunes This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

A Note from Mike: This hour-long episode contains an interview in which we get into some tough and sensitive topics, including a discussion of how yearbook and journalism students cover suicide. In this episode, I welcome master adviser Ellen Austin (The Harker School, Calif.) to the podcast for a discussion about supporting yearbook staffs in covering topics that are often perceived as sensitive, including everything from vaping to LGBTQ+ students, to how yearbooks identify transgender students and cover students who have died by suicide. We also talk about the wonderful opportunities we have to support our students' learning in student journalism, where so often they don't get it right the first time. These are topics we address regularly in our own lab at Tesserae, and I hope you find the conversation thought-provoking. For additional resources on covering suicide in student media, please take a look at this from the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma out of the Columbia Journalism School. Keep the conversation going with me at iteachyearbook@gmail.com— I'd love to hear from you. Find the podcast on Twitter at @YearbookWhys. Please share the podcast online or with friends in your yearbook network, or leave a review on Apple iTunes; it helps others find the podcast! Share a review here: Apple iTunes This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

That's that tough time of the year - perhaps most loathed by yearbook advisers: January. From frustrated (and frustrating) students to seniors ready to graduate to ceaseless demands of deadlines, these weeks in the mid-winter can be the hardest of the year. With this episode, we kick off season three of the podcast and talk with veteran adviser and Journalism Education Association President Sarah Nichols (MJE), adviser of Whitney Student Media in Rocklin, Calif., about how to handle our winter woes, motivate and support our staffs, and take care of ourselves. Too, we get into all the reasons you should be a member of JEA — and trust me, there are plenty! To learn more about JEA, click here. Check out Sarah's book recommendation, The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek. Keep the conversation going with me at iteachyearbook@gmail.com— I'd love to hear from you. Find the podcast on Twitter at @YearbookWhys. Please share the podcast online or with friends in your yearbook network, or leave a review on Apple iTunes; it helps others find the podcast! Share a review here: Apple iTunes This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

Hot Topics in Photography from the NHSJC It's Jed and Mike, two bald guys with cameras, back again! This is the audio from my presentation with Jed Palmer (Eagle Eye View yearbook at Sierra MS, Parker, Colo.) at the Washington D.C. National High School Journalism Convention. We're frequent collaborators on all things photo, and this presentation captures a lot of the questions we're asked and tips & tricks we regularly offer to advisers and journalism students alike. From lighting portraits to how to use the Creative Commons to get photos you can't otherwise, there's something in here for everyone. Check out the presentation AND the images we talk by clicking here. It'd be great to hear from you — you can reach me at iteachyearbook@gmail.com and find the podcast on Twitter at @YearbookWhys. Please share the podcast online or with friends in your yearbook network, or leave a review on Apple iTunes; it helps others find the podcast! Share a review here: Apple iTunes This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

S2E13 - If You Don't Tell These Stories, Who Will? Students' voices matter, and student journalists' voices are silenced by administrative overreach and censorship far more often than most of us are likely aware. Recently, I had the opportunity to share a message of empowerment and advocacy with nearly 800 students at the Garden State Scholastic Press Association's Fall Conference — that message is presented here as an episode of the podcast. I know that these topics can challenge advisers, editors and staffs at yearbooks and other publications, but the fight for our students' First Amendment rights is a worthy one, and one I invite you to join in. Thirty-six states operate under the Hazelwood standard, giving school officials far too much control over what news students in their communities can access. Join us in the New Voices campaign to restore the Tinker standard to our schools! For more on New Voices, visit the Student Press Law Center's website and follow @SPLC on Twitter. Find the podcast on Twitter at @YearbookWhys. Please share the podcast online or with friends in your yearbook network, or leave a review on Apple iTunes; it helps others find the podcast! Share a review here: Apple iTunes This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

S2E12 - DIY(earbook) Summer Camp When our Vol. 4 EiCs worked up the courage to ask, "Mr. Simons - can we stop going to summer camp?" things changed dramatically for our crew here at CPPHS — because they founded Camp Tesserae, camp done our way. Now, three years in, we debrief last weekend's camp, a DIY, two-night event for our editors, staff and me that sets the stage for the first days of school a few weeks away. If you take your kids to a regional camp, have your own camp, or do nothing at all with your staff in the summertime, I hope hearing about our approach might give you some ideas of a camp- or workshop-based approach you can try with your program. Simply put: you don't need to do it our way, but we definitely encourage you to try something! Keep the conversation going with me at iteachyearbook@gmail.com— I'd love to hear from you. Find the podcast on Twitter at @YearbookWhys. Please share the podcast online or with friends in your yearbook network, or leave a review on Apple iTunes; it helps others find the podcast! Share a review here: Apple iTunes This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

