Ed Tech
This article is sponsored by Treering, a memory-as-a-service platform that transforms life’s moments into personalized keepsakes. Powered by their proprietary AI-driven technology and just-in-time printing, Treering offers scalable and flexible memory creation solutions for schools, families, and brands.
It all starts with you sharing a candid shot of a field trip, and then BAM! Congratulations—you’ve just been “voluntold” to do the yearbook. No time to celebrate now—too much work to be done.
And if you have been in charge of the yearbook before, you know it’s not just assembling cute little portraits and calling it a day. It’s hunting down missing students and teachers for pictures they don’t want to take, hounding colleagues for their special events photos, and begging parents to preorder before the deadline, only to have half of them ask in June, “Wait, is it too late to get one?” All fun stuff added to your already overwhelming teaching day.
But what if it doesn’t have to be that way?
What if yearbooks could be stress-free, risk-free, and actually kind of…fun? It sounds like a dream…but after years of doing it the hard way, I finally found out it is possible.
Here are 10 secrets that will help you create an amazing yearbook with a bit of help from Treering.
1. Start with a theme that tells a story.
Teachers love a good theme. We turn our classrooms into entire jungles and farms for goodness’ sake. So, naturally, a great yearbook should also have a strong theme.
Whether you opt for retro vibes, adventure-inspired spreads, comic-book fun, or a clean and minimalist approach, choosing a theme early on helps guide every page you build.
Stick with consistent colors, fonts, and photo styles to create a polished, cohesive look throughout the book. Treering makes this super simple, offering over 250 professionally designed themes and templates that make the book look like it was designed by a pro, even if you definitely are NOT!
2. Plan your page ladder before you do anything else.
Think of the page ladder as the seating chart of your yearbook. If you don’t plan everything out early, it becomes a mosh pit.
Brainstorm and map out which events, clubs, and random spirit days (Crazy Hair Day, for sure) you want to include before deciding on templates. Otherwise, you’ll end up with six pages of the Halloween Carnival and none of the Winter Choir concert.
Need inspiration? Treering offers a free sample yearbook, allowing you to get fresh ideas and visualize a great setup.
3. Collect photos like a pro, not a packrat.
Instead of collecting photos in your email inbox (and later not finding them), set up shared folders by grade or event.
Treering lets teachers and parents upload photos directly, so you’re not the sole photo hoarder. Send out reminders immediately after major events, while the images are still first on our camera rolls.
Students’ portraits are easily uploaded with the Portrait Auto-Flow feature. Drag and drop last-minute additions customized to your page layouts.
4. Skip the budget drama.
Traditional yearbooks come with upfront costs… cue the “Hi PTA friends, do you have an extra 2,000 dollars to spare?” email.
However, with Treering, there’s no need to beg or write checks from the school fund labeled “emergencies only.” Families order directly, books are printed on demand, and you’re not stuck pre-buying 200 copies that may or may not sell.
No stress, no debt, and best of all, there’s no stack of unsold yearbooks haunting your storage closet until June.
5. Include events after Spring Break.
Some of the best school memories happen in the spring….field day, prom, concerts, and championship games. But with traditional publishers, those moments often don’t make it past the deadline. Instead, they cut them off like your teacher bestie’s mid-sentence gossip when admin walks in.
Treering, on the other hand, utilizes print-on-demand technology with a 3-week turnaround. That means you can include those end-of-year highlights without panicking in February.
6. Let students personalize (so you don’t have to).
Want fewer emails from parents saying, “I don’t see my child’s picture anywhere in the book… can I return it?”
Same.
With Treering, every student gets two free custom pages they (or their parents) can fill with personal photos, quotes, and memories. It’s their space, their content—and it only shows up in theircopy of the book, not the master copy. Genius.
Not only does it save you from last-minute photo requests, but it also makes representing every student feel effortless.
7. Use it as a fundraiser—without selling cookie dough.
What if your yearbook could make money instead of draining your budget faster than a daily Starbucks addiction?
Treering books are already priced so affordably that you can add a small markup and turn your yearbook into a legit fundraiser. Earn money for your classroom, the school, or next year’s book fund, all without forcing parents to hawk wrapping paper and candy bars to their Facebook friends.
8. Go for quality, not quantity.
A great yearbook isn’t about cramming every single photo you’ve ever taken onto one page. It’s about choosing the right images—the ones that tell a story, spark a memory, or make people smile.
It shouldn’t look like a Pinterest photo dump board gone rogue. Treering books are high-end, well-crafted, and printed on 100 lb. sustainably sourced paper, so your thoughtful design feels as good as it looks.
9. Request a sample before you commit.
Buyer’s remorse is real. I know this for a fact after buying a used car that put me on a first-name basis with the tow truck driver.
Lesson learned: Do your due diligence. Feel the quality of the pages and see the sharpness of the pictures before you make a commitment.
This is exactly the reason why Treering offers a free sample book for you to inspect. It’s like taking the yearbook for a test drive—only this one won’t shed parts on the way to the staff lounge.
Click here to get your FREE SAMPLE YEARBOOK now!
10. Bonus tip: Share the secret (especially with the teacher who can’t say no)
Teachers already juggle standardized testing, data dives, grading marathons, and observation cycles—we don’t need “build a yearbook from scratch” added to that list.
Treering gets it. With a customer satisfaction rate hovering around “basically flawless” and over 9.6 million books printed, they’ve clearly mastered the art of not making teachers cry. They have world-class customer support for any yearbook issue you may have.
So go ahead—take a deep breath. You’ve got this. And if not, there’s a template for that. And while you’re at it, forward this to your admin, your yearbook committee, or that one teacher who’s way too nice to say no when someone says, “Hey, want to take over the yearbook this year?”
