I grew up in a predominately black
neighborhood in the Bronx and oh don’t
forget your clicker I grew up in a
predominant in the Bronx where my
apartment building was just down the
block from my elementary school and when
the weather permitted
I will go to I will go to school early
to play basketball until I recite that
latest hip-hop lyrics were my friends
until it was time for us to be ushered
into the school where we were forced to
be everything that we weren’t quiet
docile and obedient when I reflect on my
elementary school experience all I can
remember is getting in trouble and being
reprimanded for things that did not make
sense to me at the moment like that one
time when our teacher I’ll shoot us down
the hallway in a third grade towards the
principal’s office she told us to be
quiet and we obeyed she told us to stop
and we obeyed and it was at this very
moment where I felt an itch at the top
of my head I proceeded to scratch my
head and my teacher pulled me underline
and reprimanded me in front of my peers
she then sent me into the principal’s
office and she called my father and
explained to him that I did not know how
to follow directions let this point in
middle school in elementary school where
I just felt really disengaged and I felt
misunderstood as a young male I thought
my middle school experience would be
different I tested really well and I got
into a school for gifted and talented
students but this school was outside of
my communion there was one of the best
schools in the Bronx and it meant that I
had to travel about an hour in the
public bus in order to get to school I
would no longer go to school my peers
and my community and now no longer just
get up from my apartment building and
walk down the block to school where I
thought middles could be a different
experience it proved not to be I
continue to be misunderstood by teachers
disengaged am i authentic hip-hop self
was not allowed into the school but it’s
how I got to high school I was only
going to school to keep my parents happy
the idea of schooling made me feel
apathetic until I walk into my ninth
grade physics class where there was a
black male teacher
from the Bronx who played hip-hop music
as we enter the classroom at that point
all I could think to myself that this is
really weird why are we listening to
hip-hop music in schools but what I soon
began to realize is that this teacher
allowing us to listen to hip-hop music
in class and connecting science to
hip-hop artifacts and hip-hop analogies
allowed me to sustain my interest in
science throughout high school and to
our College and motivated me to graduate
with a degree in biochemistry while away
at college I will always go back to my
my high school where I’ll go back and
mentor students and talk about my
college experiences and this is when I
realized that my experiences in public
schools were not unique to me I went
back to these schools and the students
had the same looks on their faces they
were disengaged and they were not
connected to schools it was at that very
moment when I decided that I wanted to
become a teacher I wanted to become a
teacher because I wanted to push back
against the oppressive nature of
schooling and I wanted it to allow young
people in schools an opportunity to see
themselves within the content I began
teaching in the Bronx and I was a sixth
grade science teacher where I saw
amazing brilliant and beautiful students
I love my students and I thought that me
coming into the school just being cool
understanding their culture and being
able to connect with them was enough to
get my students excited by the content
but I quickly realized that by just
understand that culture was not enough
to connect them to content and to
utilize their culture as a conduit to
teach them and get them excited engage
by the end by the content but I came
upon this realization while at a Jayco
concert I once heard a cool concert and
there’s a moment during the content when
J Cole goes hands in the air now hands
in the air and at this point tens of
thousands of people in the concert had
their arms their hands in the air
following J Cole they were mesmerized
but I remember thinking to myself at
that point like J Cole listen I spent a
lot of money to be here you’re not gonna
tell me what to do moments later I too
found myself captivated and mesmerized
just like everybody else and my arms are
also in the air waving and this is when
I realized that hip-hop can be used
a tool to really inspire motivate and
engage young people in schools when we
think about hip-hop we have to
understand that hip-hop is the most
consumed genre of music in the world
hip-hop was birthed in the 1970s in the
Bronx hip hop was birthed in 1970s
during the social economic crisis the
Bronx was literally burning landlords
will light their buildings on fire just
to recoup their insurance money those
who had the social economic means they
got up and left the Bronx in their
rearview and those who didn’t
stayed and they were forced is there and
this is how hip-hop was birthed and
hip-hop became the voice for those who
were oppressed and pushed the margins of
society and hip-hop became and started
as a social justice movement so when
people asked me you know when I tell
people I’m a hip-hop educator they ask
you know can you rap and I tell them I’m
not a rapper by any means but I’m