S2E11 - Hey Seniors: You Can Quote Me On That Senior quotes, senior superlatives, senior wills, senior portraits, senior tribute ads and more — lots of high school yearbooks go out of their way to keep traditions alive that have proven dangerous, even career-ending, for advisers and staffs in the past few years. In this episode, we explore alternatives to senior quotes and superlatives with a strong emphasis on journalistic content that goes far beyond that quote from Beyoncé that a senior's been thinking about since seventh grade, or the one attributed to Hitler that forces the entire book to be reprinted. There's a better way! Keep the conversation going with me at iteachyearbook@gmail.com— I'd love to hear from you. Find the podcast on Twitter at @YearbookWhys. Please share the podcast online or with friends in your yearbook network, or leave a review on Apple iTunes; it helps others find the podcast! Share a review here: Apple iTunes This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

S2E10 - Livin' the Rep Life with Sabrina Schmitz During a quick break at Camp Orlando this week, I sat down with yearbook rep all-star Sabrina Schmitz, who works with more than 70 Walsworth schools in Central Florida. We talked about how advisers can best make use of their relationships with their reps, what's new and cool in resources for staff culture and productivity in yearbook labs, and much, much more. Sabrina's passion for yearbook — and yearbook kids — really shines in this interview; I hope you'll listen! Keep the conversation going with me at iteachyearbook@gmail.com— I'd love to hear from you. Find the podcast on Twitter at @YearbookWhys. Please share the podcast online or with friends in your yearbook network, or leave a review on Apple iTunes; it helps others find the podcast! Share a review here: Apple iTunes This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

S2E9 - A Really Big Talk with Logan Aimone I tried for a meaningful, all-encompassing title for this one, and it escapes me. Therefore — join us for an insightful, wide-ranging and practical conversation with Chicago-based adviser Logan Aimone about empowering our student journalists in their work, establishing productive relationships with administrators, and growing and supporting your staff to a place of journalistic credibility as they embrace the rights granted to them in the First Amendment. We get into a bunch of other things, too — there's something in there for everyone! I hope you'll take a listen, and keep the conversation going with me at iteachyearbook@gmail.com— I'd love to hear from you. Find the podcast on Twitter at @YearbookWhys. Please share the podcast online or with friends in your yearbook network, or leave a review on Apple iTunes; it helps others find the podcast! Share a review here: Apple iTunes This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

S2E8 - End of the Year Potpourri It's been awhile! End of the year activities have dominated my attention for a month or so, keeping me away from the microphone — so in our first episode in awhile, we talk about end of the year topics including dealing with mistakes in your book, supporting your staff through distribution feedback in the community, and opportunities to celebrate your staff as the year wraps up. Joining me are Susan Massy of the Lair yearbook in Kansas, and Joe Humphrey of the Hilsborean yearbook in Florida. I hope you'll take a listen, and keep the conversation going with me at iteachyearbook@gmail.com— I'd love to hear from you. Find the podcast on Twitter at @YearbookWhys. Please share the podcast online or with friends in your yearbook network, or leave a review on Apple iTunes; it helps others find the podcast! Share a review here: Apple iTunes This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

S2E7 - A Look Back at CSPA We're buried in final page proofs and sprinting toward our final deadline — or is it a marathon? Either way, this week is a quick double-shot episode as I visit with two advisers who, like me, are just back from three days in Manhattan at the [Columbia Scholastic Press Association's] (http://cspa.columbia.edu) 95th annual Spring Convention. It was a great three days, and my guests Brett Hastie (Brookville HS, Virginia) and Robin Christopher (Del Norte HS, Calif.) share their highlights from the convention—if you've never been, you'll find it a great listen! Congratulations to both Brett and Robin's staffs for their Crown award honors at the convention! I hope you'll take a listen, and keep the conversation going with me at iteachyearbook@gmail.com— I'd love to hear from you. Find the podcast on Twitter at @YearbookWhys. Please share the podcast online or with friends in your yearbook network, or leave a review on Apple iTunes; it helps others find the podcast! Share a review here: Apple iTunes This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

