Students at Hillcrest School will have a very entertaining finish to the pre-Christmas portion of the school year, thanks to a virtual talent show to be shown on Dec. 18.
The school has been working on the talent show, with both students and staff members submitting videos. Students as young as kindergarten are participating.
Melissa Gartner, a teacher for the Grade 5 and 6 class at the school, has been tasked with piecing together the videos. The deadline to prepare a video was Dec. 11, and she spent the weekend bringing it all together.
“They’re really cute,” said Gartner. “There’s a lot of kids playing musical instruments and singing songs. It’s very adorable.”
But there has been some non-conventional entertainment. One kid did a time-lapse drawing of a really cool picture. A family recreated a World Wrestling Entertainment experience at home. And one staff member created a music video.
“Some of the kids have been telling me all week about their practice schedule, because they’ve been performing or singing, and they wanted to get it just right. They spent a lot of time outside of school working on their skills,” she said.
Gartner has a master’s degree in educational technology, including film and film editing. At each school where she has worked, there has been a lot of video work, so she’s well-versed in the technology to bring the talent show together.
There is a competitive element to the talent show as well, and prizes will be handed out at the end for each age group.
They expect to have enough segments and acts to have a full slate of entertainment in the afternoon.
“It should be a good way to bring the whole school together virtually. We don’t get to see each other in person anymore, just on Teams. So it’s something fun to do,” Gartner said.