somebody who identifies with the culture
and who values the culture so in my
research I started thinking about where
different ways that I can use a
different creative elements of hip-hop
to really engage and inspire my young
people in schools so we think about the
different creative elements of hip-hop
we have the MC we have the b-boy we have
the graffiti artist the DJ and we have
knowledge of self when we look at the MC
oftentimes where you go to a concert
there’s an emcee who look who’s there on
stage with a hype man and in order for
that hype man to be there that hype man
must know the lyrical content of the
emcee to fill in the gaps whenever that
emcee needs to take a break or take a
breath when we think about schooling we
think about how can we empower young
people in schools and in classrooms to
teach alongside their teachers how can
we empower young students to have a deep
understanding of the content so they’re
able to disseminate that content to
their peers because the research shows
that students are able to learn better
from each other because they’re able to
understand their realities and their
experiences we can think about the b-boy
the kinesthetic and dancing aspect of
hip-hop we didn’t think about how can we
allow our young people in schools to
move more in classrooms and not just for
the sake of moving but how can we allow
our young people to
knock their physical movements with the
concept and with the conceptualization
of the content at the six-way science
teacher I was charged with the task of
teaching my students the different
states of matter and my students had a
really hard time conceptualizing this
concept so I told my students you are
all molecules each and every single one
of you they slip behind their chairs and
I said you guys are a solid and all my
students looked at me really weird like
what do you mean we’re a solid but a few
minutes later they all walk to the
corner classroom and they stood in rows
because they knew that solids had a
thick structure in shape I saw my
students
neither gear solid you’re now a gas and
my students began running around the
classroom and bumping into each other
off the walls and off the desk because
they knew that gas molecules move around
the container at high speeds and it’s at
this point where students who didn’t
have a deep on the sing in the concert
at that point they they looked and watch
their peers and names like wow you know
that’s how these molecules work and they
were able to learn that way when we look
at the graffiti aspect of hip-hop we
think about how can we allow our
students engage in more visual arts and
science and in all content areas across
the board how can we encourage our young
people to conceptualize their own
understanding of content so I remember
teaching the different layers versus
atmosphere and a student came up to me
and said mister well I look in the sky I
only see the clouds I don’t see
different laser Earth’s atmosphere so
allow my students to draw their own
conceptualization of the earth of the
five different layers of the Earth’s
atmosphere but they had to show me that
they understood the properties by
showing a legend and showing symbols
that were that were correct
we think what the DJ the technological
aspect the hip-hop we know that the DJ
is responsible to send the mood of
whatever space that they’re in and we
didn’t think about how can we allow our
students and give them the freedom and
empower them to set the mood of the
classroom now I remember growing up and
even now when I write I love listening
to music and I realize that my students
do too so i empowered my students and
allowed them to make and curate
instrumental playlists for the class so
during group activities and independent
work we will play this music in the back
of the class and when students will see
how other students are reacting when
they
pick the song they feel empowered
because they knew at that every moment
that they were able to set the mood and
last but not least now the self now the
self was the least known and least
understood aspect of hip-hop but we
think about nod to self and other self
pushes up pushes us to remember that
hip-hop started as a social justice
movement and it’s anchored in
authenticity so how can we provide
opportunities for our young people to
learn about social justice issues within
content areas so in science for example
my students and I we explored these
different social justice issues such as
water pollution climate change health
disparities within our community we’d
learn this information together and I
charged my students to go out into the
school and go onto the community and
share their findings with people making
them aware of these disparities and
these issues and forcing them to pay
attention to them when we think about
hip-hop we know we love hip-hop music
but we need to look at hip-hop as a
culture and as a culture that can be
used in schools and that we can
encourage teachers to utilize the
different elements to then engage their
students to allow their students to feel
more comfortable and to see themselves
within the content and I believe by
doing this we can allow our students who
believe there’s their futures in
education like myself as a child that
might have been uncertain can be a
little bit more certain as they move
forward thank you
[Applause] you