S2E6 - Top 10 Ways to Finish the Year - Redux It's THAT time of year — and like you, I'm working at a furious pace with my staff to finish the book. So this week, you get a bonus episode from just about a year ago: Top 10 Ways to Finish the Year! For spring delivery books, that bit of lag from finaling the book out toward graduation shouldn't be a doldrums or limbo — it's a time rife with opportunities for development and growth for your staff and program. The "mood board" project that I describe in Tip #6 can be found here: Mood Board Assignment Please feel free to adapt that assignment in whatever way is best for your staff. Also, you can learn more about Quill & Scroll, the international journalism honor society mentioned in Tip #10, here: quillandscroll.org What did I forget? What activities do you use in your own lab to wrap up the year? If you have questions or comments about the Top 10, or about yearbooks and the podcast in general, please be in touch at iteachyearbook@gmail.com — it'd be great to hear from you. Please leave a review and rating at Apple Podcasts and spread the word on Twitter (@YearbookWhys) and beyond! This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

S2E5 - Interview Issues with Margie Raper (Note: apologies for an earlier edit of the audio that had a bad music mix near the end; fixed now. -Mike) When a veteran adviser posted to Facebook about issues her staff was having with reluctant or outright non-participating potential interviewees, it led to a chorus of "Us to!" replies from around the country, including from today's guest, Margie Raper of Highland Park High School in Dallas. She and I have both seen our staffs confronting more of these kinds of issues in our coverage, so we sat down to talk through it and see if we could get some perspective on how to support our staffs. We hope you'll take a listen, and keep the conversation going with us at iteachyearbook@gmail.com and margiemraper@gmail.com — we'd love to hear from you. Find the podcast on Twitter at @YearbookWhys. Please share the podcast online or with friends in your yearbook network, or leave a review on Apple iTunes; it helps others find the podcast! Share a review here: Apple iTunes This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

S2E4 - How'd They Do That?! with Caroline Dixon I think you'll be as impressed as I was when you see Tigrium 2018 for the first time — it's the yearbook produced by adviser Sarah Tricano's staff at Holy Trinity Episcopal Academy in Florida, and in this episode, we go one-on-one with Tigrium's current editor-in-chief to look back at "Est. 1957," their 2018 edition. Caroline Dixon heads up Tricano's 2019 team at HTEA, and she shares the inside story on how their 60th anniversary book came to be. Caroline's team is sharing PDFs of their 2018 book with us at tinyurl.com/ybkpods2e4 — open up the spreads and follow along as we hear how they did it! It'd be great to hear from you — you can reach me at iteachyearbook@gmail.com and find the podcast on Twitter at @YearbookWhys. Please share the podcast online or with friends in your yearbook network, or leave a review on Apple iTunes; it helps others find the podcast! Share a review here: Apple iTunes This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

S2E3 - Journalistic Yearbooks with Rebecca Pollard Every year, more yearbook staffs choose to take a more journalistic approach to their coverage — and they're going way beyond the most basic who, what, when, and where! If you're taking your staff down that path and want to support them in crafting a more journalistic product, you need to listen to this conversation with 2018 Distinguished Yearbook Adviser of the Year Rebecca Pollard! She offers practical tips and perspective hard-earned in a near two decade-long career in Texas. At the top, I offer some resources and highlight some of the work done Jan. 30 relating to Student Press Freedom Day. You can learn more about the day, the New Voices movement, and work being done on behalf of student journalists and advisers via the JEA Scholastic Press Rights Committee and Student Press Law Center. It'd be great to hear from you — you can reach me at iteachyearbook@gmail.com and find the podcast on Twitter at @YearbookWhys. Please share the podcast online or with friends in your yearbook network, or leave a review on Apple iTunes; it helps others find the podcast! Share a review here: Apple iTunes This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

S2E2 - Ava Butzu & Yearbook Business and Marketing Adviser of Echo at Grand Blanc HS in Michigan, Ava Butzu is a gifted adviser with awesome advice for advisers of all ability levels. In this wide-ranging chat, we talk about everything from recruitment to adviser self-care, with plenty of business and marketing — we traded tips that we're going to implement in our own labs, to boot! Stick around for Ava's New Years-book Resolution: "Yes, and...?" Follow Ava's staff here: @GBYearbook It'd be great to hear from you — you can reach me at iteachyearbook@gmail.com and find the podcast on Twitter at @YearbookWhys. Please share the podcast online or with friends in your yearbook network, or leave a review on Apple iTunes; it helps others find the podcast! Share a review here: Apple iTunes This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

S2E1 - New Years(book) Resolutions with the Yearbook Besties We're back with season two! Joining me today is the trio of phenomenal advisers behind YearbookBesties.com: Meghan Percival, Erinn Harris and Carrie Faust. We take a look at New Yearsbook resolutions shared by advisers in one of the most popular Facebook adviser groups and offer some insights and personal experience on how to tackle some of the issues raised by folks in that network. Too, we reveal the things we're leaving behind in 2018, and make our own New Yearsbook Resolutions as we look ahead to 2019 — join us for the conversation! It'd be great to hear from you — you can reach me at iteachyearbook@gmail.com and find the podcast on Twitter at @YearbookWhys. Please share the podcast online or with friends in your yearbook network, or leave a review on Apple iTunes; it helps others find the podcast! Share a review here: Apple iTunes This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

