Magnet school faculty, staff produce music video for students

COEUR d’ALENE — Sorensen Magnet School of the Arts and Humanities faculty and staff members miss their students so much, they've created a music video to sing it to the world.

About 20 Sorensen teachers and staffers picked up their musical instruments, made colorful signs and even got their own kids in on a special presentation of their school song, "Raise Your Hands," using the social learning platform FlipGrid to individually record their performances.

"We are Sorensen Magnet School, arts and humanities, things we do give meaning to my life," the song begins. "There’s something about this place, makes me want to dance in place, beat the drum and raise our hands up high."

Sorensen music teacher Tami Vandegrift edited the videos to produce one happy collaborative performance, starting with the moment each participant flips on the camera. The “Sorensen in Song” video was published on social media over the weekend.

"Our goal was to make something together that we could share with the families and the students to remind them we’re here, we’re thinking about them and we miss them," Vandegrift said Monday. "We wanted to share a little bit of joy."

The song, "Raise Your Hands," was written by Principal Brett DePew, whose screen is near the center of the video. He said he wrote the song four years ago in August before the annual beginning-of-the-year meeting with his staff.

"They liked it so much that it's become one of several school-themed songs that we sing together at our Friday Gathering assemblies," DePew said. "This assembly has become Sorensen tradition and is integral to our school mission of recognizing each and every student for having found success in areas such as school academics, the arts and humanities, being a good citizen and performance. The words to the song describe the heart and soul of Sorensen and our students and families take great pride in that."

Fifth-grade teacher Crystal Bain, who plays a ukulele and demonstrates motions to accompany the song, said it's been hard not interacting with her students.

"I get to see most of their faces over Zoom, but I miss making real in-person connections," she said. "When we got told we wouldn't be coming back for this year, it took a bit for it to sink in but when it did I cried. I told the students I did and a few told me they did too. We need each other but we can do this!"

Vandegrift echoed that sentiment.

“We’ve found some ways to connect, such as video chats and Google Classroom, which have been nice, even if it's not the same as seeing kids in person," she said. "As a music teacher, I've scheduled recurring events for students who want to keep up playing recorders, marimbas or to have a story sung to them. Playing music together bonds us. We’ll get through this.”

See the video: https://www.facebook.com/cdaschools/videos/1951347278323785/