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In this Week in Rap, we report on the Typhoon Roke's destruction in Japan. But what makes this storm a typhoon, instead of a hurricane? Many people have the misconception that the rotational direction of a storm affects its name. But that just isn't true. Instead, it's a matter of location. Typhoons and hurricanes are both technically "tropical cyclones." A hurricane is a tropical cyclone that begins west of the International Date Line in the Atlantic and a typhoon begins east of that line. And according to this article, the name difference isn't scientific; it's cultural. Typhoon comes from the…

Odysseus needed to stave off Harpies and the Cyclopes and the alluring Circe to finally reach his home and his wife. In other words, to find the one good thing he wanted, he had to suffer all manner of creatures and distractions. And teaching information literacy is a lot like Odysseus's struggle. Students need to learn how to weed out the bad sources and biased websites when conducting research online. So we thought, why not capitalize on an apt metaphor and bring you an Odyssey lesson plan. NOTE: This lesson plan includes Wikipedia. We know that teachers have varied views…

Teach Figurative Language With Flocabulary [jwplayer file=https://s3.amazonaws.com/flocabulary/media-jrev/figurative-language-media.mp4 image=http://flocabulary.s3.amazonaws.com/images-jrev/figurative-language-image.jpg] Check out the lyrics and more. Listen to Flocabulary’s Figurative Language song. You’ll learn all about hyperbole, as well as metaphors, simile and more. Last week, Allie the Alliterative Albino American Alligator helped you teach alliteration. This week, let the biggest fish in the sea guide your Hyperbole lesson. If you teach figurative language, literary terms or rhetorical devices, tune in each Wednesday for a new term, with examples for hip-hop, literature and history. Hyperbole Definition: A purposeful exaggeration or overstatement. In Greek, it literally means to overshoot. Why Writers Use It:…

A Tasty Lesson Plan That Connects Mesopotamia to the Modern World Here at Flocabulary, we're all about the multi-sensory lesson plan. But our focus on music frequently leaves us guilty of neglecting one key sense: Taste! This lesson will allow students to activate their taste buds to think critically about the impact of the Fertile Crescent on our current society. (And listen to some music, too...) Fertile Crescent Lesson Plan Lesson Objective: Analyze the impact of the Fertile Crescent civilizations on modern society. 1. Hold up a croissant. Give a croissant, or piece of a croissant, to each student. Tell…

M.C. LaLa Raps Lincoln's Famous Speech Abraham Lincoln famously delivered his brief and memorable Gettysburg Address in a little over two minutes. In that same amount of time, our friend M.C. LaLa delivers the address in rap. And he even works in a hook! Check it out: