By nature, children have a playful mind.
However, as I pointed out in the previous post (Forgotten Play), kids tend to forget that mind as they grow up. Unfortunately, education system and teachers can be the ones which take it away.
Therefore, educators themselves should have playful mind first in order to enhance kids’ play and learning, instead of destroying it.
And I think the key to that lies in ART, the “non-core subject” which tends to be underestimated.
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This is my 200th blog post. Looking back over the last 5 years (initial point of this blog in November 2009) I wrote whatever which came to mind and did not care about the content, let alone continuing it. But I think this is something I would like to keep doing in my own pace, and I hope to improve such that I become very good at.
Speaking of which, are you good at what you really like?
When I was a early primary school teacher, I had several opportunities to talk about this kind of thing, since there are many materials on it, such as self-introduction card. And some kids had hard time filling them out and asked me some help, to which I used to say the following:
It is really hard to find something you are passionate about not only for you young generation but also for adults, so those who already found it, please keep cultivating it. If you don’t have it yet, don’t worry, you will find it eventually, maybe you can start whatever you might think of, because sometimes what you are good at can turn into be what you really like. What’s important is constantly looking for and taking action.
Nodding their heads, some students came to think of something to fill out with. But kids, it was actually a message for all of us, including me.
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What do you think about this entry’s title?
Some people might say “Rap in the classroom? No way!”
Nowadays, many countries’ education system incorporate poetry reading and writing. Some countries even include teaching “Haiku”, a very short form of Japanese poetry typically characterized by three phases (5-7-5 Japanse syllable pattern) with “Kigo” (a defined word or phrase that symbolizes or implies the season). Also, in Japanese education, students go through Chinese poetry which has a certain style and rhyme.
Well, the point is, poetry has a variety of styles, from which we can learn a lot of things in the classroom, and as a person who believes in the combination of hip hop and education (see “Hip hop education”), I think rap―Hip Hop version of poetry with rhyme―is no exception.
In addition, given that rapping is different from spoken word poetry in that it is performed in time to a beat, I think it requires more skills than other types of poetry.
And voila (!), there are some interesting examples on rapping in the classroom, such as “student rap contest”.
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Dear time, oh time, why are you coming from nowhere and pass by without stopping?
Well, to be honest with you, I recently have a lot of opportunities to think about you.
Do you believe in good crime?
Today, an impressive Chilean news came out, which made me want to write this.
It’s about Papa Frita (French Fry in Spanish).
Papa frita? Yes, Chilean people consume it so much. But what I refer to is something else, more accurately someone else, a hero who calls himself “papa frita”. In short, he did something against the law but something very remarkable to help people.
Today in Syria, XXX persons died for YYY.
The Syrian case has been controversial for so long that we tend to get used to this kind of news, which is the sad but it might be the nature of natural/artificial disaster. Last time I talked about the security, and I think that Syria is no doubt one of the most insecure countries right now.
This is one of the on-going Arab spring cases. On the other hand, there are some countries in which a revolution was “supposedly” over, like Tunisia, the country which initiated the civil movements.
Wondering how it’s like in Tunisia now, I came across a NY Times’ article “Tunisian B-Boys’ Biggest Battle: Keeping Youths From Extremism“.
(Photo: New York Times)
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Today, every media in Chile is talking about the 9.11, the military coup which happened 40 years ago today. But there is another important 40-years-ago event which influenced my life. And it is something I believe could contribute to the education.
Yes, Hip hop, yo.
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