Teach Your Class Off: The Real Rap Guide to Teaching

by C.J. Reynolds

My classroom environment is built on just two truths:

One, relationships are king. Two, teaching is only ever about the students.

I’d somehow made it through a whole life of schooling without actually learning how to learn.

Teaching isn’t just about uploading information to your students that they’ll need to know on the big test or in the “real world.” It’s about helping students understand how they learn. It’s explaining that being different isn’t weird or wrong but is instead what makes a person unique. It’s helping kids lean into who they truly are and how they operate and celebrating their individuality.

Kids can be lazy, tired, ungrateful, and uninterested.

“We all know you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink. But what you can do is make him thirsty.”

“Gentlemen, you need to know that I see what is going on with [student]. You need to know that this will no longer happen. He is off-limits. You have two choices. One, use your energy to uplift him and help him to feel a part of our community

or, two, be quiet. Anyone who gives him a hard time in or out of my class will deal with me.”

Their job is to take someone who thought they were invisible and insignificant and make them visible.

“In learning you will teach, and in teaching you will learn.”

By allowing students to prepare a lesson, dream up activities, and present what they know about a given topic or idea, we are preparing them to become leaders inside and outside of the classroom.

The microphone is a fun way to interview kids as they walk to class. I pretend I’m a local news anchor, and I ask students questions as they pass by. “Excuse me, Mr. Lopez, our viewers are wondering why you’re late to class every day?” “Oh, there she is! Ms. Little could you tell our audience what it’s like to walk so slow you’re on the verge of walking backward?”

When we play review games in class, we play a dozen different versions of the Jeopardy! theme song in the background. Trap, hip-hop, trance, low-fi, 8 Bit remix . . . The kids love it, and it builds engagement by just changing up the norm a little bit.

budget, how about a party fueled by Top Ramen? The grocery aisles are full of options for any budget when you think creatively.

During phase changes talking about boiling water

know that they are seen and cared for. I don’t know every kid in the school, and I don’t always have time for, as my friend Flounders says, a “heavy, deep, and real conversation,” but I always have a moment to put my eye on a kid who needs it.

It’s about figuring out what your superpower is as a teacher and then leaning into that part of yourself to create a better experience for yourself and those around you. Really think about what makes you special. Are you great at breaking down difficult concepts? Are you patient? Creative? Funny? Organized? Empathetic? Artistic? How can you use these gifts to make your classroom and school a more enjoyable place? Being silly is something that has always come easily for me.

Want a successful friendship, marriage, band, or business partnership? Learn how to have difficult conversations.

When a student oversteps the bounds in our relationship, I lay it out for them plain and simple: “Student, I need you to understand that you are extremely important to me. But don’t get it twisted. Your success and education are infinitely more important to me than whether or not you like me. I cannot make myself a part of the equation because, if I do, I won’t be able to be straight with you.” Some situations, however, are not as easy to figure out.

Important

“Please step in the hallway. You are not in trouble.”

“Did I do anything to upset you?”

I’m able to give the student a glimpse of my sincere concern for them, to demonstrate that I’m willing to be wrong, to prove that I have more interest in them being heard than in being right, and to show them that they’re not invisible.

It’s important to point out here that, as teachers, we cannot fix children. We can sit with them. We can show genuine interest. And we can listen without feeling the need to have an answer, let alone the right answer. In doing so, we can form bonds that will exist indefinitely.

Your attention is far more important than your advice. No matter where you teach, you will encounter students who are in need of care. Sometimes you will feel prepared to help, and other times you will be caught off guard by a kid who walks in during your prep crying their eyes out. In those moments when you don’t know what else to do, just listen.

your attention is more important than your advice.

About a month into the school year, the grade-level chairperson would project the name of every ninth-grade student onto the wall. She would then hand each teacher in the room a set of stickers in a different color. The teachers would then put a sticker next to the names of the students they felt they had a connection with. At the end of the activity, the teachers would see clearly which students were being cared for and which students needed attention. The

next part of the meeting was used to divvy up the remaining students among the teachers. The teachers would take their new list of students and make sure they said hello or talked to all of them. It was a great way to make the invisible students feel visible.

Real rap: you will rarely find an activity, project, book, guest, or idea that everyone likes. You need to be okay with that. It is not a reflection on you. Not every assignment is for every kid. Your job is to light the fireworks, not to make everyone enjoy them.

As teachers we are often not enough, but we have the power to reach out to those who might be.

When a student has confidence in themselves, when they have faith in what they are capable of, their only option is to do the work—the hard work of becoming who you are meant to be. This isn’t just a student thing either. Teachers don’t want to let this stuff in either. Instead we’d rather blame the school, the students, the administration, the class sizes, the lack of supplies, or whatever else we’re allowing to hinder us instead of just looking at ourselves. We are all capable of making something from nothing,

We as educators must realize, however, that we are not the be all and end all when it comes to our students succeeding.

As part of my students’ classwork grades, they are given four points per day (twenty points per week), and they can lose them for various reasons. I’m a big believer in redemption, though, so students can also have points added on if they do something above and beyond as the day and week progress. It’s important to note that just saying the words points is often enough

Can this be used? Maybe if spun as part of classwork is being prepared and getting started on time etc.?

When I send a student out of my classroom for misbehaving, it is because I can’t stop the class to deal with him or her at the moment. It is my last-ditch effort. I send students out because I am trying to maintain a safe, optimal space for the rest of my students to work.

classroom management is less about control and more about being clear about why you are doing what you are doing. It’s about not expecting kids to “know better.”

Just having those few moments of shared joy or frustration helps before I walk into my next class. It’s important to leave your classroom now and again and to remember you are part of something bigger than your class. It is life-giving to spend the five minutes between classes with someone who is enjoyable to be around.