BEAVER BANK: Small schools can accomplish big goals. Just ask those attending Harold T. Barrett Junior High School, in Beaver Bank.
The Halifax Regional School Board-operated junior high beat out seven other schools from across Nova Scotia, and 80 across Canada, to be named as one of 15 from across the country to receive a $20,000 Best Buy gift card towards purchase of technology-related equipment.
In Sept. 2009, Best Buy announced a video contest titled "Best in Class", which invited schools from across Canada to produce and film a video showing how technology could be better used in their schools.
That got the attention of Jamie Moore, principal at the school, who registered his school and then started feverishly working on the two minute video submission. After completing the script for the video, Moore held auditions for actors and actresses. Eight students made the cut and put in about 10 hours of practicing, brainstorming and filming until the project’s completion. The video turned out to be 10 minutes long, far too long for the contest so Moore went to work editing it down to the two minute-allocated length.
The video was submitted for consideration in Nov. 2009, with judging completed by Dec. 4. On Dec. 6, Best Buy contacted the school with the good news. However, only Moore knew about it - that is until he sprung a sudden assembly onto the students Dec. 11, where Kim Eisner, general manager of the Best Buy at Dartmouth Crossing, explained the contest. He then had the students involved in the video and Moore reveal the gift card for $20,000 to the surprise of everyone in attendance, but Moore.
Moore, a Dutch Settlement native, said the money will be put to good use at the school, located off the Beaver Bank Road.
“The money will go quite far in improving the amount of technology we have in the classroom,” Moore said. “The students and staff identified the areas that we wanted to target and then we wrote the script according to those needs.
“I think it will have a significant impact on the learning environment.”
Students who were involved in the winning video included Heather Warren, Jessica Perigo, Matthew Butt, Jonna Lawrence, Megan Bremner, Danielle Stone, Justin Weimar and Jack McAulay.
Among the areas that will see the improvements include classrooms without an LCD projector will now get one, an upgrade or replacement of the computers that actually run the projectors, building up the school’s audio-visual items that students could have access to like video cameras and digital cameras and a communications centre, which will be in the front foyer where announcements, community events, notices will be able to be run off a computer onto an attached big screen television.
“It’s a big win for any school really,” he added. “It wouldn’t matter where you were in the board. If you won $20,000 you’re pretty lucky.”
The win by a small, rural school like Harold T. Barrett shows they took the contest seriously, Moore said.
“When I went and looked at the rules, it didn’t look that hard,” he explained. “I edited the video down and when I did, it was very much to the point.
“It’s a big deal. We’re pretty proud of the students who were in it.”
Moore said the win shows the sky’s the limit, even if the school is small.
“If students put their mind to it, they can really be a part of something special,” he said. “They certainly showed in this case that it doesn’t matter how big a school you are or how privileged you might think that you are, if you put you’re mind to it, you can accomplish anything. This is proof positive of that.”
phealey@enfieldweeklypress.com