Life and Love in Wonderland: I love rap music.

Over the course of the weekend and this week, I keep getting asked what type of music I listen to and then see shocked faces when I respond. I forget that I am in a profession now where I am constantly meeting and interacting with new people that seem to think I am some kind of a professional. Haha! I do and have always LOVED rap, hiphop and R&B. In fact, those that know me well from high school and college have been subjected to several hours of listening to me sing/rap along to just about every inappropriate song you can think of.

If you are also registering a shocked look on your face, I understand. I'm pretty sure if you read my last post, you probably thought I listened to country or kid's songs but hey, I love rap and I'm not ashamed! I have always loved memorizing lyrics and rap gives me a bit of a challenge. Not to mention the beats are incredible, most of the stories are real and raw, and the lyrical abilities of some of my favorite rappers are just amazing. Now with that being said, I am not going to say that I agree, support or participate in what I sing along to. It is just one of those not-so-guilty pleasures I have. Some of the songs are just so catchy. I actually spent today working in my classroom listening to my Old School Rap station on Pandora. Check it out if you haven't already...

Here's a sample of the mixtapes and CDs I have been listening to lately... Most are mixtapes that my husband burned for me when we were dating. Actually, the first interaction I had with my now-husband was when he offered to drive me and a coworker to our cars at the mall because it was raining. He was blasting 97.9 the BEAT (local hiphop station) and I immediately knew that I wanted to know more about him. Now over 6 years later, we still share this passion for ridiculously inappropriate music and I love it!

My passion for rap music has recently transferred over into the classroom in a good way. I use educational rap songs in my classroom all the time. If you haven't heard of Jack Hartmann, you need to look him up. He has several educational songs. My favorite is FORCE. It is perfect for teaching force in second grade science.

JACK HARTMANN

I also use this rap video to teach my students about doubles addition facts. :) The kids LOVE these videos. I even had my kids make their own rap video teaching near doubles. They got to wear hats and sunglasses. It was pretty adorable.