Yearbook Staff Insights

The Chatham Charter yearbook is created by high school students under the guidance of English teacher Olivia Bennett. The students take a journalism class during the fall semester and begin creating the yearbook that will be published at the end of the school year. Their responsibilities include photography, researching and interviewing, writing, design, and creating page layouts. Below are reflections from the yearbook staff on this experience.

Emily Scheidt (9th): My favorite aspect of creating the yearbook is the amount of creativity and freedom that we have. I like how everything is run, like how we get enough time to comfortably make each page and how we can also get to do scavenger hunts to get some of the photos for the yearbook. I also like the system in which we have to vote for what the templates that we make are, the colors for everything, the fonts, and all of the other aspects of the yearbook. I also really like how we get to make our own templates to use because it makes it feel like I am doing more for the yearbook. 

Camryn Shelton (10th): In this class, I feel that I have learned many things. Some of these things can really help me in the future, and I think that is important. One of these things I have learned is vocabulary that relates to journalism as a whole. An example of this would be camera angles or our yearbook program. When you ask what I have learned most, though, I would tell you I have learned to be responsible and flexible. I say this is because when you are assigned pages, no one is taking you through every single step of the way. I think this responsibility that I have learned can apply to many different situations in life, and is very important. Responsibility is something that everyone should learn at some point, and I am glad that I was able to learn it in this form during this semester.

Lena Brown (12th): My favorite aspect of creating the yearbook was being able to exercise my creativity. I really enjoyed getting to contribute my own ideas to the layout of the yearbook as well as seeing the ideas of others. Everyone was able to contribute a little bit of their own ideas to the whole project, which was really cool. I also enjoyed collaborating with my friends in this class. I feel very accomplished after completing this class, and I’m excited to share the yearbook with the school. I only got to work on the yearbook for one year, but it was one of my favorite things I’ve done at Chatham Charter. I feel like we created a really great yearbook this year, and I’m looking forward to seeing the finished product.

Madalyn Hussey (9th): What I have learned most in this class is how to design, make, and create a yearbook. Whether I do it alone or with others, I can do it. Being in journalism is fun because you get to meet new people and get to know everyone around the school. Whether it is a senior, kindergartener, or maybe even a seventh grader, they will all be nice to you and greet you with sweet, warm smiles. Every morning in journalism I get to talk to friends and get great photos of students around the school. Being in journalism has helped me understand the importance of photo types, how you get photos, how the photos should look, and how to make a photo look better when it is needed. journalism has helped me just make new friends and go outside my comfort zone to talk to new people, like teachers, and how a yearbook should look and the way it should remind people of all the memories they had from that year.

Madilyn Fields (11th): My favorite part of creating the yearbook is the fact that we can get creative, add pictures of your friends, and even add pictures of people who aren’t usually seen. The yearbook is for everyone to remember their year. It’s so important to us that we capture all the fun, silly, wonderful memories that everyone has here on campus. We do this so one day people can look back and remember their old friends and classmates. High school years are some of the most formative of our lives; it’s important to remember them and remember the lessons we learned throughout the year. It might be hard for everyone to look back at embarrassing pictures of yourself, but in 20 years people will want to look back and remember these years. I’m glad I get to help share and create memories through the yearbook!

Faith Williams (11th): My favorite aspect of creating the yearbook is watching everyone be so excited to look at them at the end of the school year. I think it is fun to know what the yearbook looks like throughout the entire year so you can watch everyone else be surprised. I like when people are excited to see their pictures. I also enjoy being able to see my work displayed for the entire school to see. I want the Chatham Charter student body to know that each day is spent trying to make the yearbook perfect and exciting. The class overall is interesting and not like any other classes that you will take during your high school career. You are able to choose a lot of your assignments and make a lot of your own decisions. 

Nora Baxter (9th): My favorite aspect of creating the yearbook is getting to capture memories throughout the school year, and getting to see how much we continue to grow. We get the opportunity to see an insight on students’ lives and how each thing they do here helps them develop in different ways. Being a part of the creating team for the yearbook also allows me to think creatively and incorporate that in a way students, faculty, and family will love. Creating the yearbook also allows for us to collaborate with other classmates to bring to life the good memories of the school year. Knowing that students will be able to flip back to see their candid memories for years to come brings a sense of joy to not only me but all the members of the yearbook! 

Ryan Jones (12th): What I have learned the most in this class is how to talk to people. Since I had already taken this class the year before, I already know all of the yearbook terms and much of what I need to do to complete the yearbook. I did not know any of the people in this class except for two other seniors, so it was pretty good to get to know all the people here. This is definitely my favorite class.

Evelyn Warf (10th): I have learned the most in this class about photography. I’ve always wanted to learn about photography and be able to take good pictures. This class has definitely helped me with that and with posing in a way. There are multiple things I have learned in this class but photography is the main one for me. You learn how lighting works, how you can use different objects to create different effects. It’s amazing to me on how you can use so many different things in your everyday life to create different effects on photos. For example, shadows, a fence, a window, a pool of water. All kinds of things. It’s absolutely one of my favorite things I’ve ever learned. Needless to say after this class is over, I will definitely still be using the skills journalism has taught me for photography.