Idea File Fall 2024

6 | Middle School Moment

Strategies T h at Work

Thanks for the Memories. Yearbook staff Briana Susano-Santiago, her older sister Kiara Susano-Santiago and photography student Kevin Vicente-Paz pose at a soccer game they photographed. This picture was shared on the campus’ social media page, thanking the student volunteer photographers and reminding parents to purchase their yearbook early. Social media marketing and engagement helped keep yearbook sales strong.

O ur school is located in an isolated, rural, coastal community with a huge summer population of visitors and beautiful natural resources. In the two years I have been in charge of the yearbook, we have experienced sales growth that can be attributed to our commercial advertising on our weekly student news productions. Each Friday, our student-produced weekly video announcements air in every classroom and are also shared with

parents in an email blast by our principal. The student-produced announcements are a perfect conduit to promote the yearbook, encourage participation in yearbook-related competitions and sell our ad space. The Origin Story The process of creating student video announcements began with some grant applications for computer editor stations and camera equipment. Paint for our

green screen space was donated by our local Sherwin-Williams, and the school district pays for our WeVideo subscriptions. WeVideo is a browser- based video editing software that allows me to import all the footage into the specific collaborative projects where both the student editor and I can work together on the promo simultaneously. I provide students with step-by-step instructions, including screenshots of how to layer together the footage in the software and utilize the color-keying feature.