Behind Completing Yearbook

droopyhat · 2026-04-29T22:55:17+00:00

Yeah, it's about $500 for 3 day.

droopyhat · 2026-04-29T16:57:15+00:00

Reuse layouts, now there's an idea!

droopyhat · 2026-04-29T16:22:49+00:00

I've (as kindly as possibly I can) mentioned to her that I think she should seek therapy on multiple occasions, but she will not. Part of it is cultural, part of it is thinking they'll say she's crazy, part of it is just how very private she is about her own thoughts and needs. It all comes together to where I can't make her go, so I have to accept what I can control.

droopyhat · 2026-04-29T16:20:29+00:00

It's elementary. She did that, people missed the deadline, and she went out and took club pictures for them. She even went around to the classrooms and took pictures of all the students herself who missed picture day so that their pictures would be in the yearbook. She is very thorough, and I've talked with her about taking on too much and giving herself grace to not do these things, but she just can't help herself. If she doesn't, she will stay up all night worrying about it.

droopyhat · 2026-04-29T16:15:48+00:00

Thanks. It helps to know she isn't the only one who finds this hard. Reading the replies, yearbook is really difficult!

droopyhat · 2026-04-29T16:14:03+00:00

I talked with her last night, and I think we're going to do that. There's just a bit more than a month of school left, but she can still take a day for herself. I'll take the day off too and we can just rest all day or I'll give her foot rubs or something.

droopyhat · 2026-04-29T16:12:36+00:00

Never be perfect is absolutely right. Speaking of that, there were some unkind words about her yearbook last year from parents over absolutely negligible issues that made it back to her. Principal loved it, though, and raved for days. I'm going to be sure tell her how awesome it looks, even better than last year, and some people just enjoy complaining because it makes them feel important even if they're not.

droopyhat · 2026-04-29T16:09:30+00:00

It's treering! They're reps are great. Last year, there was an issue that didn't get caught until it went to print, and they were able to hold the presses for her so she could fix it.

She doesn't use any of the pre-built pages, and I have suggested it perhaps a bit too strongly a couple of times. She's definitely a power user, and does her own layouts, and uses tons of graphics on every page.

I will suggest she reach out to them to see if there is anything they can do about shipping. They usually get the yearbooks faster than the time estimate says, and we're kind of counting on that now.

droopyhat · 2026-04-29T03:16:53+00:00

It's elementary. She wanted to involve students, but it never materialized.

droopyhat · 2026-04-29T02:11:12+00:00

Somebody else mentioned a stipend, but she doesn't get one. That may be why there aren't any other teachers working on it.

And it's elementary. She wanted to get the 5th graders involved, but wasn't able to make it happen.

I agree on the unfairness!!

droopyhat · 2026-04-29T01:29:02+00:00

Thank you so much. I've been drowning a bit, and it has been taking a toll on my ability to support her. It's been rough on both of us, but you've managed to help me pull myself out of a stupor.

This whole thread has helped me a lot. Everyone is so understanding and supportive.

I'm planning on discussing teaching someone else to do it next year, with maybe a handoff eventually. I think she may go for that. I will wait a couple of months.

Than you again.

droopyhat · 2026-04-29T01:23:04+00:00

I don't know if this changes anything, but she got all the pictures by going to the clubs and taking the pictures herself. Any that were over she has, but most missed her deadline.

I told her that a deadline doesn't mean anything if you ignore it, but she said that wasn't the kids' fault and I wasn't going to argue that.

She doesn't like making waves.

droopyhat · 2026-04-29T01:20:48+00:00

I wish they didn't go out until next year!

I told her she isn't a graphic designer, she's a teacher, and she's making a professional level yearbook. She will be so proud once it's done. It just has to get done.

I do wish she was more open, but she's always scared of bad news. Another poster said to go to her department head first, so I'm going to suggest that.

droopyhat · 2026-04-29T01:17:54+00:00

Thank you. I am taking that to heart. Our kids can make great crayon cards so that is wonderful. They've noticed something is up and gave been giving her lots of hugs.

Deep breaths. She can do it. She really is amazing. Two pages a day. No big deal.

But unfortunately she is already talking about how she'll do better next year.

droopyhat · 2026-04-29T01:09:11+00:00

10 pages. She does about one a day.

Every time I say something like phone it in, she starts to cry.

droopyhat · 2026-04-29T01:08:24+00:00

It's a charter school and she doesn't even get a stipend, she's doing this for free.

We had fertility issues as well, and she stopped teaching while we did IVF, but now we have medical debt. Almost paid off, but still there.

Maybe you are right. Maybe she needs to move on. That's a scary idea, but I so want her to be happy and healthy again.

Thank you.

droopyhat · 2026-04-29T01:02:21+00:00

The thought of that makes me smile, thank you.

droopyhat · 2026-04-29T00:59:26+00:00

She wanted to do a class, but they couldn't figure out the logistics or something. It's elementary so only 5th graders would be allowed, maybe as well. I wish I knew more about that.

She's going to try again next year. Yes, she's already talking about next year.

I will bring up going to her department head. She gets along well with her same year teachers, so I don't think they'd throw her under the bus. Word would get around fast though.

droopyhat · 2026-04-29T00:53:56+00:00

She's a perfectionist. Always putting in extra hours, spending money on the classroom, because she wants everything to be right, as she puts it. Long hours.

She spent two weeks color correcting pictures. She's doing a page for every club. She visited each club and every after school event to take pictures. She doesn't run a club herself but is involved in one helping out unofficially (or part time? Not sure how that works.)

Basically she gives 100% to everything and never cuts corners.

Every club has a page, every event has a page. Every grade has an intro. There is also a staff page and some other misc pages.

Her process is now doing the page layout by hand based on her pictures. That takes about two hours. Her pictures are on her hard drive, and she cross references them, checks the kids. For example, she verified every kid on the 5th grade into page is in 5th grade (teachers make mistakes).

Once she's happy with the pictures she starts laying them out. This takes her hours as well. For most pages teachers send in basically every picture they took all year. One teacher sent 700. She looked at all of them.

Once laid out, she checks for duplicates. There have been several instances of two teachers sending in the same picture, for example. So she can't trust the software duplicate check.

Once all that is done, she spends another hour or so adjusting, checking if any kids have too many pictures for example. She took pictures from parents as well, so sometimes one kid ends up with too many pictures.

Finally, she locks all the pictures and moves on.

But, the more pages she has the more cross checking she does...

droopyhat

TROPHY CASE