Joanie Clarkson
#SchoolTubeLipDub is a fun way to boost student engagement and school spirit. We've given tips for how whole schools can make one, check out this post Why your School Should Participate in #SchoolTubeLipDub. In this post, however, we're going to give tips for smaller schools and groups to participate.
Smaller Schools
Firstly, it does not matter if you have 5 or 500 students in your graduating class. We still want to see your school spirit! This is not about showing off how great the building is, but rather showing off how great your students and faculty are! The key for any lip dub, regardless of the number of students participating, is having the students drive the choices. We talk more about that in the post linked above. Students will engage more with an activity the more freedom and control you give over to them. Make it clear that this is their project. You might find it is actually easier the smaller your school is.
Spring Sports
You could have just your spring sports teams make the lip dub. This is a great way to show off these teams and encourage students to attend their remaining events. The issue with choosing the spring sports teams to be the main focus of the lip dub is time. This is their busy season and they may not have the time needed to make a lip dub. Their coaches may not want them to lose focus either, especially if a tournament is just around the corner. A possible solution to the time problem is to give all the planning, filming, and editing responsibilities to another club or group. This allows the teams to still participate without having all the time-consuming responsibilities. Another solution would be to highlight these students without making them the main focus. You could film each team doing a single line of the song, rather than a whole verse or entire song.
Fall Sports
Right now is a great time to have your off-season sports teams create something together. These students can be great drivers of school spirit. They understand the work and passion required to be successful as a school athlete and can inspire other students to get excited and be proud of their school's teams. Unless they are involved in a spring sport, you may find your fall sports athletes are craving that team experience this time of year. Tasking them with this challenge is a great way to fill that need for team bonding. It will also drive signups for the sport(s) next year.
Non-Sports
There are tons of non-sports clubs and groups that would be awesome for this project. I'm sure any art or music-related group would do an outstanding job! Another option for this project is the yearbook club. If you have student-created yearbooks, this may be a perfect way for them to create a digital component to the yearbook. Along these same lines, if you have any type of journalism classes, this might be a great project for them to tackle. It can easily be tied into a social media unit of study as well.
Student Council
Finally, your student council is a great option for creating the lip dub. They are already leaders in the school and represent the student body. This would be a great way for them to lead the rest of the school by inspiring school spirit!
Ultimately, who you choose to create the lip dub is not as important as the final result: a video that inspires school spirit and shows off what is great about your school: the people. We can't wait to share your videos with other schools nationwide.