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The sometimes emotional comments gave viewers a peek into the teens’ world and values with many viewers coming away cheered by the students’ earnest and sincere joys they shared with the world.
“It just immediately tucked at your heart strings,” Monroe Schools Superintendent Robert Buskirk said Tuesday.
“And the reaction has been overwhelming positive,” Buskirk said.
The video was the idea of Monroe Schools spokesman Adam Marcum, who said he had seen the microphone and video staging tried at a college campus and thought why not give it a go at the Butler County school.
They were lured to a single microphone and camera stationed in the middle of the school’s main hallway with a sign reading: “Tell us something good that happened to you today.”
Students freely stepped up and shared a wide range of “good things” including making a new friend, getting a dog, making the basketball team, inviting classmates to church, getting unexpected praise from a favorite teacher, earning better grades and more.
“There was a new girl at school today and I think I made a friend,” said one smiling girl.
“I finally got a girlfriend,” a boy said proudly.
“I got my braces off recently,” said a girl as she flashed her new smile and her friends clapped off camera.
“I’ve found my happy place … and I’ve more open to people and talkative,” said another girl.
Kearstyn Rosenbalm, a seventh grader at the Monroe combined middle and high school building said she talked about a former teacher in the building with whom she is still close and how the instructor said “she missed me being in her class.”
“It really made my day,” said Rosenbalm.
Now the teen is part of the viral video enjoyed by millions and said “my mom thought it was amazing and she is very proud of me.”
Her family now calls her famous and to celebrate they are taking her to a special family breakfast gathering this weekend.
Robbie Merriweather, a senior, shared with the world how his art teacher “complicated my work and that really made my day.”
Merriweather said the reaction among his classmates and others has been wide and positive.
More schools should try this open microphone practice with their students, said Rosenbalm.
“It brings a lot of joy and it brightens the school environment and it makes everyone think about what happened today that made my day better.”
Buskirk said “we have so many good things going on in the building everyday between our teachers and our students.”
“This was a unique way to get that message to our community. And as a father of two teenagers, sometimes teenagers don’t like to talk and share things and I thought it was really great the way they just opened up and some of them shared some very personal things.”
“It turned out really well and we’re just so proud of our kids.”
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