Thank you so much! These are great tips and give me something to work off as I [quickly!] plan and make these. To add an extra wrinkle, the school is considering buying them for every student from the end of the year budget, which means they'll have to be very inexpensive. I can get it down to $8/book through Shutterfly, but they may tell me it needs to be lower.
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Originally Posted by justpattyanne
The first and biggest tip I have for you is organization AND streamlining the process for yourself. I'd setup a certain information form for the teacher/parents to fill out so that you are getting exactly the info you need in the order that you will need it.
But - as for the individual shots, I'd have each class teacher gathering all of the photos & information for their particular class - which will then be sent to you as a complete package / download. - you do NOT want to have to deal with all of the individual parents. It will be madness. Truly.
Narrow down what information will be listed with each photo.
Make sure they print.
Once you have a draft for a class done, send it back to the teacher for the proofing / making sure that all is included and correct. To make notes of all necessary changes that is then sent back to you completed (again, not piece-meal --- everything at once. I can't stress enough how much of the detail stuff should be left to the ind. class teachers. If you take on each individual student/parent and have to put it all together too, it will be MORE than a full time job)
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LOL-unfortunately, the one thing I already know is that the teachers don't have time to handle it. They've been upfront that if they have to be too involved, there won't be a memory book. But this info about printing everything, teachers sending ALL corrections at once, and designing the form with exactly what I need in the order I need it is great. I'm not sure yet what I may need to know about layouts, etc--I'm waiting for the teachers to get back to me. As far as photo quality and things like that, I think the bar is a lot lower this year. Between having so little to work with and so little time to pull it together (probably 3 weeks to collect everything AND finish the book through the proofs stage)...I'm just hoping for decent!
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Originally Posted by eve11ne
I've done this type of yearbooks.
What I did basically is a two-page spread layouts and make them into a book.
I don't know if you want to make it 'formal' like a typical yearbook or not.
I'll try to upload some pages and show you.
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Thanks! I'm waiting for confirmation from the teachers (and the budget, which may dictate everything else) but I think we're going with something somewhat formal--an individual photo of each child, whatever parents and teachers send me for other photos, a few blank pages for autographs, and some quotes from the kids throughout. I don't think we'll have any class pictures to include, unfortunately. None from last year either because they're taken in the spring.
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Originally Posted by jennv
-we said no b-day parties, club sports events, etc. It was amazing that parents would just literally send DUMPS of photos to us.....100's at a time
-We got a class list and checked it off to make sure we had at least 2 photos of each kid.
-provide some guidelines (like subjects takes up at least 25% of the frame) and instructions on how to send "ORIGINAL" photos.
-Sort your photos first by resolution once you get them all - ones that are bad, put in a separate folder to use only if needed.
-organize, organize, organize. Take the time upfront to come up with a plan, maybe even a template of how you are going to make the pages.
-Along with organize, edit your photos first. Crop, fix the lighting, etc. You will feel like you are wasting time, but it's one good thing to do while you are still waiting for all the photos to be submitted.
-Decide on a font, set up font styles and color pallette/set up swatches. I made Master Pages in InDesign for each section which helped the process.
-And like someone said above, get a proof and get the teacher to WRITE her comments on the page. I made everything a PDF, told the teacher to print it out and handwrite her comments....so much easier than going through an emailed list of what to change.
-Make your deadline way earlier than you anticipate and stick to it
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These are great tips, thanks! Ugh--I hadn't even considered the photo dump from some parents, but I should have. I get it on a small scale from my family when I put together calendars. I've learned to be very specific about the number and types of photos, but still 1 person sends at least 4x what I've asked for, many of them low resolution. The turnaround is going to be pretty quick for families, so unfortunately I think I'll get a lot of late submissions. It's looking like I'll need to plan on 1 week for submissions, 1.5 weeks for me to put it all together, and then 1/2 week for teachers to look at proofs and me to make corrections.
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Originally Posted by aussiegirl
Some things they have done are get photos from teachers, instagram, facebook etc. (photos of kids learning at home, virtual Spirit weeks, school projects, desk set ups of teachers and kids at home, etc). The kids had actual school photos taken in March, so they will include student sections too. You could reach out to students, teachers and parents to get any photos they can give you! I would do a page about covid (with the facts, toilet paper shortage, Disney closure, mask wearing, social distancing, what your school has done for the past year- shut down for almost a year, virtual learning, google classroom, zoom etc. Keep it light hearted since it is an Elementary book). Maybe add a couple coloring pages or activities to fill space. Talking to some of the teachers/parents/students can give you an idea of the theme of some of the pages. Maybe one teacher had all the kids dress up like historical figures, you can include that. Basically thinking outside of the box, like this whole school year has been!  Good luck! |
I'm glad that your DD's school is still pulling together a yearbook! I know our MS and HS are, but yearbook is a elective class at our HS so they've at least been able to work on it all year. Great tips about the kinds of photos to look and ask for! We also had a school photo day right after school resumed in person, but I don't think I'm going to have access to those photos. I like the idea to include a page about covid and how it affected their year.
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Originally Posted by bienejen
My son graduated from 5th grade last year. Since we had been in school most of the year, we had a normal yearbook, however 5th grade always gets their own memory book usually passed out at their party. Below is the link to a google doc that was sent out to all parents to complete with their child. You could always ask for a headshot to go with it.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...it?usp=sharing |
That's really helpful, thanks! I won't be able to include a printed version of this for each kid (there are about 100 graduating 6th graders), but I love the idea of including it blank so that each child can record memories in their own copy.