Advice from a new adviser to new advisers
Picture Day. As a student, these days were as close to a fashion shoot as I ever got. Everyone is brimming with anticipation to make sure they look good for the immortalization in the yearbook. And who is in charge of that yearbook? That would be you!
Okay, so I may have just turned up the pressure a bit for the new role you’ve stepped into, but trust me, Picture Day can go smoothly no matter how big or small your school is.
I believe that a few basic tenets can help any new adviser make sure that their main day in the public eye of your school goes smoothly.
So what are these tenets?
1. Communicate early and often
As soon as you get hired, make sure that you find out these key details from your administration:
- Who is the school’s photographer or contracted photography company?
- Who is our Yearbook company? Do they have the rep’s contact information?
- When is Picture Day? (If they don’t know, coordinate this with your photographer ASAP).
- Start creating reminders to the school community letting parents know when Picture Day will be when school starts. (Mine was a few weeks after the start of the school year!)
- Introduce yourself to your staff and let them know the date for Picture Day! (You may even get a few welcome replies in return!)
2. Get to know your people
Do you work at a school with a team of assistant principals? (I did because my school was huge!) Who are your support staff members like janitors and equipment directors? Who is in charge of your school’s gym?
While I encourage you to rest during the summer, spend a few hours getting to know who does what at your school as early as you can so that you can make sure you are asking the right questions and making the right requests to the right people. It’s also just a great way to meet your new team, too!
3. Have a plan
Make a timeline and prepare early for how you will train your new Yearbook staff to be ready for Picture Day.
Contact your Yearbook representative as well to ask for their advice on how to run a smooth Picture Day.
Download my super comprehensive Yearbook Picture Day planning checklist to help you, and just run through it month by month until the big day arrives. I spent a lot of time writing down every single thing I did to make my Picture Day at a large public high school go smoothly, so I hope it could help take some of that pressure we mentioned above off of you.
