The film you are about to see was created entirely by students. 
From beginning to end  entirely by students.
Every
                  thought
             word
           shot
           line
Everything.

That’s iHub.

That’s the opening to ‘Be Free – iHub Open 2018’. Except, I’m not sure you understand what that truly means. Have a look at the video now. 

This was not an assignment given by a teacher. It was not for marks. It was not created with teacher guidance. One of our teachers did see it the morning of the Open House, while the rest of us saw the debut in front of 170+ guests at our Open House.

As a school, we can allow this to happen because we know the students have high expectations for what our ‘brand’ shares, and so we trust them fully. So much so, that a student shares in running the school’s social media, posting for the school without the requirement of ‘approval’. In fact, I’m often coached by this student, after posting something that ‘could have been worded [or formatted] better’. 

‘Be Free’ was created by students in Grades 9, 10, 11 and 12. It was made for our Inquiry Hub Secondary Open House, which is run by our students, and promoted through a ‘Road Show’ at our district middle schools, a presentation also completely organized and run by our students. 

A student wrote the original stanza, then a team worked on the rest. Another student composed the music, another did the chorus, another shared in singing the backup vocals. Two students narrated the spoken word poem. Two students choreographed their own dances. Another student did the filming and editing. Not including stock videos they’d taken previously, a dozen students were part of the creation of this video. Not for teachers. Not for marks. For the school. 

“We wanted a new ‘cold open’ for our Open House.” That’s why it happened. Here is the video from last year, created originally for the Road Show and also shown at the Open House, ‘How Far Would You Go?‘ This video was viewed over 20,000 times on Facebook. 

Watch ‘Be Free’ again. Pay attention to the words, to the background music, to the cinematography, to the storytelling. This is the kind of work students can do when they are a community, when they care about their school, when they are given agency. 

Once again from the video:

Be where you can do what you love.

Creators of all sorts attend iHub
so that they can dream bigger,
create better, and learn more.

Chase your dreams.

~~~~~

Also published on Medium.