By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
Great Bend Middle School Media Specialist Holly Tittel had a lot of variables with her first-year yearbook class this year. She outlined some of those issues during Tuesday's USD 428 Board of Education Luncheon, including last-minute lessons from yearbook publisher Jostens, how the district's Chromebooks would handle the publishing software, and even how students would handle real cameras versus cameras on their phones. Student Micah Ellegood, who helped design the football spread, explained how everything came together.
"We moved around the templates and chose where we wanted everything to go," she said. "We lined things up. We got to choose the pictures, which was really fun. I liked working with a partner. We got to communicate a lot, and it's always better to have two minds working on something."
There are 13 students enrolled in the yearbook class this year, learning everything from photo composition, interviewing skills, and the pressure of working under a deadline. Sophia Bauer and Samantha Negaard learned that the hard way as they experienced difficulties with their cross country page. Bauer said the effort required Facetiming well into the evening the night before the deadline.
"Bits and pieces of our spread we had already worked on disappeared, even though we would save both of our pieces we were working on and putting them together," she said. "We had to go back in and add in what each other had added."
Baylie Kelly also spoke at Tuesday's luncheon about having to work under her twin sister on the volleyball page. Students met the Oct. 2 deadline for fall sports, and a final deadline in the spring will ensure yearbooks are printed and available prior to students leaving for the summer. Yearbooks may be purchased for $30.