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Nothing fishy about teachers' video effort
Looking more like Parrotheads bound for a Jimmy Buffett concert, a group of Greencastle teachers pooled their efforts to eagerly immerse themselves in a unique afterschool project last week.
About as excited as the kids they teach daily, a group of 10 teachers hit the city pool in Robe-Ann Park to create a music video for the "Tzouanakis Fish Song" that highlights the school's character education program. All in the name of fun and education.
Getting into the spirit, third-grade teacher Shana Faust and fourth-grade teacher Brooke Lewis eagerly donned red fish heads for the video adventure.
Wearing a Hawaiian shirt and oversized pink sunglasses, special services teacher Amy Howard capped her unusual ensemble with a yellow fish head.
Grass skirts straight out of Margaritaville were the attire of the day for fourth-grade teacher Caitlin Russell, counselor Megan Smith and assistant principal Jennifer Rhoades, the latter accessorizing with a flowered belt and yellow lei.
Jennifer Miller, a fourth-grade teacher, created a splash with flippers and swim goggles as third-grade teacher Carmen Cross donned a blue life jacket over an already colorful outfit.
And it was fins to the left, fins to the right for fifth-grade teacher Hollie Fowler, who strapped a plastic shark fin to her back, completing a costume that included Hawaiian shirt and goggles.
That was all done so Tzouanakis music teacher Carrie Hamilton -- wearing orange swim goggles and toting a red lifeguard rescue tube herself -- could videotape the zaniness with her iPad.
Drivers passing the pool on Wood and Tennessee streets slowed simply to gawk or swiveled their necks in a double-take as the group cavorted in a drained city pool and then adjourned to the splash park where Hamilton led a conga line over, under, around and through the various loops and hoops normally squirting streams of water in all directions.
Hamilton explained that students listen and sing the fish song every Monday morning while taking part in classroom meetings in which they learn lessons like what friendship qualities make a "Stinky Fish."
"Now they will have another fun way to engage in the FISH! philosophy," Hamilton said.
The FISH! Philosophy is a set of simple, practical tools to help build stronger relationships and provide tools to face challenges more effectively, she explained.
The concept was created after the founder of the behavior program visited a Seattle fish market, observing the fishmongers enjoying their time with customers and tossing fish in teamwork fashion.
The program emphasizes four basic skills: Be There, Make Their Day, Choose Your Attitude and Play, teaching children to live in the moment, put others before themselves, and find a way to have fun in everything they do.
Hamilton wrote the "Tzouanakis Fish Song" to inspire students remember those four basic principles.
"I am always making up silly songs for items all over school," the bubbly Hamilton noted. "During lunch duty, I made up a song about ketchup on a day that everyone was asking for ketchup. You can scan hallway songs with our new iPads to hear me singing a song about being quiet in the hallway."
That hallway ditty includes the lyrics, "When your feet go walkin' you better not be talkin'."
Hamilton says she tries to turn mundane things about school into something fun.
"Last year, Mr. (Principal Jon) Strube brought me lyrics to a fish song another school had composed to the tune of 'Miss Mary Mack.' I knew that we could have fun with it, but it had to change."
So she adapted the lyrics to be more appropriate for third- through fifth-graders, tweaked the melody and added a chorus.
"What rhymes with Tzouanakis?" she asked.
Fish? ... Well, sort of ....
"We listen to the song over the morning announcements on Monday morning, but this year the fish song was beginning to get stale," Hamilton said, "It was starting to lose its effectiveness. So I used our new school iPad to create a new version of the song.
"When I brought it to some teachers for input, they thought it would be fun to do a music video."
And 10 of them showed up after school to eagerly take part in antics that would have made The Monkees proud.
The plan was to launch the "Fresh Fish Song" to the Tzouanakis students this week.
"And in the weeks to come," Hamilton said, "I will pop into classrooms to catch kids singing and dancing to the song. New versions of the video will appear throughout the year, but none will top the teachers' video."
The video is available here.
Your attitude,
Is up to you,
So make good choices,
Even if you're blue.
Make people smile,
And make their day,
Be kind and caring,
With the things you say.
Here at Tzouanakis
We like to live "The FISH!"
Be sure and get your work done,
And don't forget to have fun.
At Tzouanakis,
We like to live "The FISH!"
Be There and Make Their Day,
Choose Your Attitude and Play!
Other verses they use throughout the year:
Make sure you listen,
And Stay "On Track"
And Pay Attention
Don't turn your Back