Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Photo
From left, Girard seniors David Meigs, 18, and Zack Teter, 17, pose with an iPhone that is playing their video “Our Minds Are Open,” a spoof on the Creed song “With Arms Wide Open.” The two hope their video, a finalist in the eInstruction Classroom Makeover Contest, will garner enough votes to win their school $75,000 worth of high-tech instructional upgrades.
Girard
Girard High School seniors Zack Teter, 17, and David Meigs, 18, hope to combine their creative talents to bring $75,000 worth of high-tech instructional equipment to their school.
Teter sings in his band Small Town Addiction, while Meigs plays the guitar and writes songs for his church.
Their song and the music video accompanying “Our Minds Are Open,” a spoof on the Creed song “With Arms Wide Open,” is a finalist for the eInstruction Classroom Makeover Contest.
A month ago, they began combining their talents for the contest.
Jamie Williams, in his eighth year as art teacher in Girard, said it is the second year Girard students have made it into the finals.
He said the eInstruction panelists decide who the finalists are, but the choice of the winners is up to voting, which is open until Dec. 5.
For three years, Williams has assigned making a video for the contest as part of his video-production class, which is in its fourth year at the school.
“It is packed every year now,” he said. “I only have 24 seats in here, and every year I have 25 to 35 students trying to get in.”
The contest requires an original song or a spoof of a song about how technology can advance education. The video must display students and teachers working together with the technology.
The song selection was an easy choice since Teter had been singing “With Arms Wide Open” since the song was released in 2000.
But the writing of the lyrics, which fell to Meigs, was a challenge because they wanted the video to be comedic, and the song is slow and methodical.
“I was sitting in my car on the way to Columbus,” Meigs said. “I just kept listening to the song over and over again and singing along with it.”
Out of the repetition, the lyrics were born.
“Well I just went to school today,” Teter sings instead of “Well, I just heard the news today” in the original song.
The video features Teter sitting in front of the eInstruction logo.
Sporadic comedic scenes of Meigs interacting with a SmartBoard are dispersed throughout.
Both say the process of making the video was grueling, but they enjoyed it.
The class “is hard work,” Williams said. “But the students learn to love it to where they don’t look at it as work.”
Meigs and Teter also are part of the football team that is playing for a state semifinal berth this weekend.