Episode 24 - Student Press Freedom and Censorship for Yearbook Recorded live at the National High School Journalism Convention in Chicago on 11/2/18, this panel discussion and Q&A with advisers Lori Keekly, Brian Wilson and Sarah Nichols covers a wide range of issues and topics related to censorship and empowering our students' press freedoms. Thank you to JEA and NSPA for supporting the session, and thank you to the 200+ students, advisers and yearbook professionals who joined us in the live audience! Check out the Student Press Law Center's brand-new website at SPLC.org and follow them online at @SPLC. Contact the Scholastic Press Rights Committee at www.jeasprc.org at any time, and find us on Twitter at @jeapressrights; learn more about New Voices at NewVoicesUS.com. This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

Episode 23 - Photo 101 Photography. Without it, we don't have a yearbook — yet photography instruction and resources for use in the yearbook lab are often stumbling blocks for advisers who don't come from a photo and media background. Jed Palmer (Eagle Eye View yearbook, Parker, Colo.) is a dear friend and a gifted photography instructor, and in this episode, we take a look at tips, tools, resources and opportunities for less-experienced advisers and staffs to use as a starting point in developing a stronger photography program. Don't forget — we'll see you in Chicago at the live taping on Friday morning at 10 a.m. in Grand F ballroom! We'll be talking all things scholastic press rights and First Amendment with four all-star advisers, and there WILL be swag! Don't miss it! It'd be great to hear from you — you can reach me at iteachyearbook@gmail.com and find the podcast on Twitter at @YearbookWhys. Please share the podcast online or with friends in your yearbook network, or leave a review on Apple iTunes; it helps others find the podcast! Share a review here: Apple iTunes This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

Episode 22 - Group Photo Day It's not my least favorite day of the year, but it might be close — Group Photo Day can be fraught with scheduling and logistics issues, goofy teenagers on the risers or in the bleachers and technical difficulties. At Tesserae here in upstate New York, we've used the same approach five years in a row to tackle the photoshoot, and I like to think it's a pretty solid plan. Take a listen to my editors Lexi and Megan as they talk through how they facilitate the day, and if you have your own approach or other ways to tackle it, please reach out — you can reach me at iteachyearbook@gmail.com and find the podcast on Twitter at @YearbookWhys. Please share the podcast online or with friends in your yearbook network, or leave a review on Apple iTunes; it helps others find the podcast! Share a review here: Apple iTunes This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

Conversations at the Schoolhouse Gate - Ep. 1 Podcast crossover! Podcast crossover! It's my pleasure to share Conversations at the Schoolhouse Gate: The New Voices Podcast with you today! A project of JEA's Scholastic Press Rights Committee, Conversations... is a podcast resource for journalism staffs and advisers nationwide. We'll explore the First Amendment, censorship, and everyday issues faced by publications, with a special focus on the national New Voices movement, the grassroots campaign that aims to restore the Tinker v. DesMoines standard of protections for student journalists in statehouses across the country. For more, visit the SPRC website or give a follow online at @JEApressrights, and subscribe to Conversations... at Apple iTunes and Google Play. Please leave a few stars in a review; it takes just a second and helps others find the podcast! This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

Episode 21 - Why 12 Hours of Yearbook? Now that the school year has begun in New York, the editors and staff at Tesserae are back at it. First on the agenda? Our annual 12 Hours of Yearbook retreat, held on the first Saturday of school from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. In today's podcast, Tesserae's co-editors-in-chief Lauren Thomas, Kelly Hoyt and Kristin Hauptman will take you through the goal-setting, planning and facilitation of what has become an almost decade-long mainstay for our program, sharing advice for advisers and staffs looking to facilitate their own weekend workshop. Don't miss behind-the-scenes videos and a few other resources, here: tinyurl.com/ybkwhysep21a - NOTE - the "a" in the URL is necessary; THIS is the correct link) You can reach me at iteachyearbook@gmail.com and find the podcast on Twitter at @YearbookWhys — please share it there, or leave a review on Apple iTunes; it helps others find the podcast! Share a review here: Apple iTunes

