Adviser and Staff Spring 2004 - Jostens

aspringthing
Spring forecast:
Chance of brainstorms
Ask your readers for
yearbook feedback
A brainstorm
lets creativity reign
Spark your next big idea with
these brainstorming techniques.
■ Go to the mall: Take a field trip
to a local mall and “store” up
ideas; jot them down in an idea
journal and use them as starting
points in your next
brainstorming session.
■ In a flash: Hold a “flash
brainstorming” session. Divide
the class into small groups.
Spend 10 minutes generating
ideas and share the ideas
from the small groups
with the large group.
■ Tossing out ideas: Toss a
small, soft ball from
person to person. The
person catching the
ball offers an idea,
then tosses the ball
to someone else,
who comes up with
another idea, and on
and on.
Brainstorm n 1: a sudden bright idea; an inspiration.
Brainstorming n 1: a group problem-solving technique that
involves the spontaneous contribution of ideas from all group
members.
Creativity is a lot like weather — there’s nothing
like a good storm to generate electricity.
Innovation emerges from the sparks and thunder of idea
exchange. Brainstorm participants — advisers,
editors, writers, photographers, designers — are the
lightning bolts that initiate the process, raining down
theme ideas, story topics and angles, captions, headline
concepts and graphic design strategies.
When you team up to problem-solve, you invite
fresh, new approaches. And that, in a nutshell, is the point
of brainstorming.
Criticism and judgment put a damper on
creativity. Encourage participants to share
whatever comes to mind.What may at first seem
“crazy” or impractical could easily trigger
something original, inventive and useful.
Aim for quantity.The more ideas, the better.You
can combine, adapt, modify and improve on
suggested ideas later.
Set a time limit for your brainstorming
session.Typically 20 to 25 minutes is
sufficient.
Brainstorming is a dialogue between equal
participants. Collaboration is key: Photographers are as important as
writers, who are as important as editors.
Keeping that advice in mind, be sure to:
■ Invite participants to sit in a circle.
■ State the goal for the session.
■ Stay focused on the goal.
■ Ask that no one criticize or evaluate the ideas.
■ Get everyone to contribute, even the quietest members.
■Welcome creativity.
■Watch that no train of thought is followed for too long.
■ Appoint someone to jot down the ideas.
■ Relax and have fun.
Visit the Web
for resources
Check out the following
sites on the Web for more
information about
brainstorming
and creative
thinking.
■ Mind Tools:
This site features
information on
brainstorming and a host of other
information. Visit
www.mindtools.com to discover
techniques that improve creativity,
assist problem solving and
organize time/deadlines.
■ Brainstorming: Check out this
on-line source of free training and
software downloads for all aspect
of brainstorming, creative and
lateral thinking:
www.brainstorming.co.uk
Get into it at a
yearbook workshop
Get into it! Planning your
theme, designing your cover,
completing your ladder,
organizing your staff, establishing
your budget and setting your
goals — it all begins at a yearbook
workshop.
“I wouldn't do a yearbook
without going to a summer
workshop,” says Alan Ball,
yearbook adviser at Willmar
Senior High School, Willmar, MN.
“The staff members I take to
camp become my core crew for
the next year,” Ball says. “We get
to know each other out of the
school environment, which pays
dividends during the school year.”
Preemptive planning is one of
the key benefits of attending a
summer workshop. So is
teambuilding.
“There was no way we would
have been ready to cover the year
when school started without the
jumpstart we had at camp,” Ball
says.
Fun, exciting and informative
workshops are sponsored by
Jostens yearbook representatives
across the country. Find one near
you at www.jostens.com.
It’s a simple concept.To discover what your readers want, you
have to ask.
Prepare a reader survey to distribute with your 2004 yearbook.
The results will help guide decisions as you begin planning your
2005 volume.
Survey buyers right after they’ve had a chance to look through
their new yearbooks, while the excitement runs high.
Sarah Neblett,yearbook adviser at Danville Community
High School, Danville, IN, is a firm believer in this helpful tool.
“Students are creating a product that should change based on
reader wants and needs,” she says.“Asking for reader input shows our
dedication to readers, which is why those readers keep buying a book
year after year.”
Neblett notes that surveys help a staff identify coverage areas that
are underrepresented in the yearbook, enabling editors to find out
what worked and what didn’t.
“Sometimes we miss the importance of an activity that students
expect to get a lot of coverage,” Neblett explains.“We try to ask the
flip side, too:What got over-covered? A few years ago, asking this
question helped us realize that football wasn’t as important to readers
as we had assumed.We made necessary changes to our ladder and
coverage plan. Now football gets basically the same coverage as our
other sports.”
When you’re crafting a reader survey for your yearbook, Neblett
recommends including these questions:
■ Who paid for your yearbook [self, parents, other]?
■ Was your name spelled correctly?
■ How many times were you covered?
■ Were you covered in the way you had hoped?
■ What aspects of this book did you like best?
■ What aspects of this book did you like least?
■ What color(s) would you like next year's cover to be?
■ What would you like to see more of?
Look Book is a gallery
of cool yearbook ideas
As planning and brainstorming
kicks-off for your 2005 yearbook,
don’t forget to check out the
Gotcha Covered Look Book.
This colorful and visual 176-
page book is a gallery of themes,
covers, endsheets and designs.
The Look Book also showcases
the winning images from the
2003 Jostens Photo Contest and
provides an up-close look at 46
yearbooks recognized as national
journalism winners by the
Columbia Scholastic Press
Association and the National
Scholastic Press Association.
All high school yearbook staffs
working with Jostens in 2004
received a complementary Look
Book in the mail. To order extra
copies at $10 each, call Jostens
Marketing Services at
1.800.972.5628. Ask for item
#2035.
If your school’s yearbook isn’t
currently produced by Jostens,
call your local Jostens
representative to receive a copy
of the Look Book.
14 spring2004 adviser & staff
spring2004 adviser & staff 15