Flocabulary Community

How To Talk To Your Students About Fake News

How to Talk to Your Students About Fake News

Our students are growing up in a time where even traditional media sources can publish stories without definitively verifying the information. And once something is online, viewed and shared, it’s hard to rescind. The sharing of fabricated or murky stories is amplified by everyone with a social media account and the ability to publish. Many people are willing to publish outlandish news and images in an attempt to try to go viral. This happens frequently during natural disasters; for example the same shark has been spotted swimming down the freeway of every recent flood. So by this point, we should…

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Using Hip-Hop To Bring Social Awareness Into The Art Room

Using Hip-Hop to Bring Social Awareness into the Art Room

“They say I gotta learn, but nobody’s here to teach me. If they can’t understand it, how can they reach me?” - Coolio As an art instructor in the south, I try to reach my students where they’re at, using what they love. At our school in Knoxville, Tennessee, we have a big population of students who love rap music. So when I came across Flocabulary at an Arts Integration Conference some years back, I couldn’t help but feel it would be well-received. I want my students to have a direct connection to and an interest in what they learn, and…

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How Music Transforms Learning In The Classroom

How Music Transforms Learning in the Classroom

When music plays, you just feel it. You begin tapping your foot or swaying. Maybe you start singing along or humming to yourself. You can’t help it. Even those with hearing impairments find themselves connecting to the rhythm as it throbs and vibrates in our bones and in our brains. Music is powerful. It evokes so much. When hearing the theme from "Friday the 13th" or "Chariots of Fire" we feel correspondingly apprehensive or inspired. Couples have their own breakup, make-up, and love songs that elicit corresponding memories and emotions. I think everyone has an innate connection to music. My…

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There’s No Such Thing As Being Good Or Bad At Science

There’s No Such Thing As Being Good Or Bad At Science

While I enjoyed studying the different biology courses in high school and college, I would never have admitted to anyone that I was good in science. However, when you’re a poor college graduate looking for a paycheck, and they offer you a science teaching position, you take it or starve! Thus, my first few years of teaching were in math and science. The amazing thing is how I learned to teach it effectively through the lens of a kid who struggled--yes, that kid was me! Do you sometimes feel stuck when teaching science? Can I be of any help? Here…

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Writing To Celebrate Student Voice: Flocabulary Visits Standing Rock

Writing to Celebrate Student Voice: Flocabulary Visits Standing Rock

At the start of 2017, Flocabulary traveled to Standing Rock, ND to work one-on-one with students in the community. Why the trek from our hometown of Brooklyn to the Great Plains? The students in this community are Lyric Lab pros, and with the school’s special focus on the arts as part of the nationwide Turnaround Arts program, we wanted to collaborate to offer avenues for student voice and expression in a community embroiled in a national controversy.

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