For two years Team Revolution has been doing a project called Ultimate Pep Talk, in which a group of three or fewer students make a video with a persuasive message about how to overcome a struggle.  With the project’s culmination, students will watch each other’s videos and give feedback. Then, on May 22, at the Innovation Center, an assembly modeled after an award ceremony will be held to recognize certain videos for their outstanding qualities.

“Ultimate Pep Talk is a way to get our team thinking positively about the legacy they are leaving with the rest of the middle school,” Mrs. Williams described.

Mr. Mittinger added, “Ultimate Pep Talk is a team project that is designed to open eyes to new motivational topics.”

The project teaches students, “Always be the best you can be,” said Mrs. Williams. During the assignment, the students are supposed to be enjoy working together, learning from the tasks, and laughing and bonding with each other. Another purpose of the Ultimate Pep Talk is “to give perspective to those that would not otherwise be aware of some of these issues.”

The Pep Talk assignment was also designed to incorporate skills from different content areas. According to Mrs. Williams, science is used in that the project gets students “involved in the STEM process- critical thinking, problem solving, and teamwork.”

Mrs. Hastings said that math is involved because each group has to research data and give a statistic that supports their topic or main idea.

Ultimate Pep Talk relates to history, Mrs. Trentanelli explained, because “each student has to reference a historical event or person from the time periods we’ve studied throughout the year that shows how people in U.S. History overcame an obstacle.” This could be done through a quote or through a brief description of the event. Mrs. Trentanelli also added, “This should be easy since most U.S. history from the 1600’s to 1800’s is a giant story of overcoming odds in some form or fashion.”

The project will incorporate language arts as well. “The pep talk teaches students to take on new roles and incorporate expression and inflection in their speech,” explained Mr. Mittinger.

The idea for this project originated when the teachers had a challenge for each quarter that focused on one of the four Rs: risk taking, right attitude, respect, and responsibilities. Mrs. Trentanelli stated, “We were looking for something to fulfill “right attitude,” and we thought that since it was third quarter and kids are usually drained by then, why not do something that would refocus them?” The team showed students some inspirational speeches for kids and by kids then asked them to create their own.

After the videos are made, the teachers watch them all and out them into categories based on what recurring themes they see. Then, the roughly one hundred students on the team will watch the category nominees and vote on favorites.

This year, the teachers have enhanced the project by making it more formal, and adding a bigger and better ceremony that includes guest speakers, performances, and even hand-made trophies done by Mr. Mittinger.

This year, the teachers are reaching out to other branches of the Mayfield family and community to get involved. Students will be presenters for each category, and since it is a formal event, everyone will dress nicely.

Last year’s winner created a film in which she showed how her dad overcame cancer and how it affected their family. This year, many new inspiring messages await.