Students help film Watervliet public service announcement
By Tim Blydenburgh, The Times Union
Filmmaker Mike Feurstein, left, films a public service announcement at Watervliet High School on Friday. Teacher Todd Birmingham instructs students, from left, Emily Soroka, 13, Denise Cohen, 12, and Lilliann Cotto, 12, all of Watervliet. (Lori Van Buren / Times Union)
WATERVLIET — Watervliet students and a filmmaker combined their talents Friday to create a public service announcement designed to bring better academic achievement for the Junior High student body.
Filmmaker Mike Feurstein brought in a crew of three Schenectady students he’s known since third grade.
Topics featured in the PSA were developed based on parent and student surveys — all 121 Watervliet seventh-graders were surveyed — and focus on academic intervention services, drug education and parental involvement among other things. For instance, a high percentage of parents and students (20 percent in both cases ) did not know what extracurricular activities were available.
The eighth-grade Honors English class was given 15 topics based on the surveys and they wrote rhyming lyrics for each topic featured in the PSA, said special education teacher Todd Birmingham, who coordinated the project.
The educational rap song was then pre-recorded by two 10th grade Watervliet students. Three Watervliet seventh-grade English classes wrote the scenes to be shown.
Parents, regular education students and students receiving special education services are featured in the PSA, as actors and actresses. About 100 students were involved in this project through writing, singing and developing artwork.
Science teacher Ashleigh Rozell is also a co-producer of the project and also acted.
Once edited, the PSA can be seen on Watervliet Public Access and youtube.com in mid-February, Birmingham said.
Tim Blydenburgh can be reached at https://twitter.com/tjbly