Lancaster New Era and "PIF"

Lancaster New Era

Pequea students: 'Pay It Forward'

By ROXANNE TODD, Correspondent

Everyone can help change the world for the better with just one good deed at a time.   That's the "Pay It Forward" lesson that a group of Pequea Elementary School fourth-graders took with them to the Feb. 10 Pennsylvania Education Technology Expo & Conference in Hershey.  Fourth-graders Dakota Hess, Olivia Wall and Daniel Martinez made up one of 13 Pequea Elementary teams that produced their own videos based on the "Pay It Forward" concept, which teaches students to be kind and helpful to others. The idea is that you do a favor for one person and that person returns the good deed by helping

three others.  Do the math and before long people worldwide will be lending a helpful hand to others.  The "Pay It Forward" concept started in 2000 with the book written by Catherine

Ryan Hyde. Since that time, a foundation has been started to share the message.

The Pequea students in Megan Urban's and Lisa Koetteritz's classes started with an assignment to make a "Pay It Forward" infomercial to spread the message -- it starts with one who helps three and the cycle begins. Megan Augustine, district technology analyst, created a WebQuest so that the students working in teams could create infomercials of 30 seconds to 2 minutes long to inspire their classmates to help others.

On Thursday, 13 teams presented their infomercials to an audience of parents and a panel of judges. After lengthy deliberation between the judges, Hess, Wall and Martinez were selected as the winners. They will accompany their teachers to Hershey where they will present their projects.  "We (the judges) sequestered ourselves and even fought a little bit. They were all fantastic," said Charlie Reisinger, district technology director.  Creating the video was a big project for the students. They began by reviewing excerpts from the book and movie. They wrote essays and learned to create storyboards to organize their camera shots and narration. They used a variety of computer software programs to create the infomercials.  Urban said, "The idea of 'Pay It Forward' is really catching on with the students."

"They're really helping each other," Koetteritz added.  "They blew us out of the water. All 13 groups did an amazing job," Urban said.  The fourth-graders will be passing out 500 "Pay It Forward" bracelets to their classmates. The bracelets were donated by the Pay It Forward Foundation.  "We can take this concept to other districts," Augustine said. "This can be spread  out…These kids can communicate with 12th-graders. These fourth-graders can pass on a message to a large group."  Wall said she was surprised to learn that her team won the competition. "We were a little nervous," she said.  "I was a little worried," Martinez added. Hess said the hardest part of making the infomercial was incorporating music into the video.  All three agreed the project was fun and their hard work paid off when they learned they would be sharing their message with those beyond the Pequea Elementary School walls.