neighborhood in the Bronx and oh don’t
forget your clicker I grew up in a
predominant in the Bronx where my
apartment building was just down the
block from my elementary school and when
the weather permitted
I will go to I will go to school early
to play basketball until I recite that
latest hip-hop lyrics were my friends
until it was time for us to be ushered
into the school where we were forced to
be everything that we weren’t quiet
docile and obedient when I reflect on my
elementary school experience all I can
remember is getting in trouble and being
reprimanded for things that did not make
sense to me at the moment like that one
time when our teacher I’ll shoot us down
the hallway in a third grade towards the
principal’s office she told us to be
quiet and we obeyed she told us to stop
and we obeyed and it was at this very
moment where I felt an itch at the top
of my head I proceeded to scratch my
head and my teacher pulled me underline
and reprimanded me in front of my peers
she then sent me into the principal’s
office and she called my father and
explained to him that I did not know how
to follow directions let this point in
middle school in elementary school where
I just felt really disengaged and I felt
misunderstood as a young male I thought
my middle school experience would be
different I tested really well and I got
into a school for gifted and talented
students but this school was outside of
my communion there was one of the best
schools in the Bronx and it meant that I
had to travel about an hour in the
public bus in order to get to school I
would no longer go to school my peers
and my community and now no longer just
get up from my apartment building and
walk down the block to school where I
thought middles could be a different
experience it proved not to be I
continue to be misunderstood by teachers
disengaged am i authentic hip-hop self
was not allowed into the school but it’s
how I got to high school I was only
going to school to keep my parents happy
the idea of schooling made me feel
apathetic until I walk into my ninth
grade physics class where there was a
black male teacher
from the Bronx who played hip-hop music
as we enter the classroom at that point
all I could think to myself that this is
really weird why are we listening to
hip-hop music in schools but what I soon
began to realize is that this teacher
allowing us to listen to hip-hop music
in class and connecting science to
hip-hop artifacts and hip-hop analogies
allowed me to sustain my interest in
science throughout high school and to
our College and motivated me to graduate
with a degree in biochemistry while away
at college I will always go back to my
my high school where I’ll go back and
mentor students and talk about my
college experiences and this is when I
realized that my experiences in public
schools were not unique to me I went
back to these schools and the students
had the same looks on their faces they
were disengaged and they were not
connected to schools it was at that very
moment when I decided that I wanted to
become a teacher I wanted to become a
teacher because I wanted to push back
against the oppressive nature of
schooling and I wanted it to allow young
people in schools an opportunity to see
themselves within the content I began
teaching in the Bronx and I was a sixth
grade science teacher where I saw
amazing brilliant and beautiful students
I love my students and I thought that me
coming into the school just being cool
understanding their culture and being
able to connect with them was enough to
get my students excited by the content
but I quickly realized that by just
understand that culture was not enough
to connect them to content and to
utilize their culture as a conduit to
teach them and get them excited engage
by the end by the content but I came
upon this realization while at a Jayco
concert I once heard a cool concert and
there’s a moment during the content when
J Cole goes hands in the air now hands
in the air and at this point tens of
thousands of people in the concert had
their arms their hands in the air
following J Cole they were mesmerized
but I remember thinking to myself at
that point like J Cole listen I spent a
lot of money to be here you’re not gonna
tell me what to do moments later I too
found myself captivated and mesmerized
just like everybody else and my arms are
also in the air waving and this is when
I realized that hip-hop can be used
a tool to really inspire motivate and
engage young people in schools when we
think about hip-hop we have to
understand that hip-hop is the most
consumed genre of music in the world
hip-hop was birthed in the 1970s in the
Bronx hip hop was birthed in 1970s
during the social economic crisis the
Bronx was literally burning landlords
will light their buildings on fire just
to recoup their insurance money those
who had the social economic means they
got up and left the Bronx in their
rearview and those who didn’t
stayed and they were forced is there and
this is how hip-hop was birthed and
hip-hop became the voice for those who
were oppressed and pushed the margins of
society and hip-hop became and started
as a social justice movement so when
people asked me you know when I tell
people I’m a hip-hop educator they ask
you know can you rap and I tell them I’m
not a rapper by any means but I’m
somebody who identifies with the culture
