Bing Goes the Students at Keith Valley Middle School

Every now and then you see something so awesome you have to share it. The blog almost writes itself. We just have to spell check it and post it.

You may remember the Bing Jingle contest.  You may even remember the winning entry and its impact on the Internet as we know it.  Okay maybe that is a bit of hyperbole but it was pretty funny.  Well it’s gone viral. Again.

Our story begins in the Keith Valley Middle School in Pennsylvania.  This is a super cool school where recently three teachers — Diane Heitzenrater, Stacy Rotchford, and Valerie Fasy — were recognized as “Innovative Teachers of 2009” and received a trip to California to a conference where they happened to run into Jim Jin from  the Microsoft Office team.

                     

Jim and the teachers teamed up to integrate Microsoft tools into their lesson plans to promote technology infused learning, through projects like the Virtual Art Room, Social Studies and Ancient Egypt and even to pick the new school mascot.  All 1,200 Keith Valley Middle School students were shown how to use Office Live workspace and other Microsoft products including Bing.

We know, this is a cool story about Office.  But wait, there’s more.  During the discovery and explanation of the products they were shown a clip of Jonathan Mann’s winning video from the Bing Jingle contest. Fate? Serendipity? Adam Smith’s “invisible hand?” All possible. We may never know.  But the results were nevertheless amazing.

This video, well, struck a chord, with the Keith Valley students and began to spread like wildfire. Everywhere the teachers turned the kids were doing what they called the “Bing dance”. At breaks, at lunch time and even during class with impromptu “Bing dance” offs. Was this the modern day analog to the Wyld Stallyns? Were peace and tranquility on the horizon?  Probably not. But the school decided to embrace the student’s enthusiasm for this Bing jig. Stacy, the school’s cheerleading instructor spent 12 days teaching the sixth graders the “Bing dance” with the grand finale being an all-school assembly where the school’s new mascot was announced (they are now the Keith Valley Kat’s).

(Please visit the site to view this video)

Who knew that this Bing Jingle contest would cause such a stir in the first place? Now it’s catching the hearts and minds of sixth graders in Pennsylvania.

Our hats are off to the Kat’s of Keith Valley and we would like to thank them for this amazing video. We laughed. We cried. It became a part of us. We hope you like it too.

Kristin Meldahl- Bing

Other posts of interest:

The Bing Jingle Winner is…

Check out the Binging Jingles (so far)

Bing on the Jingles