CHANGEd 60-60-60: VOICES

Thinking about What if schools empowered students and teachers to be journalists and marketers? and reflecting…

Last Wednesday, Trinity School hosted a musical gala that was, in a word, remarkable. It was an incredible display of honoring our school’s commitment to the arts, celebrating both musical and educational risks, and highlighting the diversity of talent within our student, faculty/staff, and parent body.

Given the high quality (and that’s an understatement) of promotional trailer for the event, I can only imagine what Trinity’s official documentation will look like. There’s the video of the two hours of rehearsing and then the HD video (on two cameras) of the two hour performance at Symphony Hall…and the previous weeks and weeks of video that document the preparation — both in person and via Skype.

But, here’s the problem. Naturally, creating a succinct representation of this magical event will take some time. And already, there’s been many moments since Wednesday when I’ve wanted to add texture to my story about the event with video. Or share a link in an email or blog post. Luckily, I took some pictures, so those have come in handy.

But my voice is only one.

What stories might other voices be telling? Stories that will only create anticipation for the more polished pieces that our communications department will ultimately produce?

Imagine my excitement when I saw that one of our students had blogged about her experience. Jena’s post, written the night following the event, is a tangible example of student as journalist. Her full post is worth reading, but I love hearing Jena’s voice in this one passage (this comes after she describes that the piano solo was “like watching a sunset on a beach”),

One instrument that was also used at Alpin Hong’s concert was the human voice.  The Faculty and Staff choir sang at the concert.  The choir started last year and then doubled in one year for the concert.  The Trinity School 4^th, 5^th, and 6^th grade students sang, too.  The student choir came on stage on time and in an orderly fashion, which is a very hard thing to do.  There were many things I liked about these two choirs.  The teachers sounded very rehearsed and looked extremely pretty.  Everyone who participated was very excited for the concert and performing in the concert.  Once the concert was over, everyone said we looked and sounded beautiful.

This fifth grade depiction, as polished as it needs to be, is perfect. It’s representative of the moments that meant the most to this one child. And in my opinion, it tells an important story.

It’s her story, yes. But it’s also the school’s story.