Students in Chris Ippolito’s communication classes at Red Bank Middle School put their media skills to use while filming a music video for a contest. From top: Sixth-grader Najahee Tyler works behind the scenes. Teachers Nikki Ippolito and Kristine Clayton helped out in the music video, which has landed the class a top-five finalist spot in a music video contest. Sixth-grader Joe Hoff performs in the parody of rapper Eminem’s “Lose Yourself.” RED BANK – Students at Red Bank Middle School have become amateur music video artists by entering an international online video contest to win technology for their school.
Of the more than 200 submissions, the video titled “Use Ya Tech,” a parody of rapper Eminem’s “Lose Yourself,” has landed the students one of five finalist spots in the sixthto eighth- grade category in the contest.
The entries for the Interwrite Video Makeover Contest, sponsored by educational software provider Interwrite Learning, included video submissions of a popular song parody no longer than three minutes in length that described how students and teachers work together and utilize technology in the classroom on a daily basis.
“I think that the panel of judges at Interwrite saw the energy and the creativity that the students brought to the production and considered that in their judging,” said Chris Ippolito, the first-year communications teacher who entered his students in the contest.
The winning school will receive a party and $15,000 worth of technology, which would include an Interwrite Board, an Interwrite Pad, an Interwrite Cricket, a Mitsubishi XD206 DLP projector, a Frontrow Pro Digital sound system, a Pixie Control system and $1,000. The prize includes training and installation of the Interwrite technology.
For those not in the know, Ippolito explained the equipment uses in layman’s terms.
He said the prizes include a wireless writing tablet, digital whiteboard, high-end sound system and a wireless pad.
“You can walk around the room and when they write on it, what they are writing on the pad can be [transferred] to a large whiteboard in the room,” explained Ippolito, sounding more like an excited student than their educator.
He added, “Everybody is excited about it. They’re excited about the potential that the use of video has in our school, how we could apply that across different academic areas.”
Ippolito pulled double duty on the video shoot by providing the vocals and writing the original rap parody.
“Even though I wrote the parody, the students acted out everything and they composed a lot of these shots. I would say 98 percent of these were student-composed shots. They actually framed it and said ‘Try that,’ ” said Ippolito of his students’ input.
Ippolito and his class received word of the contest through an e-mail from the head of the school’s technology department, Jayne Frankenfield, and had about a week to put together the parody, vocals and video for the entry.
“I think there was a buzz around the school, and I showed it to all of my classes and to other classes as well, and then we had an assembly for Hispanic heritage and showed it to the whole school, so everyone has seen it at this point,” he said.
The video, which can be viewed at http://contest.interwritelearning. com/contestant/ 179/, includes memorable scenes from the Eminem video it parodies such as a “battle rap” scene with Red Bank Middle School students playing the main character roles.
Sample lyrics set to the “Lose Yourself” tune include: “Technology is king at the Red Bank Middle School, We’re building up our program so that we don’t look like fools, I’ve been using globes since the time of my birth, but now we’re rockin’ Google Earth.”
Also included on the site where the video can be found is a note from Ippolito about how the entry shows students’ use of technology in the classroom.
“They use technology to explore and gain understanding from authentic situations in interdisciplinary projects. Everyone played a role in the production of this video – students and teachers alike, and we are really proud of all of the hard work that went into it,” he said on the Web site.
The winners will be announced Nov. 27, and win or lose, Ippolito said the students were just excited to have a project-based lesson.
He said that although the students would like to win, it is enough that they got to see the project through from its conception to its submission and then participate in an international competition for a prize.