Happy Holidays from the Belfast Giants in a festive example of a lip-dub video.

First, you should know that in 2008 Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools won a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation that has helped to support the Olympic Community of Schools Innovation in Education Project. Olympic, a traditionally low-performing school, has brought to life a concept that engages students in project-based learning to teach 21st century skills. This journey transformed Olympic from one traditional high school into five autonomous schools that emphasize different skills and areas of focus. The ambitious program has already proven successful, as Olympic students demonstrated a 250 percent increase in students who scored a 3 or 4 on state mandated end-of-course testing. In addition, the number of students scoring a 3 or 4 was more than 250 percent above the state average for percentage of students reaching proficiency. (The NYT has also taken notice of how students respond to these teaching methods.)

The class I visited is developing a lip-dub video, made famous when the most recent season of NBC's The Office opened with a lip-dub video to the song "Nobody but Me," by the Human Beinz. The Olympic video will be a communications tool for Olympic to reach potential students and their families, and students were tasked with incorporating all five Olympic schools into the video.