Episode 20 - How'd They Do That?! Today, we go behind the scenes with editors from two outstanding 2018 books - Priam, at Longmont High School (Colo.) and The Arena, from Legacy High School (Texas). You'll hear about two specific spreads as we break down what went into the content, coverage and design, and you'll be able to follow along in the discussion — take a look at the spreads, here: tinyurl.com/ybkwhyep20 Note: You don't need to be in front of a screen the whole time - but do take a peek before the listen. You'll want the two spreads that have "....THIS ONE.jpg" in the file names. My thanks to Amanda Kowalski and Breanne Jackson for sharing their staffs' work with us! Would you like more "How'd They Do That?!" episodes? If so, please let me know via iteachyearbook@gmail.com or via Twitter at @YearbookWhys

Episode 19 - On Reporting & Writing with Bobby Hawthorne If, according to your yearbook, your tennis team is full of players who try their best and give it all 24/7, and who are looking forward to a great season next year, this is a must-listen episode! Bobby Hawthorne is a journalist, teacher, and master storyteller well-known in scholastic journalism circles. The author of The Radical Write, Bobby joins me today to talk about reporting and writing in the yearbook, and how to help staffs write compelling stories that their audience will actually want to read. You can reach me at iteachyearbook@gmail.com and find the podcast on Twitter at @YearbookWhys — please share it there, or leave a review on Apple iTunes; it helps others find the podcast! Share a review here: Apple iTunes

Episode 18 - Conventions Redux: Chicago With the National High School Journalism Convention (@NHSJC) right around the corner in early November, it's time to revisit a conversation from last February. In this episode, we hear from retired adviser and friend of the podcast Jim Jordan about the ins and outs of taking your staff on the road to a national convention. Those trips, along with summer camp and workshop experiences, are among the most formative and catalytic in developing a staff and pushing it forward to the next level. I hope to see you in Chicago! You can reach me at iteachyearbook@gmail.com and find the podcast on Twitter at @YearbookWhys — please share it there, or leave a review on Apple iTunes; it helps others find the podcast! Share a review here: Apple iTunes

A Conversation with Rain Valladares and Marian Lobaton In this episode, we hear from two of the 2019 Co-Editors-in-Chief of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School's Aerie Yearbook, Rain Valladares and Marian Lobaton, about their program and their yearbook staff's challenges and work in the aftermath of the events of February 14, 2018. You can follow the Aerie yearbook staff on Twitter at @AerieYearbook; contact Mike at iteachyearbook@gmail.com and find the podcast on Twitter at @YearbookWhys.

Episode 16 - (Before) Back to School Florida's Renee Burke, a master adviser and JEA's 2015 Yearbook Adviser of the Year, joins me today to talk about her approach to getting ready for the school year in those last few weeks of summer. It's great advice for advisers (and editors!) of any experience level, and much though I'm loath to admit it, the first day of school is coming — better to be prepared! You can contact Renee with questions at rdnburke@gmail.com and on Twitter at @rdnburke; contact Mike at iteachyearbook@gmail.com and find the podcast on Twitter at @YearbookWhys.

A Conversation with Jim Jordan The fourth in an ongoing series, this episode features the Journalism Education Association's 1996 Yearbook Adviser of the Year, Jim Jordan. Jim retired from teaching in June 2017 after a remarkable 35-year run at Del Campo HS (Calif.), where he advised the award-winning Decamhian yearbook and was on the vanguard of advisers integrating desktop publishing technologies in yearbook classrooms in the mid 80s. Lucky enough to have all three of his children on his staff over the years, Jim learned to approach advising with a process- and people-based focus, instead of sacrificing everything for sake of the product. We talk about keeping up with the "yearbook Joneses," and the importance of the professional network of colleagues, resources, and mentors that we can benefit from in our professional lives. Catch Jim's own podcast, Yearbook Chat with Jim, on WYPN, the Walsworth Yearbooks Podcast Network! Don't miss Ask Mike, WYPN's second podcast, with host Mike Taylor. You can find both here: walsworthyearbooks.com/podcasts/ Find the podcast at @YearbookWhys on Twitter, and email me with feedback, questions and critique at iteachyearbook@gmail.com.

Episode 14 — Yearbook Lab Must-Haves A note: You can check out some of the resources I talk about here: tinyurl.com/tywep14 It's hard to believe, but some of us are already just a few short weeks from returning to our labs to work on the 2019 books with our staffs. With that in mind, I turned to an experienced group of advisers and asked one question: what resources are must-haves in your labs? The responses range from bulletin boards to coffee makers to seven-foot-tall teddy bears — so take a listen and get ready for the year ahead! From planning and organization tools to fuzzy blankets for a staffer feeling under the weather, this is what you'll find in the labs of some of the country's most experienced advisers. Big podcast fan? Don't miss Mind the Gutter, from Herff Jones (@HJYearbook) and both Ask Mike and Yearbook Chat with Jim from WYPN - the Walsworth Yearbook Podcast Network! You can find those three along with TYW at Apple iTunes and anywhere you download your podcasts! Find the podcast online at @YearbookWhys, and please share it with yearbook friends of all kinds - advisers, reps, students and editors - I'd appreciate the share! Email me with comments, feedback and episode suggestions at iteachyearbook@gmail.com. Please do give a review at Apple iTunes podcasts; that will help others find the show!

