Are You Ready for the EOGS?

May is a busy and sometimes stressful month preparing for the EOGs.  Students, teachers, administrators, and parents all want the EOG scores to reflect how hard everyone has worked during the year. So, it's nice to take a moment to have some fun and de-stress before the big testing days begin.  My school took time to do just that during our EOG pep rally this week.  It was quite a spectacle with cheerleaders coming over from the middle school, skits by teachers, and a musical performance by my co-counselor and me.

I found inspiration in this YouTube video featuring the tune of "Forget You" by Cee Lo Green.  Thank you Ms. Watson's fifth grade class! My co-counselor, Amanda, and I changed a few of the words to include EOG strategies we have discussed with students, but it didn't need much tweaking for our use.
The best part of this rap is that the video shows the students dancing at recess, which I thought was really entertaining and a great way to incorporate students into the EOG performances (see below for an example from the video).  I decided a student video would be an awesome backdrop for our live performance and quickly downloaded the iMovie app on my iPad so I could get to work. It was literally as easy as me going to the playground and asking third through fifth graders (who are allowed to have their photo taken) to give me their "best dance move". 

I then edited the different video clips on iMovie and added the Cee Lo Green "Forget You" instrumental version downloaded from iTunes. Amanda and I made up our dance moves to go with the the lyrics for our performance. Then, we decided to give our performance a little something extra and designed EOG shirts to wear for our singing debut.  I created the perfect design at Vistaprint using a line from our rap's refrain, "Let's Do this.... 4s and 3s".  The shirts cost $16 each, and I will definitely wear mine to school on casual Fridays.  We thought it would be cool to go old school with the cassette tape, although I wonder how many of our elementary students even knew what it was. Ha!

Here are some photos of us on the day of the pep rally.

Although I would love to be able to share the video we created on You Tube (it is really cool!), I don't want to violate my students' privacy unless I am able to get permission from all 100 or so that were in the video.  Our media specialist video recorded all of the pep rally so the K-2 teachers and students will be able to enjoy it on our Morning Show.  It was so much fun and a memory I hope our students will have for a long time to come.  What are you doing for your EOG assembly or pep rally?! I would love to hear!  Happy Counseling!   Angela