MUSIC VIDEO CONTEST

THE FIFTH GRADE STUDENTS in Kirby Chittenden’s class at Lake Hills Elementary School are working on a music video to enter in a $25,000 Interactive Classroom Makeover Contest sponsored by eInstruction of Denton, Texas. The class must submit their video by October 24 and a panel of judges will determine the top 5 finalists in each of the three school categories (grades K-5; 6-8; and 9-12).

The finalists will be posted online at http://www.eimakeover.com/ from October 31 through November 14, to be viewed by members of the general public who will be asked to vote for their favorite entry. The online votes will determine 30% of the final score and a panel of judges will determine 70% of the entrant’s final score.

The Lake Hills' students decided to produce a parody on a song by the Jonas’ Brothers. The original song, “Burnin’ Up,” received new lyrics and a rap section created by the class who titled it, “Learnin’ Up.” The instrumental tracks were created by Chittenden on his Yamaha keyboard workstation and the class recorded the vocal tracks on October 3.

The 22 fifth graders also worked in cooperative teams to develop storyboards for more than 60 video clips used in the 2 ½ -minute music video. Final post production work on the project is scheduled for this weekend.

Judging will be based on the following criteria: effectiveness of demonstrating the use of technology in the classroom; the extent to which the entry demonstrates collaboration between the students and teacher in creating the video; and overall creativity and spirit of the entry.

The class will post their video with eInstruction by October 22. You have the option of “rating” our entry at that time. However, we’ll have to wait until October 31 to find out if we are among the finalists in our category…then you can officially vote for our video.

Former Lake Hills student Jeff Chittenden helps with the digital sound recording, mixing the instrumental and vocal tracks. Jeff is now a freshman at Grand Valley State University majoring in film and video production.