Yearbook is one of those classes where people create new friendships and feel at home, although there is always a deadline looming the staff makes great memories. For CHS English teacher Patricia Ladue, this was her life and it was her saving grace throughout school.

She first got a taste of yearbook life when she was in high school because of her sisters. Ladue fell in love with all of it and always wanted to be the editor.

After high school Ladue didn’t know what she wanted to do. She decided to attend Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communications at Arizona State where she earned a degree in radio and broadcast because those were the closest things to yearbook.

She never wanted to do broadcast journalism so she worked random jobs until she met her husband who was a teacher. Ladue loved high school kids so she went back and got another degree in journalism education to become a teacher.

Ladue began teaching part time at McClintock High School as an English teacher when she got offered a full time but they had one catch for her; she had to be the yearbook adviser. But that was far from a problem for Ladue. 

“I love the picture part of yearbook. It’s a lasting scrapbook or memory book of your school,” said Ladue.

During her 20 years at McClintock, Ladue made many memories and connected with her students. Ladue’s yearbook staff competed in multiple competitions and were twice finalists for the National Scholastic Press Association’s Pacemaker award, the highest recognition for a high school yearbook. Seeing her students succeed and go far in life is what makes Ladue enjoy teaching.

“I don’t love grading papers, I love seeing what students can do, what they can become,” Ladue said. “Teaching is a lot bigger than curriculum, teaching is about helping students become the people they can be. Our job here isn’t really to make sure you graduate from this or that, it’s to get students ready for the next part of their life.”

Ladue feels that journalism, yearbook and broadcast classes are really important because of the life values and skills those classes teach. It creates a better social development for later on in life.

Towards the end of her yearbook career Ladue was becoming unhappy so she decided to retire from McClintock. Her students were very sad to see her go but that’s what she wanted from them.

“I had a freshman boy in my class ask why I was leaving them and I told him ‘I want you to be sad I’m leaving, I don’t want to be one of those teachers that everyone wants to retire.’  It was really hard to leave yearbook. I just needed to leave when I still loved the kids and the job,” said Ladue

Leaving may have been difficult for Ladue but she doesn’t regret a thing throughout her yearbook career.

“Everyone I met on my yearbook life helped me on the way,” said Ladue.