Voice: May 2017
Courtney Dry Lonsinger and her fellow teachers at Standing Stone Elementary School never viewed themselves as performers, but they “ham” it up pretty well in a Read Across America YouTube video.
Shortly before the Dr. Seuss-themed Read Across America Day in March, a suggestion was made to the building’s spirit committee that teachers and students do a reading parody.
Dry Lonsinger and kindergarten teacher Holly Zerbe took the lead as co-producers, and other teachers at the building in the Huntingdon Area School District, Huntingdon County, joined in to come up with skits and routines.
Lonsinger and other teachers wrote lyrics to the music of the song “Closer” by the Chainsmokers. Music teacher Christine Sarvey did the vocals, and the teachers, dressed in garb related to Dr. Seuss stories, lip-synced the words.
“None of us have very good voices,” Dry Lonsinger said, laughing.
But they show a flair, not to mention high energy, for acting.
“We went around the school on lunch breaks filming,” said Lonsinger, who is only in her second year of teaching. “We actually put it together in only about a week.”
Students, parents, and community members loved it, and the video got coverage from WTAJ-TV in Altoona.
Lonsinger noted two videos were made – one to post on YouTube, and another internal one in the gymnasium where every student in the school got to participate.
Things went so well that Lonsinger and her peers plan to do it again next year.
“But we are going to get an earlier start,” she said. “In fact, we are already kicking around ideas.”
To view the video, visit www.psea.org/readacross.
