By Evyn Firestone

Change is in the air for the North Springs Phalanx yearbook. Next year
sees a new head of the school annual take the reigns as its current sponsor,
Mrs. Zachary, passes the responsibility down to Ninth Grade Literature
instructor (and former North Springs student) Mrs. Motahari.

Yearbook is an elective class at North Springs that students must apply and
be accepted into. During yearbook, students explore a different kind of
journalism and art through taking photos and reporting on events going on in
the school through the year. Working as a team and with Jostens publishing, these
students design and create the annual publication that everyone at North
Springs can purchase anytime during the year, so they can have a book to preserve memories and reflect
on.

Mrs. Zachary, a former Literature teacher who manages the school Media
Center, as well as serving as yearbook sponsor for the past nine years, spoke
to the Oracle about how she ran the class and her goals for it.

She said, “I loved it! It was a good way to get to know kids, especially now that I’m not in the classroom anymore. That aspect I will really, really miss, but it also can be very stressful. [It can be] a bit frustrating at times when people do not look at information that I post everywhere and then still get angry when they missed deadlines.” In addition, she added, “I have tried to make sure that my yearbook [has] always been very picture focused versus words like journalism. I think that’s what people are looking forward to [in their] yearbook, so I’ve always tried to make sure that we get as many pictures of as many events as we can.”  

Mrs. Zachry also had a few suggestions for Miss Motahari. Zachry said to stay organized and have tough skin because, “People are going to try to tell you how [you] should think [or] should be or that it’s not their fault they missed the deadline, so you’ve got to be firm.” Mrs. Zachry offered tip to the current and upcoming staff of yearbook. “Organization is key! Other than that, you must be dedicated and willing to work as a team.  I have always made it clear that when you joined my staff, I wanted you to commit for the rest of high school. It takes time to learn the program and the ends and outs of making a yearbook. Without veteran staffers, creating the book would be too much every year.” 

Mrs. Zachry is handing off the responsibility this year because of limited time. “I think as I have gotten more involved in other aspects of [North Springs] I just don’t have the bandwidth that I’m used to, to devote to it. If there’s someone else who’s excited about it like I used to be, I think that’s a good indication that it is time for me to pass over the torch,” she explained. In addition to yearbook, Mrs. Zachry plans prom, coordinates devices and textbooks, manages the school website, and is the cheerleading coach! As the current media center specialist, Mrs. Zachry has a versatile job. “My main role is to act a supplier of sorts of knowledge, both in the form of print and digital materials (books or research data bases). I also aim to create a space where students can decompress and get off their phones!” 

Mrs. Zachry also shares some very fond memories from yearbook. She said, “One of my first years taking over yearbook I had a student named Charlie and his full name was Charles. He went into his picture and changed it to Charles but spelled the S with a dollar sign ($) and I did not notice it. He didn’t tell anyone, and he forgot to undo it. I submitted it and when I found out. I did think it was actually very, very funny, but I was not happy that he did it. I pretended to be mad, and he was so upset that he baked me cookies.” Mrs. Zachry’s favorite yearbook she has worked on was the 2020-2021. She explained, “We were in the hybrid situation [and] we had to be very, very creative. I think they [students] did a very good job of being creative.” 

Miss Motahari, the teacher taking over yearbook, answered some paralleling questions too. “So, when I went to North Springs, I was always super involved in journalism, literature, productions, etc., and with yearbook being another publishing format and yearbooks being super important [I decided to take it up]. 20 years from now [you won’t] remember what you looked like at homecoming, right, but it’s in the yearbook and those are the things that you take out you to show your kids. They [yearbooks] also go to the Public Library. That’s how you go back, and you remember, and you tell like your kids all about your memories [from high school]. Books are a living form of our memories, and they capture our years and our lives and our school experience,” she said.  

As a former student who was involved in journalism, Miss Motahari believes that her experience as assistant editor and editor in chief for Oracle will help benefit the new direction the class will be going in. Miss Motahari is excited for the new student-mentor relationships running yearbook will bring. She explained, “I think the opportunity to bond and work with students was my favorite part [of Echo.] I’m still friends 10 years later with folks who I worked with. It provides a sense of family. One of the reasons why I came back to North Springs is because North Springs was such a great experience for me as a student that I came back as a teacher. Hopefully at some point I will encourage my students to come back!”  

Miss Motahari discussed taking the yearbook in more of a technological direction. She said, “I want to make the yearbook a living experience, so I want a lot more student contributions to it. I want the opportunity for virtual submissions and even to have a virtual yearbook that we can keep [forever] because, right now, the Internet is forever. I think it would be really fascinating to toy with the idea of a smaller physical version to cut down on costs, because I know our literary productions are always struggling for funding.” She explained that it could work by using a QR code to direct students to a website that would have the full digital yearbook. She explained that it would be like a digital diary.  

Miss Motahari believes that major improvements in AI and the level of creativity now required of the yearbook staff has opened new doors for the yearbook. “If we allow ourselves to fully use the technology it can allow for graphic design. It can allow for different methods of interaction. Why not have your videos right here or take student TikTok’s [and] merge them together to have access to [popular trends] through the yearbook and worked virtually into a digital format? If we are using things properly and allowing ourselves to be creative, the yearbook can be improved even more.”