A video created by staff at Maple Lake Elementary succeeded in not only getting the attention of students, but of the Twin Cities area as well. The video called “Sign It Daily” is an effort by the third grade staff at the elementary to reinforce the message that student planners need to be signed daily by parents. On Sept. 4, the first day of school, KARE-11 TV played a portion of the video on their morning newscast. The video has also been viewed by more than 3,300 people on youtube.com and is also posted on the Maple Lake Messenger website. Third grade teacher Beth Haglin said teacher Diana Smith came up with the idea over the summer, with Smith noting that several popular videos have been set to Carly Rae Jepsen’s hit song, “Call Me Maybe.” When Haglin told Smith she thought making a video for students set to that song was a great idea, Smith e-mailed the next day with the lyrics she had written for the video. Later in the summer, Diana and her husband, Tony, who was also a Maple Lake Elementary teacher, resigned so that Tony could accept a position at his hometown in Madison, MN. But even that didn’t stop production of the video. “Diana and I were still so invested in the project, we still kept working on it,” Haglin said. And they weren’t the only staff members who contributed their time over the summer to come to school and film the video. Also appearing are elementary secretaries Vicki Rasset and Suzee Schaunaman, Elementary Principal Kris Harlan, third grade teachers Ann Hagen, Rhonda Carlson, Linda Weber, and Nancy Kopff, custodian Joe Ruh, Gifted Services Coordinator Nicole Casebolt, Elementary Library Supervisor Kath Heffron, physical education teacher Adam Ronnenberg, parent Margo Brown, Character Education Instructor Lisa Weninger, para-professional Jodie Nowak, Reading Recovery Instructor Mary Lou Nygaard, and Specialized Services Instructor Trish Ludwig.
More information appears in this week’s Messenger.