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Promising Practices Professional Conference

I recently attended Rhode Island College’s “Promising Practices” professional conference. This was my first time attending any type of conference like this. At this conference the main speaker was a man named Dr. Chris Emdin who recently wrote a book about education in the new hip-hop generation. His main argument was about changing the classroom to function in a way that is designed for the students’ culture to thrive. He explained that, in today’s world, teachers do not know how to connect with their students. They need to better understand the way they think and comprehend material. He then continued on to explain that, in order to better understand student culture, we have understand the hip-hop generation. In this argument he explains how not all students are being given a fair chance in school. Some take in information differently. He gave an example of the lead rapper of Wu Tang and how he has talked to him before. Before becoming a rapper, Wu Tang loved science. He found it interesting and aspired to become a scientist. The issue was that he didn’t know how to grasp the material, and he felt really uncomfortable with the way schools were teaching him. In other words, he felt that school was not geared for him. Even though he was thoroughly engaged with the subject, he felt he couldn’t learn about it correctly. The way school was set up (straight desks in  single filed rows with a teacher spewing information at the front of the class) did not allow him to pursue his dream. He eventually dropped out and became part of Wu Tang where he could express himself and address issues with the world in a form he was comfortable with—rap. This rapper is highly intelligent and always was as a child, yet his school was not formed in a way that could quite match his type of learning. There are students like this rapper all over the United States that are extremely intelligent and want to learn but can’t because they are restricted by their teachers’ inabilities to connect with young people and identify with their learning culture. 

Dr. Chris Emdin continued on about another example. He explained that in a science class a test might be about Newton’s laws. He then rapped a song about the Newton’s laws of motion and showed how some students use this type of tactic to learn information because today’s generation thrives off of music and hip-hop. While they have everything memorized about Newton’s laws, they still cannot pass the test. Why?—Because the way the test is formatted.Tests ask for short essays and other forms of assessment that does not fit with the culture of young people today. He compares this to giving a student who studied from a book and notes the same information and giving him a test by asking him to “spits some bars” and rap the information he knows. This student would probably not do very well because the format does not suit him. He would be caught like a deer in the headlights. Thus, students have a different learning culture that affects their performance. Thus, we need to change our assessment methods to better form youth culture. 

The speaker then presented the idea of the rap-circle (which is something very common in today’s young culture). He demonstrates how a rap-circle works and how its formation could benefit schooling. He talked about how a rap-circle first starts off with a few people. One starts to rap. As one raps, if another person is connecting with the rap, then this person will start to make a beat. Others may start to feel the rap as well and will join in with other beats to better the sound of the rap. Sometimes when someone is really into what the rapper is saying through is rap, this person might want to join in and add something to the rap. How do they do this? They take turns through a system of gestures. They might give a shrug with their shoulder to the current rapper to show that they have something to say, or they might just use a quick glance where their eyes meet. When someone is rapping something and they just created a good diss on someone else, everyone usually responds with loud “OH!”s that in and of itself show that what the rapper just said was “fire” or on-point. Dr. Chris Emdin used this common example of youth culture to show how it acts as a way in which all are involved and engaged. A rap-circle acts as a perfect environment to encourage learning and development. He explained that a classroom does not have to be formed in straight lines with a teacher droning on about information. Instead it can be more relaxed and comforting like a rap-circle. 

I agreed with his issues with classrooms today. Most teachers teach a classroom the way they were taught years ago. They teach how they observed other teachers teach. This, however, is a bad practice. Schools and teachers should always be looking for the next best thing. They have to keep updated with their students and create an environment that reaches out to all students. We should not be re-creating classroom structures that were popular in the 30’s, but we still do. Classrooms are still formed and functioning in the same way as they were when our parents and grandparents went to school. There needs to be growth in the classroom in order to engage students and to let their learning abilities thrive. Teachers need to keep up with youth culture. If we don’t know our students and how they learn, then how can we teach them? Thus, after this conference, I am going to try to form my classroom in a way that encourages their learning culture rather than suppresses it. 

While I agreed with his issues with classrooms today, I found some issues in the way he presented this information. He was rather offensive and made many people uncomfortable. The way he spoke about his argument and the way he talked about students implied to the audience that he was only talking about black students. While he outwardly addresses that he is talking about all students, he really narrows down his argument to be aimed towards solving issues for black students. Thus, the conference became more about black plight rather than student plight. I was offended by many of the things he said, and I know many of my peers were too. There is a way to talk about the hip-hop nation and student culture without having to talk about specifically black students. 

Overall, the conference was very interesting, and I took a lot away from it.