YouSchools.org

YouSchools.org in the News

Stonebridge Press

In a 'Tantasqua State of Mind'

By Kevin Flanders
New Leader Staff Writer

STURBRIDGE - The hallways will make you feel brand new, and teachers will inspire you.

Tantasqua Regional High School students are proud of their school, evidenced by an award-winning video composed by students in the Media and TV classes. After editing the video, the students sent it to YouSchools.org as part of the website's third annual "Why My School is Cool" contest.

Superintendent Daniel Durgin and TRHS Principal Michael Lucas recently announced that the video had been selected by YouSchools.org officials for the contest's first place award.

"We are very proud of our media production students and the excellent video they were able to produce," Durgin said. "The video obviously required a lot of effort from everyone involved." The video, called "Tantasqua State of Mind," features students Brege VonBleicken and David Dumas singing a tune whose lyrical structure is modeled off of the song, "Empire State of Mind" by Jay-Z and Alicia Keys. In the Tantasqua version, Dumas delivers rap-style lyrics that capture the essence of life as a high school student attending school in Sturbridge. VonBleicken provided the refrain of the song and played the piano throughout the video.

Anthony Chasse served as the videographer for the video, as he filmed various school activities, sporting events, and the local atmosphere in surrounding towns to serve as background images for the video. Several of these images directly corresponded with the lyrics, such as a Sturbridge sign, the TRHS baseball field, and the gymnasium, and this production creativity helped the video earn top prize.

"The 'Tantasqua State of Mind' video was definitely one of the more creative videos we've seen in the three years we have held this competition," said YouSchools.org President John Ivester. "The students presented their school and its clubs and activities in a very positive light, and the lyrics and music were really entertaining. They did an absolutely tremendous job."

The video can be seen on YouTube.com and the YouSchools.org homepage. Representatives from YouSchools.org are planning to attend TRHS in the next few weeks to present the students with their first place award and a Canon Vixia HD video camera.

Members of the Tantasqua Regional School Committee also viewed the video at its Feb. 15 meeting inside the Tantasqua Regional Junior High School library. YouSchools.org is an online community where Pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade education professionals and support staff can go to find the school environment that best fits their career and lifestyle goals. In addition, school administrators can visit the website to recruit a wide variety of qualified candidates. YouSchools.org officials place a strong emphasis on using their website to highlight the technological advances that improve pedagogical practices each year, particularly advances in computer and video technologies. "We have found that video has become extremely prevalent in communications in the last few years, particularly with the popularity of Youtube.com," Ivester added. "Film studies and media classes have been developing in many schools, and the 'Why My School is Cool' competition allows students in these classes to show their work."

YouSchools.org is based in Peabody. To contact the organization, call (866) 668-1184 or e-mail its webmaster at info@youschools.org.

Kevin Flanders may be reached at (508) 909-4136, or by email at kflanders@stonebridgepress.com.