What does it mean to be literate?

Just a hint:  if you want it to sort by grade for example, don't spell out the names.  It will sort alphabetically and they will be out of order by grade level number.  Consider putting an alpha in front of each level in order for it to sort correctly.

Happy Halloween to all of you!

Here's a recap of yesterday's meeting, and some tech hints:

1.  If you didn't send me a pdf of your page at the end of class, please do it by the end of the school day today.

Some of you have shown me some apparent tech problems.  I called the tech line (1.800.328.2435) and found that you may have hidden elements (like extra text boxes) covering some of your other elements.

To check this, go to Edit, then Select, then text boxes.  It'll show you all of your text boxes.  Delete any that you are not using.

Any tech problems:  call the tech line.  I encourage you to do this--they have been always been helpful, and you'll get a solution to your problem right away.  Their phone number is listed above, and under "contacts" on our yearbook website.

Here are the people that I got pdfs from so far:

Kacey K., Leina'ala, Peter, Gabby, Renee, Sam and Cielle, CJ, Chad, and Mala'e

Kelly and Mia--I got yours, but the portraits haven't been flowed in.  Please flow in the portraits and resubmit.

Kaley and Kasey--I'm still sorting through your portraits.  I'll have it straightened out by the end of the day tomorrow--pls make a pdf tomorrow and send it to me.

If you are not listed above, send me a pdf of your pages by 3p.m. today.

2.  Your introduction to yourself is due Friday.

3.  Upload your 5 best Halloween photos by Monday, Nov 5th.

4.  Next class period:  Next Weds.

We'll be arranging feature page assignments.  On the Wiki, please indicate which feature is your first and second choice.  I'll make every effort to give you your first choice, so let me know what it is.

Finally, as we wrap up this unit, and you'd like some help from me, I can meet you in the Ideas lab on Mondays after school, or D days at lunch.  Let me know that you'd like to meet.

Take care, and be safe as you go out tonight--

Mrs. St John

Dear Staff:
Please post a comment below, telling me whether you want to do a feature page or a sports/team page.  If you want to do a feature page, tell me what topic you're interested in.  Tell me a second choice too.

Dear Yearbook Staff:

First, I want to thank you all for your hard work.  This will pay off at the end of the year, when the book is in your hands!

I met with the editors yesterday to review the pages so far.  The editors decided that they would prefer a more consistent and cleaner look to the headlines.  Don’t worry:  you won’t need to make these changes.

Instead of rewriting the checklist and having all of you redo the headlines, the editors put in these changes on all of the pages:

1.     changed headline font and alignment

2.     made all page numbers Unitus Light, size 12

3.     straightened all text to a horizontal

4.     removed the flower that was on the template

They locked the elements that they would like to keep unchanged.  The headlines are finished on everyone’s spread.

We made specific comments for everyone, and I’ll type those into Managebac. In general, follow the checklist.  In particular, make sure that every photo has a caption, and every person in the photo is identified by first and last name.  Make sure that everyone is identified correctly. 

Please make these revisions by Friday, October 12th.  We’ll have one more class meeting where you can work on this set of pages.  I’ll be sending them out for proofreading the following week.

If you are missing photos or captions on your page, this is the week to hustle and get them done.

Best wishes for a great, three day weekend!

Mrs. St John

Some thoughts that have come up:

1.  We need to have faces appear in the photos (even if the photo meets a composition criteria such as the rule of thirds).  The subjects of the photo should have their face be recognizable.
2.  The labels of each photo shouldn't overlap in any way (they should differ by the number, or initial).
3.  As this is a group project, what happens when someone hasn't uploaded their photos, and another student is doing the layout?


Originally posted 9/10/2012

Someone described an image of the mountains as a narrative photo.  This raised the question about whether photos of landscapes could be considered narratives?  First, I think the requirements of "face case" disqualifies photos that don't have people.  For our purposes as photojournalists, our subjects primarily are people.

Someone emailed me a very good question.  She wrote, "I was wondering.. do the "suggested" pictures only have to be in school? Or can they be about anything; even things outside of school?"

Here is my answer:
"That's a good question…see if you can look for photos that might work in the yearbook.  So, photos of LJA students doing sports or extracurricular activities would work.  Some yearbooks have done feature pages on what students do in their free time--at home or in the community.  So, if you can imagine your photos being appropriate for the yearbook, you can describe them."


This question raised a number of other questions.  In particular, how should we answer the unit question.
The unit question is:  Who is part of our community and how do we find out about them?

So, who is part of this community?
What are the boundaries of this community?
Would it be appropriate to include people and places outside of school?  Why or why not?