Ask Mike

Looking for something to do with your students after your yearbook is complete? Consider creating a podcast! In this episode, host Mike Taylor and Samantha Jo Berry, the publications adviser at Bridgeland High School in Houston, Texas, discuss the ins and outs of podcasting.

That's right, it's a podcast about podcasting!

Podcasts hold enormous educational value for students. They teach important skills like listening and storytelling. Plus, they're fun to create and don't actually require any special equipment!

Mike and Sam walk through the ins and outs of podcasting, and why they're a great project for journalism students.

Four years ago, the yearbook program at Williamsville North High School in Williamsville, New York, was fine. They weren’t creating award-winning or journalistic yearbooks, but their yearbook club was creating image-based books that the community liked well enough. However, that wasn’t good enough for adviser Erin DeVantier. Once her eyes were opened to the possibilities journalistic yearbooks offer, she brought on English teacher Kate Curcio to kick their yearbook program into high gear.

It worked. Their second-ever journalistic yearbook is a CSPA Crown finalist. Erin, Kate, and this year’s EIC Serena Leatherbarrow shared their experience turning their yearbook around with Ask Mike host Mike Taylor, CJE.

Season Two of Ask Mike kicks off with a bang! Host Mike Taylor, CJE, discusses the importance of Columbia Scholastic Press Association (CSPA) and the services they offer with Executive Director Ed Sullivan.

Mike and Ed cover the benefits of being a CSPA member, the difference between their critiques and contests, and dive into the details of the upcoming annual Spring Convention.

You can learn more about CSPA at cspa.columbia.edu. You can find Mike on Twitter @yrbkmiketaylor. Ask him a question using the hashtag #AskMike.

Your yearbook staff may already take great photos, but there's always room for improvement. That's where photography expert Mark Murray comes in. He knew he wanted to teach photography when he was just a kid, and made that dream come true.

Mark and host Mike Taylor discuss the keys to great photography, from composition to equipment to etiquette. Mark has great advice to share for every part of scholastic photojournalism.

Be sure to stick around to the end, for the Ask Mike questions portion: students and advisers from around the country sent in questions, which Mike and Mark answer in this episode.

If you have questions for Mike, send them to [email protected] or find Mike on Twitter, @yrbkmiketaylor and #AskMike.

Finding great yearbook stories can be a challenge. Yearbook staffs want to make every year different, but much of the school year is always the same. There are always football games. Prom always happens.

Two great advisers are here to help your staff fight the yearbook doldrums! Tiffany Kopcak, from Colonial Forge High School in Virginia, has a staff that consistently turns out great student life stories. Brit Taylor, from Hagerty High School in Florida, has turned his staff into amazing sports writers.

These two share their insights and methods with host Mike Taylor. By the end of the episode, you'll be ready for a major brainstorming session!

If you have your own questions for Mike, send them to [email protected] or find him on Twitter, @yrbkmiketaylor and #AskMike.

Some students are born leaders. Some develop into great leaders. Either way, strong student leadership fosters strong yearbook programs.

Recorded on location at the Elite Weekend yearbook workshop in Kansas City this September, host Mike Taylor found for extraordinary young women leading their yearbook staffs.

Addie Von Drehle and Emily Cooper are the EICs at Shawnee Mission East High School in Prairie Village, Kansas. Kelsey Volk and Molly Elfrink are copy editors at Shawnee Mission Northwest High School in nearby Shawnee, Kansas.

These four students sat down with Mike to share their yearbook stories, and discuss how they help their staffs develop their writing skills.

It's a great episode for any scholastic journalism program looking to improve their storytelling.

Contact us: [email protected]. Find Mike on Twitter, @yrbkmiketaylor and #AskMike.

Happy National Yearbook Week!

This week is all about celebrating yearbook and building a better yearbook program. That makes it the perfect time for host Mike Taylor to bring in Gary Lundgren of the National Scholastic Press Association (NSPA).

In this episode, Mike and Gary discuss the benefits of NSPA members, and how the organization helps yearbook staffs and advisers hone their craft.

They cover the difference between a critique and the eminent Pacemaker competition, NSPA's upcoming conventions, how advisers can find their footing and improve their program, and even dip their toes in the great debate: In N Out versus Whataburger.

Learn more about NSPA at studentpress.org. You can find Mike Taylor on Twitter at @yrbkmiketaylor (#AskMike) or reach him at [email protected].

Bruce Watterson is widely known as "The Yearbook Whisperer," and episode eight of Ask Mike helps illustrate how he earned that title. Watterson and host Mike Taylor delve into the possibilities yearbook staffs can create.

In their conversation, Watterson and Taylor cover the topics of creativity, digital storytelling tools, winning awards, the perfect yearbook and the benefits of yearbook critiques. Even after 44 years in the yearbook business, Watterson's enthusiasm continues to shine throughout the conversation. His yearbook insights will be enormously helpful to yearbook staffs trying to tell a better yearbook story.

Kathy Beers is a marketing genius. It's not just us who think that. Her creative methods are used by yearbook staffs far and wide. 

In this episode of Ask Mike, Kathy chats with host Mike Taylor about some of her favorite methods to sell yearbooks and ads. For example, she doesn't call them "senior ads." They're "senior tributes," and it works!

Kathy shares more than 30 minutes worth of selling advice, then Mike brings in fellow advisers who have used her methods to discuss what works with them. 

We hope you enjoy this yearbook marketing extravaganza! 

Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Send them to [email protected]. 

Mike Taylor is helping editors prepare for the school year in episode six of Ask Mike! He interviews former yearbook editors, current editors just starting their year, and even brings in a couple of advisers!

They discuss how yearbook helped recent graduates prepare for college, how busy editors balance yearbook with all their other school activities, and what two editors with an inexperienced staff will do to ensure a great year. 

Questions or suggestions for future episodes? Email us at [email protected]!