Westerville Central High School senior Ruthanne James was looking forward to her school’s annual assembly in December that features performances by the Jazz Central, orchestra, band and American Sign Language students.
The assembly, which celebrates students’ fundraising efforts for Westerville Caring and Sharing’s holiday project, was canceled this year due to the pandemic. (Each year, the district’s three high schools band together to raise money for Westerville Caring and Sharing’s holiday project, which provides low-income families in the district with gift cards to purchase gifts for the holidays.)
But when James learned her ASL teacher, Jessie Day, decided to record students’ performance to the holiday classic, “Sleigh Ride,” into a Google Meets-inspired music video, she was curious to see how it would work.
She felt awkward filming herself signing the lyrics alone but all that changed after seeing the final video that combines performances from 12 Cohort A students in Day’s ASL 3 and ASL 4 classes.
“It brings some kind of a sense of normalcy,” James said. “We’re still performing. We still get to share with people but it’s also fun. It’s just something fun that I can do in the middle of a pandemic and still be safe about it. I love it so much.”
Cohort B students are currently working on signing “Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer” for a video to be shared next week, Day said.
She created tutorials to help students learn and practice the songs. She hosted live practice sessions before students submitted a video of themselves signing. She chose “Sleigh Ride” and “Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer” because they were fun, fast and cheerful tracks.
“We could all use a little pick-me-up during this time,” she said. (You can watch the video here.)
Senior Brianna Belle loved the idea of the video and the Google Meet format, which she thought creatively paid homage to the way they’ve logged into classes virtually since last spring.
“So in the future, we can go back and think, ‘Oh yeah, I did this project and it was resembling everything we’re going through.’ ”
Senior Dylan Bertelsen was thankful for the opportunity to perform and to have a video to share with family and friends.
“Around this time, we try and be joyful and thankful for what we have especially with Westerville Caring and Sharing,” he said. “It’s just nice to have something to give out.”