Newspaper and yearbook staff members met at Whitehouse High School for a workshop on June 23 and 24 to make plans for the upcoming year’s publications.

Students participated in several classes including newspaper, yearbook, InDesign and Photoshop-themed programs. The workshop  was hosted by Debbie Vaughn from Balfour and this is the twelfth year of the program.

“I used to be a school teacher at Whitehouse, but now I work for Balfour, so I travel to schools and teach photography and computer classes to my staffs,” Vaughn said. “I’ve always loved to write, and I was on yearbook staff in high school, so that’s when I decided I was going to be a journalism teacher.”

A total of 140 students and teachers attended the workshop, including 24 students from Lindale.

“Doing two days at a workshop and focusing on it completely is a lot better than three weeks of catching up at school,” Vaughn said. “I’m hoping the workshop is a good start, and then once the school year begins, they’ll be prepared to get going as smoothly as possible.”

The yearbook’s staff met and presented a theme, cover design and color scheme to compare with others for next year’s book outline and ideas.

“I have furthered my yearbook experience and become an altogether better staff member,” yearbook staff member Lindsey Cooper said. “It has been a really good review, plus we learned a lot about InDesign.”

The newspaper’s staff members took part in improving interviewing skills, story ideas and online newspaper techniques, as well as planning magazine details for future issues of the Eagle Eye.

“Journalism and being in newspaper is really important to me, and I wanted to do the best I could to excel in that, so coming to this workshop really helped,” Emma Johnsen, assistant editor of the Eagle Eye, said. “I’m very lucky to have been given the opportunity to be taught by some very talented people.”