Print Shop is a class for students to create posters for any given purpose. The few students who are part of this class come in during other classes, working on their own projects in the back of the room. Teacher Aaron Smoly is the advisor of this class, and the students work alongside him.
“I started it in my junior year with Mr. Smoly, and it’s just a class where I help him get posters printed to hang up around the school, laminate things for specific teachers and do any other jobs that might require a color printer,” said senior and print shop member Hannah Mcdaniels.
They often make posters and things of the sort for teachers, but have also taken requests from students, clubs, and anyone else who might need something printed.
“Teachers can email a poster or anything that they want laminated to Mr. Smoly, he gets it in the classroom and me and a few others that have print shop as a class, we have access to that, and we’re able to download them into a flash drive, stated Mcdaniels. “And then the big poster printer in the back of Smoly’s room, we can link everything up to it and get the posters printed and deliver them when they’re done.”
Not many students have knowledge of this class, as not that many people are needed for it at the moment, but the current members are all upperclassmen, so they are hoping to find new people for when they can no longer do it.
“It’s a print shop, and people need to print stuff and after Hannah’s gone and I’m gone we won’t have very many people to do it, so we need people to do it after us,” said junior and print shop member Achilles Mancine.
Some of the ways being a member of print shop could benefit students is how they get to learn more about printers and computers, have a class where they get to focus on work without being disrupted, and get to have a class where there isn’t too much going on.
“It’s a nice break in your day, and it’s nice because it feels like I’m helping out people that might need it, since teachers don’t have access to that without paying for it, so it’s just a nice way to help out teachers around the building that need it,” said Mcdaniels.
There are several skills one can learn from this class that could help in the future. It could help them with their ability to communicate with strangers, help them with problem solving, and get them to take responsibility.
“It gives me a spare class, so I’ll do my print shop work in that class and I have the rest of the class to do other work, or help Mr. Smoly around,” said Mancine. “I’ve been really close with Mr. Smoly just because of it, so I think it’ll help you get out there more, especially if you’re not doing anything for school already.”
For those thinking about joining print shop in future, there are some things that they should remember. The class might seem slightly unconventional, but it is still a class nonetheless. Students who are joining have to be prepared to work on these projects.
“If you’re thinking of joining, don’t abuse the privilege, It’s something you have to have to take seriously. You can’t just join and think you’ll get out of class, you have to actually do something,” said Mancine.
The few students who are a part of print shop usually work alone, as they don’t all share a class. However, despite not all being in the same class, they have to make sure to communicate with each other so as to not cause problems, especially when something goes wrong.
“Hannah, I mentioned her, she does most of the work, we have another person who’s recruited as well, they both come in at third period, and Hannah comes in at first period as well,” said Mancine. “It’s just us three in print shop, and last year I got into it because I knew the previous people in the print shop. They were both seniors so they left and I kind of took over.”
Print shop has many ups and downs, but the process of creating a poster is lengthy yet fairly simple, someone requests a poster or something similar to be printed, the file is uploaded, transferred to the printer, it prints, they cut it down to size, they laminate it, and then deliver it to the person who placed the request.
“The easiest [part] is definitely delivering things because everything’s done and laid out. It’s really easy to stay organized too, because you have everything lined up and numbered for you,” said Mcdaniels. “The hardest part is just making sure everything gets done in a timely manner, making sure everyone’s in line, the printer and the laminator are working and you don’t mess anything up.”
They have had problems in the past, usually the printer or laminator will break and they’ll have to stop and fix it. However, some things have happened to make the process more difficult when working on it.
“We used to have computers in the back, and the print shop people would just go by themselves and add the files directly, but we can’t do that anymore. We can’t add files over chromebook, so Mr. Smoly has to go on to his computer and add the file,” said Mancine.
The members of print shop enjoy their class, and have learned many things from doing it. They are excited to see who is interested in joining in the future. If students are interested in joining, they should talk to Smoly.
“You have to be patient with teachers trying to learn what they’re doing when sending things, or if you do something and the teacher messes up and wants it done again,” said Mcdaniels. “You’ve gotta be patient with people, and you have to be able to talk to people and understand where everyone’s coming from, so nothing is miscommunicated.”