and who values the culture so in my
research I started thinking about where
different ways that I can use a
different creative elements of hip-hop
to really engage and inspire my young
people in schools so we think about the
different creative elements of hip-hop
we have the MC we have the b-boy we have
the graffiti artist the DJ and we have
knowledge of self when we look at the MC
oftentimes where you go to a concert
there’s an emcee who look who’s there on
stage with a hype man and in order for
that hype man to be there that hype man
must know the lyrical content of the
emcee to fill in the gaps whenever that
emcee needs to take a break or take a
breath when we think about schooling we
think about how can we empower young
people in schools and in classrooms to
teach alongside their teachers how can
we empower young students to have a deep
understanding of the content so they’re
able to disseminate that content to
their peers because the research shows
that students are able to learn better
from each other because they’re able to
understand their realities and their
experiences we can think about the b-boy
the kinesthetic and dancing aspect of
hip-hop we didn’t think about how can we
allow our young people in schools to
move more in classrooms and not just for
the sake of moving but how can we allow
our young people to
knock their physical movements with the
concept and with the conceptualization
of the content at the six-way science
teacher I was charged with the task of
teaching my students the different
states of matter and my students had a
really hard time conceptualizing this
concept so I told my students you are
all molecules each and every single one
of you they slip behind their chairs and
I said you guys are a solid and all my
students looked at me really weird like
what do you mean we’re a solid but a few
minutes later they all walk to the
corner classroom and they stood in rows
because they knew that solids had a
thick structure in shape I saw my
students
neither gear solid you’re now a gas and
my students began running around the
classroom and bumping into each other
off the walls and off the desk because
they knew that gas molecules move around
the container at high speeds and it’s at
this point where students who didn’t
have a deep on the sing in the concert
at that point they they looked and watch
their peers and names like wow you know
that’s how these molecules work and they
were able to learn that way when we look
at the graffiti aspect of hip-hop we
think about how can we allow our
students engage in more visual arts and
science and in all content areas across
the board how can we encourage our young
people to conceptualize their own
understanding of content so I remember
teaching the different layers versus
atmosphere and a student came up to me
and said mister well I look in the sky I
only see the clouds I don’t see
different laser Earth’s atmosphere so
allow my students to draw their own
conceptualization of the earth of the
five different layers of the Earth’s
atmosphere but they had to show me that
they understood the properties by
showing a legend and showing symbols
that were that were correct
we think what the DJ the technological
aspect the hip-hop we know that the DJ
is responsible to send the mood of
whatever space that they’re in and we
didn’t think about how can we allow our
students and give them the freedom and
empower them to set the mood of the
classroom now I remember growing up and
even now when I write I love listening
to music and I realize that my students
do too so i empowered my students and
allowed them to make and curate
instrumental playlists for the class so
during group activities and independent
work we will play this music in the back
of the class and when students will see
how other students are reacting when
they
pick the song they feel empowered
because they knew at that every moment
that they were able to set the mood and
last but not least now the self now the
self was the least known and least
understood aspect of hip-hop but we
think about nod to self and other self
pushes up pushes us to remember that
hip-hop started as a social justice
movement and it’s anchored in
authenticity so how can we provide
opportunities for our young people to
learn about social justice issues within
content areas so in science for example
my students and I we explored these
different social justice issues such as
water pollution climate change health
disparities within our community we’d
learn this information together and I
charged my students to go out into the
school and go onto the community and
share their findings with people making
them aware of these disparities and
these issues and forcing them to pay
attention to them when we think about
hip-hop we know we love hip-hop music
but we need to look at hip-hop as a
culture and as a culture that can be
used in schools and that we can
encourage teachers to utilize the
different elements to then engage their
students to allow their students to feel
more comfortable and to see themselves
within the content and I believe by
doing this we can allow our students who
believe there’s their futures in
education like myself as a child that
might have been uncertain can be a
little bit more certain as they move
forward thank you
[Applause] you
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