!looc woH

That is, in Shorewood-speak, "How cool!"

Back in November, we reported on a lip-dub video created by Shorecrest High students to the tune of Outkast's "HeyYa." After their video went viral with a vengeance on YouTube, Shorecrest students challenged rival Shorewood High to top their production.

Shorewood did not disappoint. Check out the students' answer to the video challenge below, a lip dub to Hall and Oates' "You Make My Dreams." About 30 seconds into the video, you may start wondering, "How'd they do that?" Here's a clue: sdrawkcab. The students filmed everything backwards, even learning to lip sync the lyrics in reverse!



Who's winning? Shorewood's video boasts an impressive 586,412 hits—more than double Shorecrest's 254,442 hits. Looks like the ball's back in Shorecrest's court!

And just what does this have to do with education? Consider the following excerpt from "The New Untouchables," an op-ed by New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman from Oct. 20, 2009:

A Washington lawyer friend recently told me about layoffs at his firm. I asked him who was getting axed. He said it was interesting: lawyers who were used to just showing up and having work handed to them were the first to go because with the bursting of the credit bubble, that flow of work just isn’t there. But those who have the ability to imagine new services, new opportunities and new ways to recruit work were being retained. They are the new untouchables.

That is the key to understanding our full education challenge today. Those who are waiting for this recession to end so someone can again hand them work could have a long wait. Those with the imagination to make themselves untouchables — to invent smarter ways to do old jobs, energy-saving ways to provide new services, new ways to attract old customers or new ways to combine existing technologies — will thrive.

A class of "new untouchables" right here in Washington state? Sure seems like it!

Hey Ya!

To the tune of Outkast's "Hey Ya," Shorecrest High School students are taking YouTube viewers on a fast-paced, high-energy tour of their hallways, packing 4 minutes and 29 seconds with entertaining school spirit. The "lip dub"video, which has gotten more than 18,000 hits on YouTube in less than two weeks, is the product of an assignment by Shorecrest teacher Trent Mitchell. After just six rehearsals and some impressive choreography, the students nailed it one take. Take a look for yourself!



Will we see more knock-out videos from the Shoreline School District? Looks like it. In a new twist on "school rivalry," Shorewood High's video production students have accepted a challenge from Mitchell to produce a better video.

La Cima Leadership Camp - VIDEO!

At today's AWSP quarterly staff meeting, Student Leadership Director Susan Fortin gave a recap of the summer programs. Summer is her super busy time of the year, so it's always fun to hear how things went, especially at some of our newer events like Mascot CheerLeadership Camp and Bilingual Leadership Camp.

The La Cima Bilingual Leadership Camp is one of the newer programs (this is the second year). It's aimed at developing the leadership skills of Latino students. With each year, the camp gets a little better and grows a little more in attendance. About 50 middle and high school students attended the camp this year at Chewelah Peak Learning Center, located about an hour north of Spokane.

As often happens with leadership camps, the people who are there and experience the fun return home full of fun stories and enthusiasm. But unless you were there, it's a little hard to sympathize or share in that fun. That's why video has become such a powerful medium.

Fortunately for AWSP, one of our Leadership Camp alumni is a filmmaker. Brad McLaughlin took some time to go up to the camp this summer and has pulled together some initial video. Unfinished or not, you can really see how much fun these students had at camp!