Guerilla Educators

Friday Free For All at Hip Hop High

Randall Fielding and Team FNI visited the High School for Recording Arts in Minneapolis/ St. Paul, with a group of educators, architects, and city planners from the Queen City of Regina, Saskatchewan. The visitors were fortunate to be at "Hip Hop High" for the "Friday Free For All", when students use the stage to debut some of their latest creative productions.  Take a look...

The visit was part of a weeklong "Journey of Discovery" in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area designed to assist the Regina Steering Committee as they work to develop a comprehensive design plan for a shared facility complex in the neighbourhood of North Central, consisting of Scott Collegiate High School and other key Regina community organizations. Team FNI recently saw Scott Collegiate students perform a hip hop song, "So Far, So Good" in Regina as part of their dinner theater production.

In addition to student participation the Science Advisor at HSRA, Ms Kelli, took the stage at the Friday Free For All and sang a wonderful rendition of "Amazing Grace".  What a way to connect with her students!  Kelli met the students "on their turf" in a respectful and self-respecting way that can only increase her effectiveness as an educator.

These videos powerfully demonstrate the value of Project Based teaching/learning.  All of the 6 Hallmarks of Effective PBSL are evident at Hip Hop High:

• Student Engagement
• Ownership
• Working Cooperatively
• Connection to Curriculum
• Citizenship
• FUN!
  

Rap at Scott Collegiate

The grand finale of the first Scott Collegiate Dinner Theater was an original rap called "So Far, So Good." The song is about life in what Macleans Magazine called "Canada's Worst Neighbourhood." The song was written by three students at Scott in response to their home's dubious (and inaccurate) "claim to fame". Take a look...

Canadian Idol's Farley Flex was at Scott Collegiate recently to assist Scott Principal Mr. Rod Allen, students and teachers in a hands-on, project based educational initiative beginning in the '08-'09 school year called "Project Hip Hop".   Read all about it in the Regina Leader Post.

To see other student created hip hop videos like this, take a look at this...

Scott Collegiate Dinner Theater

On Thursday, April 10, 2008, Scott Collegiate High School presented their first Dinner Theater.  It was a huge success on so many levels.  The program was well attended by the North Central community, the food was GREAT!, the performances were fantastic, and the whole affair was an authentic Service Learning project connected directly to student curriculum across a variety of disciplines.  WOW!, what a night.  The performances, set effectively in counterpoint to the music of "Mr. Rogers Neighborhood", were centered around the oftentimes harsh realities of life in North Central.  Topping off the entertainment was a remarkable hip-hop original song, "So Far, So Good", from Scott Collegiate students (click on the song to watch the video!).
We here at Guerilla Educators appreciated the collaborative effort on the part of teachers at Scott who worked together, not just to create a wonderful evening the entire community was proud of but especially because of the efforts to connect the Dinner Theater directly to grade appropriate teaching and learning.  Here is a partial list of the teachers and the various courses that cooperated in the production:

English A10 or B10	Mrs. Taylor
Commerical Cooking 10	Ms. Vollman
Information Processing 10	Ms. Davies
Tourism, Hospitality and Entrepreneurship 10	Mrs. Christopherson
Drama 10	Mr. Beingessner

One of the more interesting aspects of the dinner part of the evening were the chocolate favors at each table.  On each piece were poignant statements about North Central.  The idea was that the students would make people with negative ideas about their community "eat their words".  Take a look:

Students from Scott have also spoken about the process of creating the Dinner Theater and its positive effects on such things as student cooperation, classroom climate, and attendance.  Click here to see the video.

Even the programs were works of art created by the students and reflected aboriginal culture:

 

As a final touch, in the programs, students wrote their individualized appreciations of the support they received from the Scott Collegiate community. It is clear that the North Central community is well on the way to being perceived as "The Best Neighbourhood in Canada".

The Eur-Rap

We continue our Geography Literacy Series here at Guerilla Educators.  In this video, Teacher John raps about the countries of Europe.

Click here to see our rap song about the states of the USA in the "Map Rap."