Episode 13 — Middle School Advising with Laura Zhu & Allie Staub A special note: Don't miss the link in the intro — I'd like to send you a copy of the 2018 Tesserae, "The Best is Up to You," and it won't take very much work on your part! Two remarkable advisers join me for a wide-ranging conversation about yearbooks, advising, and working with middle school students — but take note: this is a great listen for any adviser. Laura Zhu (Toby Johnson Middle School, Elk Grove, Calif.) and Allie Staub (Westfield Middle School, Westfield, Ind.) were named JEA Distinguished Advisers of the Year in 2018 and work with two of the best middle school yearbook staffs in the nation. You won't believe what they share about their programs' unique features for their 2018 books, and they'll give you plenty to think about on topics from staff culture to coverage to advice for new advisers. You can reach Allie at stauba@wws.k12.in.us and Laura at lauramzhu@gmail.com. Allie's staff manual can be found at tinyurl.com/yrbkwhystaub Find the podcast online at @YearbookWhys, and please share it with yearbook friends of all kinds - advisers, reps, students and editors - I'd appreciate the share! Email me with comments, feedback and episode suggestions at iteachyearbook@gmail.com. Please do give a review at Apple iTunes podcasts; that will help others find the show!

Episode 12 — Adviser Q&A with Meghan Percival A special note: Hang in for a special announcement at the end of the podcast — I'd like to send you a copy of the 2018 Tesserae, "The Best is Up to You," and it won't take very much work on your part! In this epsiode, with questions submitted by advisers from around the country, we go one-on-one with Yearbook Bestie and advising all-start Meghan Percival of The Clan yearbook at McLean High School (Virginia). Meghan and I get into everything from "rebuilding years" to first steps toward journalistic books to developing positive staff culture, and more! A 2014 JEA Distinguished Adviser, Meghan is known for the way she guides and supports advisers at camps, workshops, and conventions — I call her "The Adviser Whisperer," and I think you'll agree when you listen. You can reach Meghan at mjpercival@gmail.com and on Twitter at @MeghanPercival; check out ALL of the Yearbook Besties' resources at YearbookBesties.com Find the podcast online at @YearbookWhys, and please share it with yearbook friends of all kinds - advisers, reps, students and editors - I'd appreciate the share! Email me with comments, feedback and episode suggestions at iteachyearbook@gmail.com. Please do give a review at Apple iTunes podcasts; that will help others find the show!

Episode 11 — How: Theme Development with Carrie Faust The year is done, or nearly so — and now we turn our staff's attention to the next book, and building a solid foundation with their theme. In this episode, we visit with Carrie Faust, the adviser of Summit, the yearbook at Smoky Hill HS (Aurora, Colo.). Carrie is another of the 'Yearbook Besties,' who have what I regard as the single best stragegy to use in guiding a staff's theme development: "story, words, pretty." Recipient of the JEA Medal of Merit in 2013 and JEA's 2009 Distinguished Yearbook Adviser of the Year, Carrie is an articulate and passionate instructor at camps, workshops and conventions nationwide. Her students' books have won Gold and Silver Crowns and Pacemakers, as well as numerous local awards; she's giving podcast listeners a preview of "Yes. All That.", Summit 2018, via this link: tinyurl.com/ybkwhysep11. You can contact Carrie at faust.carrie@gmail.com and on Twitter at @CarrieFaust; check out ALL of the Yearbook Besties' resources at YearbookBesties.com Find the podcast online at @YearbookWhys, and please share it with yearbook friends of all kinds - advisers, reps, students and editors - I'd appreciate the share! Email me with comments, feedback and episode suggestions at iteachyearbook@gmail.com. Please do give a review at Apple iTunes podcasts; that will help others find the show!

