What better time to feature love in the yearbook than Valentine's Week! The language of love goes beyond romance and includes kindness, caring, service, hope, creativity and so much more. The secret is to find these expressions in your school community. Feature them throughout the yearbook and seal their legacy.
Begin with the volunteer opportunities your school participates in. For example, blood drives, food drives, food service to the homeless, visiting the elderly, tutor partners, and buddy partners. Catalog students who participate in these events, and take photos! Create engaging page spreads to spotlight the love poured into the school and community. Interview students and ask them about their experience, how it made them feel, why they chose to do it, and whether they plan to continue their volunteerism. Weave their answers into the page spread to produce a unique presentation.
What kind of love stories do you have hidden in sight? Is there a faculty or staff member with a special romantic love story? Would they be willing to share it and some pictures in a page spread? Are there any romantic stories of alumni sweethearts who met and married after graduation and are still married after 30 years or more? These are the hidden gems.
Another way to find examples of love is to interview teachers and staff. They know the students and see their passion expressed in their music, painting or art projects, metal or wood shop productions, pottery, and photography. Students will explain why they love what they do or create. Let the yearbook staff release their creativity in developing page spreads featuring these students' works.
The school community represents a wealth of varied stories of kindness and goodness. Every person needs to be affirmed and to know they belong, to be their best selves. Positivity, kindness, and love are infectious. You will see it spread like wildfire, and the yearbook will record its development. After all, "The yearbook is a love letter we write to our school" (Pat Conroy), our families and communities.
We hope that love will continue to flourish in your school community. We offer resources to complement your instruction and enrich your yearbook staff’s learning. Our website, www.unitedyearbook.net , and our newsletter, podcast, and blog, are tools available to you as you move forward in the new year and complete the book. Schedule your yearbook 1-on-1 consult here.
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Editor: Donna Ladner obtained a B.A. in Education and a minor in English from California Baptist University, and a M.S. in ESL from USC, Los Angeles. After she married Daniel, their family moved to Indonesia with a non-profit organization and lived cross-culturally for 15 years before returning to the U.S in 2012. Donna has been working as an editor and proofreader for TSE Worldwide Press and its subsidiary, United Yearbook since 2015.
Contributor: Lucy McHugh comes to United Yearbook Printing from a 39-year career in public and private school education. She was a former visual art teacher and yearbook adviser. She received a Bachelors of Science in Art from Columbia College in Columbia, SC, a Masters in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Nebraska in 2000, and in 2014 earned a Certificate in Catholic School Leadership from Loyola Marymount University. Lucy enjoys her family, making art and gardening.
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