eDesign

Although I have a mentor, I’ve been having some trouble actually figuring out what to do for my mentorship hours (since she’s a yearbook teacher, I wouldn’t exactly be able to go to her class to shadow/help). Therefore, the most I’ve been doing that can relate to my project is actually working on iPoly's yearbook.

This year, we made a massive change in software (from InDesign to the Herff Jones company’s eDesign). Even though this new eDesign is essentially a very stripped down version of InDesign, it has many, many benefits.

[Note: The small amount of features on the left-hand toolbar]

The most useful features of eDesign are the organizational features. Some might consider it the savior of yearbook. Since the entire program is browser based, the staff can access it anywhere with an internet connection. This solves a plethora of problems yearbook has had in the past, especially since we've only been able to get actual work done in class (where the computers are), and it solves the issue of file formats for different versions of InDesign.

The eDesign ladder is essentially a living book. That means we can see the entire book, all in one spot, and it updates in real-time. Here, and example for ya!

It's aliiiiive! And so organized. *tear*

This post is basically just gonna hype up eDesign.

Because it's amazing.

AND it keeps track of coverage in the best way possible. We uploaded a master list of the school to eDesign, and now we can tag people in photos (like Facebook) and the software keeps track of which pictures are being used in spreads, as well as who is in those pictures. This makes things much, much easier when it comes to coverage, because we can see who is in the book exactly how many times. Before, we kept a physical list of people, and had to mark of names with various colored pens, and as you can imagine it was hard to keep track of.

Everything's red right now because we're still working on inputting pictures into the spreads.

Well, that's it from me for now. I'm working on figuring out actual mentorship for my topic, but if anyone has suggestions, please contact me. I'd love some input.

Blog 6 - Second Interview Preparation

1.  Who is your mentor and where do they work?

My mentor is Ms. Rebecca Chai, and she works at Walnut High School as the Publications and English teacher.

2.  What five questions will you ask them about their background?

1. What were some struggles you faced when you first took on the Publications class?
2. Did you do any formal training with the Herff Jones company to prepare yourself to become an adviser?
3. In high school, did you participate in yearbook or the school newspaper?
4. What memories of your publications class are you most proud of?
5. What led you to become a teacher?
6. How have other advisers impacted your teaching, or otherwise inspired you? (if at all)

Blog 5 - Mentorship Reflection

1. Mentorship question: Describe your experience in how you found your mentorship?  If you haven't found one yet, describe your experience so far in the search of a mentor.

I struggled to find a decent mentor for my original topic, biomedical engineering with an emphasis on prosthetics. However, considering my status as the Editor in Chief of Yearbook, I decided to stick with Yearbook as my senior project (or Editorial Publishing). I’ve met my mentor at yearbook workshops in the past, but I accomplished my mentorship at the “Yearbooks at the Beach” 5-day long workshop in Long Beach. My mentor, Rebecca Chai, is the yearbook advisor for Walnut High School. Her publications staff has built a reputation of excellence among the yearbook community. The great part about my mentorship is that Walnut HS is only a few minutes away from iPoly, which saves me a good amount of stress.

2. Research question: What has been your most important article you have read so far and why?

The most important article I’ve read so far is called “Staff Development and Change Process: Cut from the Same Cloth.” It’s by Shirley M. Hord, who has worked extensively with the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory and has written several books on the topics of leadership and staff development. This article is really great because it cites multiple studies on staff developmental methods, and basically contains the sum of other articles I’ve found (backed by the aforementioned studies).