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| 4/27/2010 6:00:00 AM | Email this article • Print this article | Cedar Valley's 'Jaguar' honored by Josten's
Cedar Valley Middle School's 2008-09 school year yearbook, The Jaguar, has been recognized for excellence and is now featured in Josten's 2010 "Gotcha Covered Look Book," Volume 8.
Last year's yearbook, entitled "Don't Blink or You'll Miss It," used a traditional format, and students created collage canvases as the prominent graphic design. Within each page, the school mascot Jaggy was hidden and the reader had to find Jaggy.
Cedar Valley eighth-grade student Madison Hoeft won the national grand prize for her photography entitled "Watch Your Language" in which students' hands grace an outside wall of poetry.
Kat Armstrong, a McNeil High School freshman, won honorable mention for her photo, "On Your Marks." Cedar Valley eighth-grade student Laura Fretwell won Honorable Mention for her spread entitled "Watch Your Language," which included Hoeft's photograph.
Nikki Dowd serves as the The Jaguar publications advisor. Then-Cedar Valley eighth-grade student Galen Reifsnider served as editor- in-chief of the 2009 yearbook while current Cedar Valley eighth-grade student Laura Devalcourt served as last year's managing editor. Devalcourt serves as the 2010 yearbook's editor-in- chief.
"This has been a great experience," Devalcourt said. "I learned through this process it's so important to meet deadlines."
Hoeft said getting the right picture of hands touching the school's poetry wall took some practice.
"The first time I took the photos the shadow and the lighting weren't right but after I retook them and looked for things they came out just right," Hoeft said.
The Jaguar was one of only 518 yearbooks selected from over 3,000 submitted to a panel of judges that included nationally recognized scholastic journalism professionals and award-winning yearbook advisers.
Jostens' Look Book is published annually and includes a collection of spreads, themes, covers, storytelling copy and photography from outstanding yearbooks nationwide.
"I have never worked with such a cohesive group of young adults," Dowd said. "While the software the staff uses today will be outdated in four years, the staff is creating graphic designs and photo editing with cutting-edge tech-nology - and will be prepared for the job market when they enter the workforce."
Cedar Valley student Mallory Davidson won third place for her sports photograph in the 2010 Wolfe/Jostens National Photography Contest while Bethany Malinak won honorable mention for her academic photograph in the contest.
Davidson took a photograph of Cedar Valley's football program while Malinak took a photo of sixth-grade math teacher Julie Johnson.
"I didn't even have to ask her to pose or do anything," Malinak said. "She's just that expressive."
When Davidson first began taking pictures in class she looked for just about anything as her subject.
"I really like taking pictures," Davidson said. "I really like taking sports pictures because of the action you get from them. It's really neat to see the action like tackling."
This year's yearbook, "Life Between Summers" is packed with design elements students found in "Elle" magazine and other professionally designed publications and websites, Dowd said. The pages include subthemes such as "Life is Full of Ifs" and "Life is Good."
The content inside the chronological yearbook includes the answers to questions yearbook staff members compiled from their peers.
The cover of the yearbook is purple but the end sheets, the inside of the front and back hardback covers, utilize glow touch technology and change colors when touched.
"The Jaguar" business managers Sierra Moses and Lawren McKinney have created a new way to promote their yearbook this year through the use of bumper stickers they created.
"It's neat to be creative and to express ourselves in our work," Moses said. "It's neat seeing ideas come to life."
Dowd keeps her journalism students informed through her website, schoolsinsession.
com. Through this website students can view information such as the Photo of the Week, which are photos Dowd's students have taken.
At the end of the year, Dowd will give her current seventh-grade journalism students who will return for one more year of classes a sheet of summer ideas such as reading a print or online version of a news story each day and watching the news at least twice a week.
Cedar Valley students can begin their participation in yearbook during their seventh-grade year and continue with the elective throughout their eighth-grade year.
Next year, Cedar Valley yearbook students will create a retro-themed yearbook with iconic signs of the 1950s and 1960s. To further enhance their design, writing and photography skills, Dowd and participating yearbook students will attend a three-day camp on the campus of the University of North Texas sponsored by Josten's and complete several of their yearbook pages.
"Mrs. Dowd has brought energy to the yearbook and to the yearbook staff and we're happy the students are getting such exposure to so many experiences," Cedar Valley Principal Jane Miller said. "Middle school is designed, by nature, for students to explore opportunities and this program gives these students options and helps them with selecting future high school academy and career choices. Students here are getting quality instruction in a real-life setting."
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