Olmito has high hopes in Classroom Makeover contest

Olmito Elementary School has high hopes for winning this year’s eInstruction Classroom Makeover video contest and as much as $75,000 in technology equipment.

The school’s entry in the worldwide contest is an original video by Lynn Martinez’s fourth-grade class titled "Rescue Me." As of Monday afternoon, it was in second place in online voting for the competition with 1,323 votes. A school in Florida was about 500 votes ahead for first place. Voting continues through Monday.

Online voting will account for 40 percent of the total score in determining the contest's winners, with the opinion of a panel of judges counting for 60 percent, according to contest rules.

Not surprisingly, Olmito Elementary and the Los Fresnos Consolidated Independent School District are encouraging everyone to vote for the video at http://2011classroommakeover.shycast.com/submission/show/1762. An easier way is to go to the Los Fresnos school district website, www.lfcisd.net, and click on the contest links for voting instructions. The process takes about five minutes.

Martinez said the video is a collaborative effort by her class, the school’s music teacher and students in the audio-visual program at Los Fresnos High School.

"They wrote the song together and a group of students snag the song," Martinez, who has a part in the video, said. "They had a blast with it. They put in a lot of work. ... It took over a month for a 2½-minute video."

Martinez said the project started with an e-mail from eInstruction inviting entries. After that, students met with the school’s music teacher Mr. Wiley and together they wrote and composed the song for the video. Later, A-V students from the high school recorded the video.

While the video was being shot, everyone had to keep the clothes they wear in the video handy so that there would be a uniform result, Martinez said.

EInstruction is an educational technology company that provides computer hardware and learning software such as NetTrekker and Study Island to the district.

"We can win up to $75,000 in technology and programs for the district so I’m hopeful," Martinez said.

Olmito Elementary is one of five finalists in the kindergarten through fifth-grade division of the contest. Saenz Middle School in La Joya is one of five finalists in the contest’s middle school division. The two schools are supporting each other, Martinez said.