Traditional books? You've probably created one. Chronologial? Maybe you've taken your staff on a week-by-week approach to your book's ladder. But when you really want to change it up, it's time for 'umbrella' coverage, and there's one adviser who explains her staff's approach to these unique books better than any other — one of JEA's 2015 Distinguished Yearbook Advisers of the Year, Erinn Harris, who advises in northern Virginia. As you start theme development with your staff and figure out next year's story, you can consider if chronological or umbrella coverage is right for you. After a brief overview of chronological options, we take a deep dive on umbrella, or 'concept' coverage. We take you through the process step-by-step, and Erinn has made available three past books' worth of slides and exapmles for you and your staff to study. You can access those here: tinyurl.com/ybkwhysep10 You can contact Erinn at erinn.harris@gmail.com, and check out ALL of the Yearbook Besties' resources at YearbookBesties.com Find the podcast online at @YearbookWhys, and please share it with yearbook friends of all kinds - advisers, reps, students and editors - I'd appreciate the share! Email me with comments, feedback and episode suggestions at iteachyearbook@gmail.com. Please do give a review at Apple iTunes podcasts; that will help others find the show!

This episode is the third in a series of interviews with past JEA Yearbook Adviser of the Year honorees — this time, we talk with 1997 co-honoree Nancy Hastings, who for 38 years advised award-winning Paragon yearbook and Crier newspaper at Munster High School (Ind.). Nancy offers insight into the Paragon's journey and successes as a journalistic yearbook; the power of camps, state press associations and conventions in an adviser and staff's development; and advice for new or struggling advisers: Pick three. Find the podcast online at @YearbookWhys on Twitter, and please share it with yearbook friends of all kinds - advisers, reps, students and editors - I'd appreciate the share! Email me with comments, feedback and episode suggestions at iteachyearbook@gmail.com. Please give a review at Apple iTunes podcasts; that will help others find the show!

Correction: Paul Ender and Nancy Hastings were named co-Yearbook Advisers of the Year in 1997, not 1996. This episode is the second in a series of interviews with past JEA Yearbook Adviser of the Year honorees — this time, we talk with Paul Ender, formerly of the American yearbook at Independence High School (Calif.) and current Herff Jones Special Consultant. We discuss Paul's passion for design, how a terrible book kicked off his journey in the yearbook world, his program's epiphany and growth into a journalistic book, and where today's advisers can find design inspiration to use with their staffs. Paul highlights a few books from the 2017 class, and I've collected samples from those books in a folder you can access at tinyurl.com/ybkwhysep8. Please use these resources in your own instruction with your staff, but not beyond your classroom - thanks! Find the podcast online at @YearbookWhys, and please share it with yearbook friends of all kinds - advisers, reps, students and editors - I'd appreciate the share! Email me with comments, feedback and episode suggestions at iteachyearbook@gmail.com. Please give a review at Apple iTunes podcasts; that will help others find the show!

I'll admit it: I'm almost 17 years into this yearbook journey, and I still struggle with timely, authentic, meaningful assessment of my staff and their work. It's easy for me to get consumed by the pace, the deadlines, the 48 students each moving in a different direction on a given day and lose sight of anything resembling good assessment practices of my students and their work. Today, at the National High School Journalism Convention in San Francisco, I was able to sit down with my good friend Annie Gorenstein-Falkenberg, adviser of the Priam yearbook at Longmont (Colo.) HS, for a great chat about reflective assessment and grading. If you're anything like me and struggle with grading in the publications lab, you'll want to give it a listen! If you have questions or comments about the episode, assessment, or about yearbooks and the podcast in general, please be in touch at iteachyearbook@gmail.com — it'd be great to hear from you. Too, you can reach Annie at anniegorenstein@gmail.com. Please leave a review and rating at Apple Podcasts and spread the word on Twitter (@YearbookWhys) and beyond!

Now that spring delivery books are wrapping up, we look to the final weeks and months with our staffs and hit rapid-fire Top 10 list of things to do in your lab before the end of the year! The "mood board" project that I describe in Tip #6 can be found here: Mood Board Assignment Please feel free to adapt that assignment in whatever way is best for your staff. Also, you can learn more about Quill & Scroll, the international journalism honor society mentioned in Tip #10, here: quillandscroll.org What did I forget? What activities do you use in your own lab to wrap up the year? If you have questions or comments about the Top 10, or about yearbooks and the podcast in general, please be in touch at iteachyearbook@gmail.com — it'd be great to hear from you. Please leave a review and rating at Apple Podcasts and spread the word on Twitter (@YearbookWhys) and beyond!

With the end of production fast approaching, we take a look at the yearbook's Colophon and Index, with a thorough rundown on what to include (and why!) in both parts of the last section of your book. The Dropbox files that are referenced in the podcast are here: https://goo.gl/T3kMZ5 ...and include examples from a variety of 2017 yearbooks, and the colophons and indexes from Tesserae's last three editions. If you have questions about your own colophon and index, or about yearbooks and the podcast in general, please be in touch at iteachyearbook@gmail.com — it'd be great to hear from you. Please leave a review and rating at Apple Podcasts and spread the word on Twitter (@YearbookWhys) and beyond!

