My Experience on #HipHopEd

I remember the first time I participated in an educational chat.  At the time I was contemplating on using hip hop songs in a lesson on contemporary issues.  In a nutshell, the idea I had brewing in my mind was to challenge students to investigate if music, in this case hip hop, is a reliable historical medium.  I was planning to implement this lesson toward the end of the year in U.S. History as student study contemporary issues.   For this specific lesson I wanted to have students investigate the issue of poverty during the 70’s and 80’s and how it is reflected in hip hop music.

With this plan in mind, I searched for a hip hop group on twitter and I found #hiphoped and posed the question “What are some songs that represent urban life in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s?”  Soon after, a gentleman tweeted back suggesting some songs I can use.   Soon a discussion between the two of us expanded and I began telling him my lesson idea and the songs I was thinking of using.  We then started discussion on how to implement the lesson and under what subjects such a lesson would be relevant.  At the end of the discussion my partner began following me and even complimented me on my ideas and said he was going to incorporate it into his lesson. 

After the discussion, I felt enlightened and validated.  I was enlightened because I got feedback from an experienced teacher.  I felt validated, because the same experienced teacher complimented me on my hip hop lesson idea.  After this experience on #hiphoped, I became a believer in twitter and look forward to more enlightening conversations.