The floor
Show up to things. Games, performances, events. How much depends on your department; it’s on your sheet with a number next to it.
Keep the equipment safe. Represent the class. People see you as Yearbook, even when you’re not working.
01Everyone
Three jobs, any department
Whatever department you’re in, these jobs are yours too.
Everyone, every department
Chairs and club
1.5 to 2 hours a week, required
If you hold a chair, you’re in CENTAURUS, the club. Club means an average of 1.5 to 2 hours of yearbook work a week outside class, reported Wednesday. Shooting, designing, filming, planning, and selling all count. Design work at home counts, so a job or no ride doesn’t stop you.
This is part of having a chair. Not optional. Stop showing up, lose the chair. If a job, a sibling, a season, or a ride makes it hard, talk to Sensei early. There’s a lunch shift, a home shift, and a swap.There’s no opting out.
When the queue is empty
Your job is still your job
Sometimes Graphic Design takes 17 spreads off the board, or you get ahead. Spreads run out. Your weekly department tasks don’t. The posts still go out, the inbox still gets cleared, the shoots still get scheduled.
There’s never a time in this room when you’re done and can just do nothing.
Privileges
Friday games, and the pass
Two privileges, both revocable: no curriculum after the book delivers, and games on Friday (when nothing official comes up). The 4th Period Pass is the third. Doomscrolling or too much gaming pulls them. You can also ask for privileges, not only lose them.
02AI
AI and the book
AI doesn’t make the book. This is journalism. Every photo is real, every quote came from a real person, every word of copy is yours. A fake photo, a made-up quote, or copy written by AI is fabrication.Fabrication never goes in the book.
Fine
- Checking spelling and grammar
- Brainstorming headline ideas
- Preparing interview questions
- Learning InDesign
- Cropping and fixing color
Fabrication
- A photo of something that didn’t happen
- A quote nobody said
- Copy you didn’t write
- An AI texture or background you didn’t ask about first
Want an AI-made design element, like a texture? Ask Sensei first, not after. Write it in your process notes either way. Not sure if it’s okay? Then it isn’t.Come ask.
03Chairs
Running a department
If you hold a chair, this is the job, and it’s smaller than it sounds. One question a day, 10 minutes a week, four things a month.
Daily
Read your people’s reports. Thin report? Ask the one question. Fix it, or bring it to Sensei. Five minutes.
The question
Design: what page are you on, and what’s slowing it down? Outreach + Photo: what’s in the next seven days, and whose name is on it? Content: what are you posting today?
Wednesday
10 minutes with your department. Design goes through the page board. Outreach + Photo goes through the calendar and cancels anything with no name. Content plans the week’s posts.
Monthly
Report: how many weekly tasks got done, where each spread stands, who’s doing a lot and who’s stuck, one thing you need from another department, one thing you need from Sensei.
Reassigning a page isn’t a punishmentIt’s part of running a section. Ask the person first, then pair them with someone, then reassign the page, then tell Sensei. In that order.
The hard part of being a chair
When someone isn’t doing their work: ask them, pair them, reassign the page, tell Sensei. Reassigning is your call. In March, the book needs its pages, no matter whose feelings got hurt.