Yearbook Chat with Jim

Kathy Beers, from Timber Creek High School in Fort Worth, Texas, exudes creativity. She’s known for always having ideas, and her successful yearbook marketing tactics have been shared with schools all over the country. In this episode, host Jim Jordan talks to Kathy about her roundabout journey to yearbook and where she gets all her great ideas.

We're excited to introduce you to the March Adviser of Note! Johnathan Dixon is the yearbook adviser at Corsicana High School in Corsicana, Texas. His staff is known for their incredible photography skills, and it's not unusual for them to place in the Walsworth Yearbooks Photo Contest. 

In this episode, host Jim Jordan talks photography, building a yearbook program from the ground up, and the journey that brought him to Corsicana High. 

Brad Cook, yearbook adviser at Gresham High School in Gresham, Oregon, is a bona fide graphic designer. He teaches graphic design, digital photography and yearbook.  Before becoming a teacher, he was a graphic designer at many places, including Nike – and he does his design work despite being colorblind! He’s passionate about typography – you can catch his session with Jim at the Nashville JEA Convention this March – and all things design. In this episode, Brad and host Jim Jordan take a deep dive on great design and creating an incredible yearbook.

In October 2019, Har-Ber High School in Springdale, Arkansas, and Meridian High School in Maycomb, Illinois, were selected as the winners of Walsworth Yearbooks’ Level Up contest. The prize package, worth over $3,500, includes a visit by Jim Jordan and Mike Taylor, CJE, to work with their staffs, editors and adviser. In early January, Jordan visited Karla Sprague, CJE, and her staff at Har-Ber High School and shared his experience.

In this episode, Jim honors three of Walsworth’s six advisers named a 2019 JEA Rising Star! Listen to his interview with Vanessa Martinez of El Dorado High School in El Paso, Texas; Samantha Lasarow of El Camino Real High School in Woodland Heights, California; and Bridgette Norris of Boone High School in Orland, Florida. Be sure to listen to the previous episode to hear Jim’s Rising Stars interviews with Leigh Rogers, Angie Wolfe and Dan Sidwell.

In this episode, host Jim Jordan honors three of Walsworth's six advisers named a 2019 JEA Rising Star! Listen to his interview with Leigh Rogers of Hermann High School, Missouri; Angie Wolfe of Burke High School in Omaha, Nebraska; and Dan Sidwell of Freedom High School in Tampa, Florida. 

Check back next week as Jim completes his Rising Stars interviews with Vanessa Martinez, Samantha Lasarow and Bridgette Norris. 

Darren Thomas has been teaching for years, but never advised a yearbook until the 2019 school year. As a new teacher at Saugus High School in Santa Clarita, California, he was looking for a way to feel more connected to his new school. He leaned on his editors that first year, and the staff created an award-winning book.

In his second year, Thomas and his staff have the difficult task of covering a school year that includes a tragic event – a school shooting Nov. 14, 2019 left two students dead. He discusses that monumental task and yearbook life in general with host Jim Jordan. 

We already knew Becky Tate, CJE, is amazing. She's been at Shawnee Mission North High School in Mission, Kansas, for 31 years and many of her yearbook students have gone on to become journalism advisers themselves. 

Now that her awesomeness is being recognized in a new way - she was just named JEA's 2019 H.L. Hall Yearbook Adviser of the Year - we're celebrating her by re-releasing Jim's interview with Becky from earlier this school year. Jim even reached out to Becky after the announcement and they recorded a bonus piece about her experience that day. 

Not able to make it to the NHSJC in Washington, D.C. this year? Did you attend but want even more? Want to revisit fond memories? Listen to this episode of Yearbook Chat with Jim, recorded live from the Fall 2019 convention in Washington, D.C. Jim interviewed JEA President Sarah Nichols, Convention Chair Meghan Percival, and the editorial staff of Pine Crest High School in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Julia Satterthwaite, MJE, just handled her first big deadline as a yearbook adviser. She’s advised other publications for several years, but host Jim Jordan is following her journey for the first year advising at Monta Vista High School in Cupertino, California. This is the first check-in episode. He’ll continue to follow Julia and her staff’s progress throughout the year.

Stay tuned to learn how they’re navigating the yearbook process together!