Maiya Sheik Yearbook Portfolio

Publications Portfolio

Maiya Shefik Yearbook 2016

Expanding My Horizon

My attendance in yearbook this year was completely unplanned. I started my junior year, with Spanish 5-6 as my second period class. After a week of deep contemplation, I decided that although I was most certainly going to regret it later, I would drop Spanish. I was then faced with the decision of yearbook or drawing. I chose yearbook.

Coming into this class I had almost no prior knowledge on what it took to be a part of such an important school production. I have now learned various new skills, mainly that of the computer and its programs. I had barely touched Photoshop before, but am now highly informed on how to cut out images. These techniques will come handy with any future computer design projects. I also learned about the existence of more complex programs such as eDesign and InDesign. I suppose that I had never really thought much about how the yearbook was made until I was actually in the class. Now that I am in it, I have a higher respect for the work put into the final product.

The way that the class is actually ran is new to me as well. Never before had I been in a class so student-ran or that had grades based on deadlines and coverage weeks. The ambiance in the room is more carefree than others and shows that classrooms do not need to be so structured and that students are responsible enough to do their work and stay focused without constant strict supervision. Despite the laidback feel of the class, I realized the importance of deadlines early on. I learned that being prepared is the best skill you can have going into these long work periods. Teamwork is also essential when it comes to completely deadlines efficiently.

Lack of communication within a team could ruin a spread or deadline. If members are behind, that means that team leaders are unable to layout their pages. If the pages are not laid out, pictures and articles cannot be put on them, making it all the more stressful on deadline night.

Constant updates are crucial on a smooth running team. Although maybe inconvenient at times, processes such as coverage sheets, binder, and Trello, keep the class organized. The class benefits when it acts as a unit rather than separated and dispersed.

Being a unit requires organization and planning. Writing everything thing down and typing it into the computer is a simple but helpful step one can take to prevent future stress. There are so many steps to take before putting a final story or mod on the page and it will help tremendously if you and your team members are able to have access to everything in an organized manner.This class required a lot more documents and updates compared to my other classes.

As far as journalism and interviews go, most interviewees are easy to get along with, which makes for a comfortable interview.The main problem is actually getting the student to come into the class or answer back texts. It also helps when the person being interviewed has a lot of feedback, giving more information. When it comes to text versus face to face, texting provides a grammatical cushion for the person answering. They like being able to thoughtfully respond without the pressure of an in person conversation. When recording them, there are a lot more ‘um’s and ‘uh’s, but you’re able to see their emotions and gestures as they talk. Taking note of these actions could help when writing the story or mod. The only thing that I change when typing the interview up would be taking out the pauses or filler comments. Other than that, I try to stay true to what they said and help with sentence structure if they have run ons.

My greatest weakness in this class would have to be procrastination. This was a major problem for me during deadline 2 because I had ended up doing most of my work the day of. I have already worked on the problem, and have been doing a lot better during deadline three. I will continue working ahead so I will be ready for future deadlines.

I would like to think that I contributed a fair amount of work to this class and production.

The Show Must Go On

I would consider my main story for deadline two my most significant piece of written work for the publication at this point in the year.The focus for this spread was the Fall play. At first, we had thought about making the story’s focus the seniors. After wanting a more original story, we decided to cover sophomore, Gabe Ozaki and how he broke his toe a day before production.

When thinking of questions to ask, I tried to choose questions that would lead to a long answer so that I would have a lot to work with when writing it out. I had ended up interviewing three people; Gabe Ozaki, the focus of the story and Andrew Cupo and Riann Johnston to provide some insight on the event.

Ozaki was genuinely easy to talk to. He said a lot and described the incident in detail. By the end of the interview, I was more than happy with the information I had. I then went to the drama room to interview Cupo and get his reaction story. The basis of what he told me was a lot like what Ozaki said, which wasn’t surprising considering they were talking about the same event. Johnston was my last interview, and again, the majority of what she said was similar to the previous two interviews. Cupo and Johnston did have some different views on the story which made for good quotes in the final piece.

Writing the story was fairly easy given my abundance of quotes and information. The final piece on the spread varied slightly with the typed rough draft. I liked covering this story because it was so unique to this year and I knew that there hadn’t been a story like it before in previous yearbooks of ours. It was also my first time doing a main story and I was fairly pleased with what it came out like. The emotion the interviewees showed when talking about the event made the the piece more enjoyable to write.

Deadline 1

-contributions to photo captions

-“trouble with the curve” mod -contribution to photo captions

-“what kind of instrument are you?� mod

Deadline 2

-“caught up in the starcatcher” subhead

-“the show must go on” main story

-“terrifically trilingual� mod and picture

-“how to: swing a golf club” mod and photos

-“grapple up” mod