Pleasantdale School found a way to showcase the talents of its students through a virtual talent show.
Principal Michelle Smart said the school traditionally has a talent show during the week of student-led conferences in late November, but they obviously couldn’t have a traditional talent show this year, so they took the virtual talent show route.
Students watched the show from their classrooms on Nov. 26.
“It turned out very well,” said Smart.
Two teachers, Kelsey Krieger and Stacy Aspinall, have organized the talent show previously, and they believed it could happen this year with pre-recorded videos.
Traditionally they would have auditions and then select the acts for the talent show, but they had fewer entries than normal, and with the videos, this year they could select almost everyone who wanted to be involved. Sixteen acts were part of the finished product.
“They recorded themselves and made a video of themselves doing their talent at home, or wherever they were, and then they brought in the video,” said Smart.
Aspinall’s daughter Kenzie was the MC and the school’s mascot, Spike the Bulldog, served as the judge, and told the kids they did a good job.
The virtual talent show format allowed them to have some different acts. There were the traditional singing, dancing and instrumental performances, but there was also a cooking show, some skateboarding and more that they normally wouldn’t have when it was live.
“Usually we have so many. When it’s in person, we have to pare them down a little bit, or it would be too long. It was a nice little break and it was pretty fun to watch them,” said Smart.
The school used Microsoft Teams to bring it together, but it took a lot of work to make it happen.
Smart believes that anything the school can do to have their traditional activities is important. Change has been constant this school year, and there are a lot of things they can’t do.
“When we can still carry on with some of our activities that students love and are part of our culture here in the building, I think it’s important to try to do that, so I do really appreciate the teacher effort that goes into it,” she said.
It’s been a busy and intense fall, and the talent show represented a fun break.
Now the school is working on a virtual Christmas concert, so that will take a lot of time and effort, too. Smart said they hope to have it ready for release in the last week before the Christmas holiday, because that’s when they would normally have their Christmas production.