This episode is the first in a series of interviews with past JEA Yearbook Adviser of the Year honorees — and we go back to where it all began, with 1995 inaugural winner H.L. Hall, now retired from advising the Pioneer yearbook at Kirkwood High School (Mo.). H.L. shares insights from more than 25 years as a journalism educator, reflecting on his students' early books, his mentors, changes in yearbooks in the late 70s and 80s, and his remarkable contributions in evaluating over 6,000 yearbooks (and counting) for staffs around the country. In this episode, we discuss the Journalism Education Association (jea.org) and lift up the Eagle Eye (@EagleEyeMSD) and Aerie yearbook (@AerieYearbook) staffs at Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida - if you'd like to contribute to their GoFundMe campaign, you can do so here: https://www.gofundme.com/stoneman-douglas-yearbooks Find the podcast online at @YearbookWhys and email Mike with comments, feedback and episode suggestions at iteachyearbook@gmail.com

Doing your job as adviser can be tough enough. Acting as travel agent, too? It's just too much, right? Wrong! In this episode of The Yearbook Whys Podcast, veteran adviser Jim Jordan (Decamhian Yearbook, Del Campo HS, Calif.) joins me to talk about all of the opportunities available to advisers and staffs at journalism conventions — most notably, CSPA's Spring Convention in New York City, and the semi-annual National High School Journalism Conventions hosted by NSPA/JEA. Now retired from Del Campo HS, Jim is a special consultant for Walsworth, facilitating their mentoring program for newer advisers. An attendee of more than 60 conventions since 1986, he's got lots of insights to offer about taking your staff on the road for the adventure that is taking your students to a national convention! There's plenty covered in the podcast, but if you have questions, feedback, or suggestions, you can reach Mike at iteachyearbook@gmail.com and the podcast at @YearbookWhys on Twitter. You can reach Jim at jamesmasonjordan@gmail.com and at @YrbkJimJordan on Twitter. For more on CSPA, visit cspa.columbia.edu; for more on the San Francisco convention, visit sf.journalismconvention.org.

In this episode, we revisit Instagram and get advice from the editor in charge of one of the best yearbook Instagram accounts in the country: Ella Ho Ching, a senior at Whitney HS in California, who curates the feed at @DetailsYearbook. Follow their feed, and catch more news from the Whitney Student Media team at @WhitneyUpdate on Twitter! Catch us at @YearbookWhys on Twitter, and send feedback, questions, and comments to iteachyearbook@gmail.com - it'd be great to hear from advisers and staffs who are developing new Instagram and social media feeds for their books!

In this first official episode of the Yearbook Whys Podcast, Parkway West HS adviser Debra Klevens joins the pod in the second chair as we look at tips and strategies for recruiting students to your staff and selling through your inventory of books for the year. You can find Debra's staffs on Twitter at @pwestpub, and the Pathfinder newspaper online at pwestpathfinder.com/ . Email Debra at dklevens1@parkwayschools.net Find the pod online at @YearbookWhys on Twitter, and email your questions, episode ideas, and feedback to iteachyearbook@gmail.com. Be part of the conversation as we explore the why and how of yearbook at the Yearbook Whys podcast!

More and more yearbook programs across the country are recognizing the opportunities available to engage with their student audiences year-round, via social media. The best yearbook staffs in the country aren't settling for a once-a-year delivery for their content and journalism — they're posting daily, with images and captions highlighting all aspects of life at their schools. There can be challenges, and yearbook advisers should guide their staffs mindfully — but there are fantastic opportunities to broaden the scope of a yearbook's coverage and storytelling by incorporating Instagram and other social media platforms in your staff's workflow. In this podcast, we highlight resources at jeadigitalmedia.org, including this list of high school media programs on Instagram: http://bit.ly/2DeiYfH The article highlighting social media policy development for staffs is here: http://bit.ly/1CgbsbL, written by Jill Burns, an adviser in Tampa, FL. You can find our staff's social media feeds at @tesseraeybk, including Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. Be in touch - send feedback, questions, and more to iteachyearbook@gmail.com. Take care!

The trailer for The Yearbook Whys Podcast, a podcast and resource for yearbook people hosted by Mike Simons. Advisers, student staff members, yearbook publisher reps, and yerds everywhere - if you'd like to submit questions, feedback, or episode ideas, contact Mike at iteachyearbook@gmail.com — be part of the conversation!