We would like to thank Sonya English and Mr. Daniel Raybon at Gardenview Elementary School, and LaToya Rogers with the Shelby County district team, for sharing this story with us. Despite challenges presented by COVID-19, Gardenview’s music teacher, Mr. Raybon, enlisted the help of GES students to film a music video about their school’s expectations! Read their story below.

“The process for creating our GES video was simple. Initially, the challenge was given by the Grammy Awards Museum to create a music video for an MTV contest to uplift and encourage returning students to the classroom. Naturally, we decided to use our behavior incentive chant, GES (Give respect, Exhibit Excellence, and Stay ready), with a sprinkle Gardenview’s school creed in the preacher’s voice.

 

Even so, all students, who range from kindergarten to 5th grade, did most of the work, and Mr. Raybon guided them. As a music teacher who sings and plays several instruments including piano and guitar, he visits all the classes at Gardenview. The older elementary students were formed into groups where the students created the chorus and finalized the lyrics. The younger elementary students were eager to dance and helped select the music track. Finally, Mr. Raybon added the content from the rap verses. But overall, our school built this song from the ground up.

 

Ever since the video went up, parents, teachers, and students have been giving compliments on the video. They love it! Sometimes students ask Mr. Raybon to play it at the end of class. But one thing is for sure—everyone knows what it means to follow G-E-S! We are honored to have amazing students, Teachers, and Guidance Counselor! We are PROUD of our school! EVERYDAY is a GREAT day to be a Blue Jay!”

Great work, Gardenview, and thank you for sharing this story and video with us! To watch the video, head over to the school’s Facebook page here: