Woodford County High School student teacher singalong

William Newcomb is an African-American sophomore at Woodford County High School. This is his second year in my Media class; he’s in Media II. William is a story in himself. While I have taught him a number of videography and editing principles, he is almost complete self-taught regarding editing and camera use. He sees techniques used by other video creators, learns them on his own, and implements them. He is a truly unique and sometimes frustrating learner. Often, as a teacher, you just have to get out of William’s way and let him do his thing. William composed an email to the faculty last Wednesday asking for volunteers to be a part of this video. As break approached and we finalized finals and grades, I expected a trickle of responses. With in hours, over half the faculty responded with an enthusiastic willingness to participate. William then recruited Latino Dance Group member Anna Ruvalcaba to choreograph a dance. Anna’s the girl in the front right in the first hallway dance sequence, wearing a red Tshirt. On Thursday and Friday many students and faculty stayed after for several hours to complete multiple takes of the video. William brought fans, fake snow, and a fun-loving spirit to the proceedings. He and fellow Channel 4 Media team member Ian Ferrell then shot the video. The fact that William wasn’t thrilled with Thursday’s performance and asked everyone to come back for more takes ON FRIDAY AFTERNOON speaks volumes about William’s persuasive and charismatic personality. At any rate, William finished editing late Monday night, 5 AM I heard, and came to school Tuesday to take finals. We included the piece in our half hour Channel 4 broadcast. I’m providing a link to that below. William’s is the last piece on the show. Our student journalism site is wofo.press, which has our school newspaper and links to all our recent Channel 4 Media broadcasts. William has a wonderful rapport with many of the teachers involved. I heard one veteran faculty member say on Thursday, “That’s the most fun I’ve had at school in recent memory,” and she has a lot of fun at school, organizing our staff Halloween costume contest, our ugly sweater contest, and student’s dress up for holiday half week.