Skip to main content

Learning with Hip-Hop

Last Wednesday I visited the expo hall at ISTE and absolutely loved getting to meet with the exhibitors to discuss cool new tech tools. My absolute favorite was getting to see a performance at the Flocabulary booth.

Flocabulary reminds me of Hamilton as it uses hip hop songs to teach about concepts.  On their website,  there are tons of videos for academic concepts. Rappers actually pair up with content experts to write the lyrics to the songs. Not only are they engaging for students and help students learn, but the songs go in depth into content. Students can also write their own lyrics for songs. What a great way to show student learning and understanding.  I would have loved to have had this resource for my sixth grade students. I don't see this as being as useful for students below third grade.
The one downside to Flocabulary is that it's not free. Individuals, schools or districts have to pay. Individual accounts run $97 a year, so it's not cheap. I'm hoping that this engaging student learning tool becomes widespread and available in many schools and districts soon. It's so much fun!

-Elle

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Books! Books! Books!

 When thinking about my second post for the revival of my blog, I knew it had to be about books. It's no secret books are a controversial topic in education right now. I'm a Texan and will be scanning and vetting all my books before school starts. Thanks HB 900. I also have a book box from Scholastic coming today and some more books in my Amazon cart.  Here are some books I'm so excited for! The One and Only Ruby    by Katherine Applegate -- This book just came out May 2, 2023. A few years ago, my school read The One and Only Ivan for a school-wide book initiative. My students loved it and one even donated their copy to my classroom library. I can't wait to add this one too. This story picks up a few months after the events of The One and Only Bob , which I will also be adding to my library. Four Eyes by Rex Ogle and Dave Valeza-- This graphic novel was published in May. Having a brother with glasses, I was interested in this one right away. Here's a short synopsis...

Creating with Canva

Today, I spent some time creating with the free iPad app Canva so it seemed like the perfect app to talk about on the blog today! When I first learned about Canva during an iPadpalooza 2015, I was not a big fan of it. Though I created a few things with it, I got frustrated. I didn't think it was user friendly. When I re-visited the app this past Saturday at the ISTE HackEd Smackdown session, I decided to give it a second chance. First things first-- Canva is a graphic design tool. I prefer to use the iPad app, but you can also design online. When you log onto Canva, you can choose from a variety of templates--social media, instagram post, poster, blog graphic, facebook cover, photo college, Pinterest graphic, business card and so many more. When I began designing the Facebook and Twitter cover for this blog, I chose the Facebook Cover. After choosing your template you can choose your layout, background and add text. Some of the backgrounds require you to pay for them but most ...

Keeping up with Kahoot

Today, I was given the opportunity to be a beta tester for the Kahoot app after seeing a tweet seeking testers. It seemed perfect to talk about on my blog today. As many of you know, I have a bit of an obsession with Kahoot. I even won one of their T-shirts at iPadpalooza 2015.  Since learning about it at iPadpalooza 2014, I have been a fan of this web-based learning platform. So were my sixth grade students. Kahoot test review days were some of their favorites. Many of my students had iPhones or other phones connected to the web, so I didn't usually have to reserve devices which was wonderful. They loved it!!!! Sixth grade ELA final test review of 2014-2015. If you don't already know what Kahoot is, let me tell you. Kahoot is a game based quiz platform. The teacher creates the quiz. Pictures and videos can be added to the questions as well.  You can also choose from quizzes that are already made, but I created my own. Kids go to kahoot.it and use a game pin to access ...