School Yearbook - Reimagined and Published Online with Book Creator

This year, I was given the task to coordinate and produce the annual yearbook. Traditionally, the yearbook was coordinated by a group of teachers and the layouts were produced by an organisation outside of the school. The book itself was a traditional heavy hardbound paper format that featured school events and those formal galleries of student photos in passport-style format. Given that our learning this year has been online, it was a logical choice to create an online digital yearbook. 

I chose to use online Book Creator as this app is widely used by our students, can be accessed via any device and importantly can accomodate a wide range of multimedia. I also really wanted to make this yearbook more environmentally friendly. There are cupboards full of old yearbooks at school which will probably never be used. Using Book Creator online had meant that our whole school community has easy access to the book and all those school event highlight videos could be included directly in the book. 

My process began by pitching layout ideas first to our school management and then later to all teachers at a weekly staff meeting. The biggest challenge was finding enough good quality photos of students engaged in their learning. This was because we had been learning online this year due to the pandemic. Photos taken via Zoom were not clear enough we needed help from our parents to send in photos of learning in action. It was a mammoth task to make sure that every child from Early Years to our eldest grade level was well represented.

I was keen to break away from the traditional headshot passport photo galleries that were a feature of every yearbook in the past. I have always found them to be too formal and they don't capture the personality of the individual.  I started by creating a collection of ideas in which classes could be collaged together with fun themes for each grade level. Some examples of these were garden scapes, superheroes, a rainy day and 'What's your passion?'. As we had been transitioning into blended learning, I was able to photograph some students who attended school social pods using a green screen and the students who weren't able to come to campus sent in a head-to-toe photograph in front of a plain background. Each of these photos had the backgrounds removed so they could be layered together as a class.

 

We decided to keep masks on for these class photos to capture this unique school year. I used photoshop and the website www.remove.bg to remove the backgrounds and then layered the photos together in Canva which is an online app that allows editing layers of photos to create a digital collage.

Once the class layouts were made, it was easy to upload them to Book Creator. In Book Creator online, I added photos of online learning for each class and specialist subject area, special school events and even embedded videos. To make the yearbook more accessible, I included a Table of Contents to hyperlink to each section of the book and a back button on each page to allow a quick return to the Table of Contents. The finished book has over 215 pages and will soon be embedded on our school website. 

To cater to those individuals that really wanted a printed copy, I also made the PDF version available for printing on a photocopier. Here is a sneak peek at that hard copy version.  

ADE Institute Hochimin City - Thinking about Personal Branding

I feel very honoured to be a member of the ADE Asia Advisory Board. There are nine of us on the board and we have been a part of the running of the Class of 2011 ADE Institute. Currently we are half way through the Institute for 2011 and I feel that I must write about the experience - even though it is not over yet.

The first day was intense. Each member of the board was asked to present their personal branding. I did not attend the Class of 2010 Institute where personal branding was introduced to the ADEs there. I have struggled to get a video made in time. I knew that if I didn't push myself to get something done - that the process to get it ready could go on for some time. As a part of the Apple Institute, all of the ADEs were given a book as a guide about personal branding. I was sent a copy and it was a helpful start but I ended up abandoning it and found it much easier to talk to my husband who knows me both as my artistic self and as my teacher self. I know that these shouldn't be separate but I don't associate the artwork that I do with my teaching practice. My husband helped me to focus on the 'now' and not so much on the past. Indeed as I sit here typing this post - I am already thinking about my version 2 video and how that will look. I already have the concept and how I can make better use of 2 minutes. Less is more ....

I am really interested in how technology can be best used in Kindergarten and younger. In fact I am interested in how it can be used with Toddlers (18 months). I have developed a way to make the iMacs in the Toddlers classroom more accessible for that age group by using programs designed for very young children (such as keyboard bangers) and by making those programs easy to click on through use of big picture icons. These young children cannot talk but they are very comfortable using computers as they are often introduced to them by their parents. My goal is to set up the computers for the teachers so that the students can use them independently. I have started to notice a pattern as these young children develop quickly and soon grow out of using the keyboard banger programs to progress onto more mouse directed games. From this the kids are introduced to creating content and so the progression continues.

And because of this ...

I would love to share what I have developed over the past year in my position as Tech Integrator for Toddlers-Gr5 at JWA and SWA.

Looks like I need to get back to Jakarta so that I can begin making PB video #2

A True 21st Century School - The Future is Here!

ANPS Teachers Conference Presentation

This is my presentation for this Saturday at ANPS Teachers Conference at Tiara Bangsa School in Jakarta.

Teaching With Technology No Longer Belongs in a Lab

View more presentations from Jane Ross.